Dartmoor 365

Square Q6 is mainly taken up by Burrator Reservoir.  I have walked around this lake many times and whatever season there is always something beautiful to see.  In the book Dartmoor 345 JH features not the reservoir but Norseworthy Blowing House.  It took us 3 attempts to find the artifacts mentioned in the book (as the grid reference was wrong!), but it gave me a great sense of achievement when we finally spotted them, and it was interesting to learn the history of the area. While recording this square I felt I had to include other photos of Burrator at different times of the year. It is prettiest in May, when the bluebells are out is the best, in my opinion.   Photo taken from the road around Burrator I remember that there used to be a lot of rhododendrons around the reservoir but many of these have been cut back in recent years.  however there are still some growing at the edge of the water near the dam. When walk...

We parked  in the car park above Sheepstor.  There are fantastic views along the road leading to the car park that look down on Sheepstor village and Burrator. From the car park we walked up the track to Ditsworthy Warren House.  As it had been very wet lately this was a good path to take as it was firm ground all the way.  The house was boarded up and it was a pity there was graffiti on the boards on the windows.  We easily found the kennels in the walls of the field at the back of the house.

I had heard of this Country Park that has the highest waterfall in England and wanted to visit, but it seemed too far and expensive.  A Two For One voucher in the local paper and the fact that it was one of the squares in Dartmoor 365 encouraged me to make the journey. It was a steep climb up to the Lady Exmouth Waterfall but there were smaller waterfall on the way and streams tumbling down the hill.  There were 90 Victorian steps to climb and they were still quite rough, and slippery at times. We anticipated the path down would be easier, but it was not as we had to watch we did not slip.  At the bottom we walked around the various lakes, which were very peaceful.  The trees were just turning colour.

We parked at Stowford Bridge and walked up the Two Moors Way then along Redlake Tramway.  There has been a lot of rain  recently and the ground was saturated.  At times the path was like a stream.  When we walked across to Spurrell's Cross the moor was very boggy, so having  seen the cross we turned back rather than walking on across the moors to Ugborough Beacon.

Having explored the moor around the River Lyd at High Down Ford and Black Rock we crossed the main road and drove into Lydford.  I had frequently driven through this village but never stopped to explore the castle and church properly. I was amazed how well preserved the castle was. We went inside the church and admired the exhibition of the history of the village and church.  We saw the watchmakers epitaph that has now been moved from the churchyard to inside the church.

As recommended by JH we aimed for the the car park up the track from the Dartmoor Inn.  The track was so stony we wondered if we had come up the right track, but there were quite a few cars parked at the top.  The instructions were that High Down Ford was at the end of the track leading from the car park.  We followed that track we had driven along and came to a clear path so followed this along and then down a steep hill to the river.  It was a pretty stop but there was no bridge there and there was so much water flowing down the river we could not cross it. We walked along the river in both directions looking for the bridge and Black Rock but could find neither so we returned to the car park.  We realised we had not followed the correct path and when we were back in the car park we saw another track leading off the first part of the track.  We followed this an very quickly came to High Down Ford.  This was a much quicker and easier path. ...