High Willhays of the highest hill on nearby Bodmin Moor, and suggested that a watch for beacon fires used to be kept here. He also posited a possible link to the word "gwili" meaning winding or tortuous, but said it was unlikely this was where it originated from. "The Place-Names of Devon" (1931) notes that the peak was named "Hight Wyll" in a document of 1532, and was known in 1827 as "High Willows". The authors state that the name may simply be a compound of "high" and "well" (meaning "spring"), though they admit that the additional syllable at the end is
Cosdon Hill highest point at , but it was now known that the neighbouring High Willhays was yet higher, at . From the summit of Cosdon it is often possible to see the English Channel from Teignmouth to Start Point, and on a clear day the Bristol Channel may be visible. The hill provides an excellent view over Dartmoor. As Thomas Clifton Paris wrote in 1865, "Far and wide stretch its desolate hills, the ancient haunt of wolves and wild deer, and barbarians as untamed ; a solitary wondrous region, everywhere darkened by morasses, but piled with fantastic rocks and glowing with