On our doorstep; Dartmoor

photos & words - visitdartmoor.com

Dartmoor, a magical, ancient landscape of breath taking views, deep-wooded valleys, awe inspiring granite tors and wide-open rugged spaces.

The Dartmoor Ponies still roam free after thousands of years, living as semi-wild herds all over the moor. A rare place where you see the sight of wild pony foals playing together against a backdrop of one of the most beautiful, natural areas in the UK.

Dartmoor also has very safe, quiet areas where you can picnic with the family, easy to follow trails for strolling, walking and cycling, many lovely open spaces to explore.

With fascinating history, ancient stone circles and stone rows, hut circles, bronze age archaeological remains, a huge diversity of wildlife, flora and fauna – there is so much to discover on Dartmoor.

Book a walk with a qualified Dartmoor Guide, walk with Llamas or take it slightly easier with electric bikes.

Whatever you choose to do, you will fall in love with Dartmoor. We’ve handpicked a few of the circular walks you can do on Dartmoor ranging from a couple of miles to 12 miles

BURRATOR ARBORETUM AND NATURE RESERVE Wander in the woodland, count the different birds you can hear and listen to the rippling Narrator Brook at the Burrator Arboretum. The Arboretum and associated footpaths were originally created following the storms in the late 1980s as a collection of native and nonnative trees. One of its primary functions is to provide easy access to reservoir visitors who may find it more difficult to explore other areas of the site. A network of ponds was developed to make this area a unique wetland ecosystem, with a variety of habitats that support a rich and diverse range of species.

Length: Easy access footpath 0.9 miles (1.5km) Time: Allow an hour Start/ Finish: Burrator Arboretum Car Park Terrain: Flat compacted aggregate footpaths and boardwalk, only a slight gradient in one place

THE PRINCETOWN AUDIO WALK If you’d like to know more about Dartmoor but aren’t able to join a guided walk, then download an audio walk so you can do it at a time that suits you. The Princetown audio walk is a 6-mile circular walk starting from Princetown Visitor Centre and takes you across moorland to a waterfall and an aqueduct, past Bronze Age settlements and stone rows and back along the hard track of the disused railway line to see remains of the granite quarries.

Length: 6 miles (10km) Start/ Finish: Princetown Visitor Centre Time: 90 minutes to 2 hours

HISTORY REVEALED WALK Follow the River Plym from Verdant valley to open moorland and uncover this area’s industrial past.

Memories of the china clay industry are all around you, right from the beginning of the walk up to the current workings above Cadover Bridge. At the Shaugh Bridge car park are the ruins of the old china clay drying kilns.

Side Note:

China Clay from Cornwall is used in the

Gaia Awakening Body Scrub and the

Villeroy plates used in the Gallery Restaurant.

Uphill, you will pass a square clay settling tank and your way follows the “pipe track”. China clay in suspension was carried down the pipe — of which remains can still be seen — from the workings higher upstream. It was then diverted into the settling tanks and the deposited sludge taken to the kilns at the bridge for drying.

The landscape on your right as you emerge at Cadover Bridge is strangely lunar. The silver sand hills are the waste product remaining when the clay has been blasted out by high-pressure hoses — seven tonnes of it for every tonnes of clay produced!

Length: 8 miles (12-13km). Start/ Finish: Shaugh Prior, near Plymouth. Time: This route should take roughly 4 to 5 hours for the average walker. Notes on route: Footpaths, tracks & open moorland walking. Hints and tips: Drewerstone Rock, along the route, is Devon’s highest inland granite cliff, and therefore popular among climbers

For more information on Dartmoor walk and to download the Audio, head to www.visitdartmoor.co.uk

Photos; Left - Bellever / Right - Brentor Church

“I have never before, in my long and

eclectic career, been gifted with the

abundance of natural beauty as I experienced

filming ‘War Horse’ on Dartmoor”

– Steven Spielberg