Gobbett Mine (N11) John Bishop (O11) and Swincombe Reservoir (O10)

The weather has been so wet, with rain and snow, that Dartmoor is sodden and we thought we had best walk on defined paths.  We parked just outside Hexworthy and walked down the road that led to Swincombe Reservoir.  The path was fine but we could not venture off the path as the ground was so wet and marshy.

As we walked down we missed the entrance to Gobbett Mine, although we saw it on the way back.  We could also see the ruins of mine buildings, but we did not see the various stones as it was too wet to go exploring off the path.



We walked on to the bridge the led to John Bishop's house.  We were able to follow a path to the bridge but the other side was to boggy to be able to get close to ruins.  Referring to "An hours stroll on Dartmoor" by John Hayward we learnt that this bridge is called Fairy Bridge. There was so much water in the river that we could not see the ford or stepping stone.




On our way back we walked up the bridleway to Dolly Trebble's house.Again the ground was too wet for us to get very close and so we returned to the main track.


We continued up the track to the Swincombe Reservoir.  Just before we reached it we saw the shortest stone row on the hillside.  There were fences around the reservoir so again we were stopped from getting very close and seeing it properly.






Having viewed the reservoir we returned the way we had come, keeping to the path except when we walked up to the entrance of Gobbett Mine.  This was a good walk to do when Dartmoor is very wet as it was a decent path.

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