Devil's Cauldron at Lydford, West Devon

The Devil’s Cauldron Lydford Gorge

Lydford Gorge is one of those astonishingly beautiful places that indelibly etch themselves into your memory.

The day we visited was crowned with glorious sunshine, captured in the golden river bed of the Lyd and the undergrowth of ferns and moss which glowed in a multitudinous palette of greens. This combination, amidst gushing-gurgling water and high humidity, provided a visual and sensory panoply. Topping it off, cream tea at the finish of the walk to the usual high standard that the National Trust is famous for, created a unique day to cherish. You can’t help ponder the steps alongside the gorge, which would have been a major undertaking, the sort of project perhaps some enterprising Victorian landowner would have undertaken for the amusement of visitors to the estate?

THE

HOTEL AND RESTAURANT

The Arundell Arms Hotel and Restaurant at Lifton, serves as an excellent base for exploring this beautiful and unspoilt part of West Devon. All mod cons on hand with excellent fine dining. www.arundellarms.com

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Lydford Castle

Infamous Outlaws

Set on a hillock, this austere building dominates the local countryside. It was never a true castle, it served as a prison and courthouse for pretty much all of its occupied life. Courts were held to oversee the laws of the royal forests of Dartmoor. Back in the 13th century, when the major building work was done, you can imagine just how remote this outpost was. The tower continued to be used as a prison and courtroom until the early eighteen hundreds, when the courts moved to Princetown, which became the new capital of Dartmoor.

Lydford Gorge was infamous in the 17th century for being the hide out of the Gubbins, a group of outlaws who terrorised the area, stealing sheep from many Dartmoor farms. Led by Roger Rowle, they were the scourge of the area, particularly for unsuspecting travellers. Roger Rowle was said also to have been regarded as the ‘Robin Hood of Dartmoor’, I suppose there were two sides to the story as always. What happened to the clan is not know, supposition by Baring Gould is as follows:

Lydford Castle was notorious for rough justice and was described in a 1640s poem:

“I oft have heard of Lydford laws, How in the morn they hang and draw, And sit in judgement after” The prison dungeon was described by Richard Strode in 1510, an MP who’d been imprisoned there, as:

“One of the most annoious, contagious and detestable places wythen this realme”

“It cannot be said that the race is altogether extinct. The magistrates have had much trouble with certain people living in hovels on the outskirts of the moor, who subsist in the same manner. They carry off lambs and young horses before they are marked, and when it is difficult, not to say impossible, for the owners to identify them. Their own eves always have doubles” - Baring Gould Interestingly, an 1851 census showed that there were nine families with the Gubbins name who were born in the Tavistock area, being mainly miners and agricultural workers.

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Devonshire

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The Walk The walk down to the Devil’s Cauldron is fairly straightforward, although i’d say that if you have really young children it’s not suitable (more capable children will love the adventure, and there are rails and safety wires to help along the way). If you carry on upstream from the Cauldron, the walk ultimately leads to a dead-end, but the scenery is truly lovely and not to be missed.

The river Lyd, further downstream on the Arundell Arms Hotel waters. They have over 20 miles of fishing on the Lyd, Tamar, Thrushel and Carey.

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Devonshire

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