The varied moods and aspects of Dartmoor
Plymouth Rambler Ron Smith talks us through a 6-mile walk with lovely views...
The same six miles in the same week of mid-May; but what a difference! Bright sunshine and lovely views right across the Moor one day; just a few days later, low cloud and blustery drizzle. Both are the Dartmoor us Ramblers know and love - truly one can get pleasure from a walk in all weathers.
Norsworthy Bridge is a very good starting point for various walks deep into the Moor, with generous space for car parking. Simply drive past Burrator Reservoir to the head of the valley, park just beyond the bridge.
Our walk starts up the lane to Leather Bridge and then heads right. Emerge from the wood and continue to Crazywell Pool. This deep excavation of the medieval tinners is a favourite swimming spot in high summer. Pass the pool and go up diagonally onward until you reach the Devonport Leat. Follow this along the hillside noting how it needed to be built up round the tops of several gullies. These were filled with eluvial deposits of tin ore, mined out by tinners before 1700. The local names for these tinned out gullies are beams, or gerts.
The leat was built in the 1790s after this form of tinning was no longer in use, to supply what was then called Plymouth Dock as it needed increasingly more water.
The Plymouth Leat, or Drakes Leat, had been put in 200 years earlier. Our leat was only allowed to be built on the strict proviso that it did not in any way interfere with Drakes Leat, so had to draw its water from beyond Princetown, requiring a tunnel under Nuns Cross Farm to reach us here. Today, Drakes Leat no longer runs, since it was blocked by the building of Burrator Reservoir. Devonport Leat still runs vigorously to above the end of the reservoir, then tumbles down to assist filling it.
We follow the leat, initially above and parallel to a track. When the track crosses Elder Bridge, keep following the leat nearly to the head of the valley where it emerges from the tunnel; you do not go that far unless you choose to. When you see a cross above on the left, be ready to cut down right from the leat to cross the head of the narrow valley and climb up the other side onto open moorland. The cross is a modern one erected in 1968 by Lieutenant Commander B. Hutchinson of Stoke Fleming, in memory of his mother.
On the open moor keep along a broad unpaved track to pass between a sprawling cairn and an Iron Age enclosure. Here you join the line of a stone row, leading to a tall monolith and a small stone circle.
Do not carry straight on to the top of Down Tor, instead veer diagonally left to reach Combshead Tor. This very pretty tor has its summit rocks surrounding a sheltered grassy lawn, an ideal lunch spot in windy weather. An alternative lunch spot with a view is by the strange conical Cuckoo Rock, beyond and below the tor.
After lunch continue diagonally right down the hill to the track that leads past a ruined farmstead and back to Norsworthy Bridge. This is a very varied walk, showing many different aspects of our lovely Moor.
To join in with such a walking group, Google ‘Plymouth Ramblers’ or phone the author, Ron Smith. on 01752674230.