Cyclist rescued from infamous Sherlock Holmes bog on Dartmoor

The wife of the 51-year-old 'endured a long wait in Princetown'

A rescue operation was launched on Dartmoor yesterday evening after a cyclist got stuck in a bog.

Police sent for a Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team from Tavistock after a 51-year-old cyclist found himself trapped in boggy ground at Foxtor Mires.

The swampy area is reputed to be the inspiration for the fictional Grimpen Mire in the Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.

On Facebook, a spokesperson for Dartmoor Search and Rescue said: "The police called our Team at 17:23 to assist a 51 year old cyclist who had become stuck in boggy ground at the eastern side of Foxtor Mires.

"Four members deployed to Whiteworks and from there made their way south and located the cyclist at 18:15. After giving him a drink to rehydrate the party escorted him further south, past Childe's Tomb and then alongside the wall back to Nun's Cross Farm.

"He and his cycle were then taken by a Team Land Rover to be reunited at 19:40 with his wife who had endured a long wait in Princetown. Members got back to base at 20:00."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is said to have based Grimpen Mire in his novel The Hound of the Baskervilles on Foxtor Mires.

The creator of Sherlock Holmes briefly lived and worked in Plymouth as a Doctor, in a practice at 1 Durnford Street, in 1882. 20-years before The Hound of the Baskervilles was published.