Dartmoor 365

Due to Covid restrictions and then a damaged knee it has been over a year since we explored any new 365 squares on Dartmoor.  We had booked a short break in Okehampton so looked forward to crossing off a few more squares in the north of Dartmoor. We drove to Okehampton Camp and then up to the Camp ring road.  This was our first visit to this area of the moor.  We parked below Row Tor and would have loved to have walked to some of the surrounding tors but as I was wary about my knee we followed the road around Row Tor and then walked across the moor to the Target Railway.

We parked at Holming Beam and walked along the path until it turned off.  We continued on a track which went through a lot of marshy ground.  After a while realised we needed to be on the other side of the barbed wire fence so we retraced our steps to the main path and then went over a stile and found a definite path, even though it was grassy and not very wide. As we walked along we saw little clumps of different heathers.  We could not see any yellow deer grass although there were some plants that could have been deer grass that had finished flowering, We passed through the gate at the bottom of Black Dunghill. the land then became very wet and marshy.  There did not seem to be many flowers on the slopes of the hill, so we decided to turn around.  We had reached Black Dunghill although we did not reach its summit.

Today was a walk in the car!  We had to go to Trago Mills and on the way home, instead of going along the A38 we drove across the moor. We passed Haytor and Widecombe and stopped for our lunch on the edge of Dunstone Down.  There were far reaching views and the area leading up to Wind Tor was a sea of yellow gorse. We drove on to Cator.  We planned to visit Lower Cator first, but a cow in the middle of the road distracted us so we missed the turning and ended up at Great Cator.  We continued on until we came to the new walls for old with is half way between Middle Cator and Lower Cator.  It was interesting to examine the different features in the walls around this spot. Wall under tree had moss growing between stones. Photo of wall drawn in Dartmoor 365 book A hole in the wall to let animals through A shelf in the wall, opposite track to farm, so probably for milk churns We then drove through Lower Cator and came to the bridge....

parked the car at the Pork Hill car park and skirted around Cox Tor until we came to Cox Tor Farm.  There had been well defined paths and as it had not been wet lately it was not difficult to cross the marshy patch where there was a spring and streams.  There was an interesting boundary stone by the marshy patch. The views were far reaching and our only company was sheep.  By the time we came back it was getting hot and the sheep were looking for shade to rest in. The path from the moors to the road around the farm was rather rough and narrow, but it was only a short section and we soon reached the road.  There were lots of blackberries growing in the hedges. The cross was not very impressive, but at least we found it. The cows in the field wondered what we were interested in.  It had been a pleasant walk, and another square had been bagged.

We parked at the foot of Merripit Hill and walked up the hill until we reached a wall.  We followed this wall along only having to leave it once to avoid a marshy area and to cross a stream. As JH anticipated in his book birds hopped along the wall in front of us.  They were not close enough to identify or photograph but could have been wheatears. After walking for 30 mnutes  we we reached the end of the wall, where there was another wall joining it, it was not very interesting, but it had been easy to find. After we walked back to the car we drove to Warren House Inn (I13) where we had a delicious lunch.  After lunch we walked up the path at the side of the Inn up Water Hill. The heather was just coming out and looked particularly good just above the Inn. Part way up Water Hill we turned off to a path that went along Hurston Ridge.  This was a fairly flat walk with a clear path.  We hoped that we would see the stone row from this ...

After a lunch at the Fox and Hounds we walked up the track at the side of this pub to Rattlebrook Railway.  There were great views in the distance and below we could see the river wind along the valley. The heather was just coming out and this made the path even prettier. We noticed some metal remains from the railway sticking out of the ground. We continued walking for about 40 minutes gradually walking up the stony path. We did not reach the the points where it changed direction but decided to turn around as it was rather a boring walk and there were dark clouds looming.