Dartmoor 365

As we drove around Burrator reservoir we came to a group of highland cattle walking along the road!  We parked at Norsworthy Bridge and walked up the path passed the derelict buildings that were Middleworth Farm and on to Middleworth Plantation.  The trees had been cut down here and it looked a bleak sight.  We should have turned off  to walk up hill but we missed the path.  When we realised it we took another path and headed in the right direction until we met the original path.  We carried out towards Downs Tor, although skirted the summit.  As we looked back there were lovely views of Burrator reservoir. We passed Down Tor and continued to climb.  When we reached the crest of the hill we could see the stone row and circle.  This is the longest stone row on Dartmoor and we walked its length, counting the stones.  We made it 57 stones.  It was certainly very impressive. Walking back to the car was a lot...

We had tried to find Yellowmead Circles before when we were following the instructions of a printed walk, however we had not been able to locate them.  This time we researched where they were on the internet and followed the OS map on my phone. We followed the direction of a wall just diverting at one point when we came to a field of cows with highland cattle with large horns. There were a lot of  hawthorn trees in blossom on our way to the area and on the walk we were able to find one field of bluebells, that are prolific on Dartmoor at the moment. We easily found the circles and we could easily identify the 4 concentric circles, although it was difficult to photograph showing the complete circles.

We parked in the layby below Grimspound.  I had heard there were bluebells on the slopes of Challacombe Down.  From where we parked I could see a blue haze, but not exceptionally impressive.  Maybe it would have been better close up. We climbed the hill to Grimspound, and it was an impressive Bronze age village that has been well preserved.  The wall was imposing, with the gates very clear and the road leading up to it.  You could clearly make out the houses. Having explored the site we walked back to the car and then further down the road to view the bluebells better.  We then drove on to the other end of Challocombe Down and parked by Challocombe Farm.  We could see the bluebells from the other end of the down from here We walked pass the derelict medieval village and along the river, which was a very pretty walk.   In his book JH particularly mentioned flowers that can be found in this squa...

We parked the car at Harford Moor Gate and followed the bridlepath up to the Redlake Tramway.  It was a wide clear path all the way.  At the junction of the path and the tramway we could see stones from the longest stone row on Dartmoor, and there was a cairn but we could not see the double stone row. The views all the way up to the top of Piles Hill were amazing.  We could see the River Tamar, Sound and the sea further east. We followed the tramway along until we came to the path leading up to the Three Barrows.    We then climbed the hill till we saw first one, then another barrow and the trig marker.  The third barrow was further along.  Again the views were spectacular. Walking down the hill was a lot easier and we were soon back on the tramway.  We followed this until we reached the path we had come up on, but instead of returning to this path we followed a path that went along the stone row.  Soon we came to ...

We parked the car at Water and followed the bridle path down to the River Bovey.  At times a stream ran down the path and it was quite steep and stoney, so not a very easy walk.  We crossed the river at the Clam Bridge, chosing to go across the new bridge rather than the old one! We then climbed steadily up through the woods till we reached Heaven's Gate, where the bluebells were looking magnificent.  On the other side of the gate we saw an orchid.  After stopping for lunch we headed down the cleave towards Foxworthy Bridge.  The path went up and down a lot.  We reached the river at Horsham Steps.  We looked to see if we could cross the river there, but the boulders looked too large for us so we walked on to Foxworthy Bridge. After we had crossed the bridge we walked up the road until we came to Neadon Cleave.  We walked through the woods there and were delighted with the bluebells all around us. ...