In the folklore of the Exmoor region of Somerset, a giant known simply as the Giant of Grabbist made his home on Grabbist Hill, a prominent elevation near the town of Dunster. The giant was of enormous proportions — he would sit upon his hilltop seat using the River Avill to cool his feet and Dunster Castle as a drying rack for his clothing. Unlike many of the fearsome giants of British tradition, the Giant of Grabbist was generally portrayed as a benign, if inconvenient, neighbour.
The story
The giant's most famous appearance in local legend involves a contest with the Devil. At Bossington, near the coast, the two competed to see who could throw stones the farthest from Hurlstone Point. The Hurdlestones on the Mendip Hills are said to be the projectiles from this game of quoits between the Devil and Grabbist. In a related tradition, the burrs from three local oak trees were said to provide the buttons for the giant's breeches, with the centre of each seeded by the Devil himself.
Grabbist Hill stands on the edge of Exmoor National Park, overlooking the Bristol Channel, and the giant's association with the surrounding geography — the river, the castle, and the coastal headlands — anchors the legend firmly in a specific landscape. The tradition connects Dunster's medieval heritage with the deeper stratum of folk belief in territorial giants that once shaped the hills and valleys of Somerset.