10th January

Another sunny January day.  We only had a half day, so chose a closer part of Dartmoor, not far from Yelverton.  Looking for a walk including Gutter Tor, I found one on the Countryfile website, which we followed, more or less.  Having not read or seen War Horse, those bits would interest others more than me, but there was much more to enjoy.

Starting from a small car park beyond the village of Sheepstor, it was a short uphill walk to Gutter Tor and on to a trig point beyond.  The views were brilliant, and I'm beginning to learn the shape of different prominent tors to get my bearings.  On the way down from the tor, another walker showed us a cross chiselled in one rock, and an apple press.  We would certainly not have noticed them had they not been pointed out, but you can find out about them here on the Dartmoor Crosses website.

A little further on, we wandered around the Ditsworthy Warren House [S8]- and found the kennel in the wall.  You can see why Spielberg and his team found this an inspiring place for filming.  You can see we wandered around from the splodge at the bottom of this map!

We then went a little 'off piste' to climb Eastern Tor as we were passing so close.  It's one of those tors which it's hard to know which is the highest point, but I'm happy to include it in my list of tors climbed in 2020.  Then came our next obstacle.  As we descended from the tor, we could see the path ahead, but the track we were supposed to follow had become a small pond!  You can see on the route map that we tried going upstream to cross, but that became a wider crossing of reeds, and impossible to see a way through.  To the right of the path, there was a narrower stream, but too wide to jump.  So there was nothing for it other than to remove boots and socks and step through the January temperature water!  And again, for the stream had split into two.  Reading the instructions again, Countryfile did call this a 'small ford' - somewhat of an understatement after December's rain!

With dried and warmed feet back in boots, the next part of our journey was possibly the most interesting.  We found ourselves in the Drizzlecombe stone rows [R8].  Here we found a dry rock to sit on and enjoy our drinks and a quick snack, reflecting on ancient times.  The pics are from different sides of the tallest standing stone, one showing its unusual shape, and the other showing its size!

Carrying on upwards, Higher Hartor Tor was the highest point on our walk.  Even at the top, it was squelchy underfoot, as was much of today's walk.  We came down through Eylesbarrow tin mine, more evidence of times gone by.  I suspect these Dartmoor visitors were somewhat noisier than their bronze age predecessors, but now all is quiet.  Then it was a quick jaunt down a wider track to the car.  And I forgot to put the walk recorder off until we were half way to Sheepstor village, so the map has an extra 3/4 mile added in! Tors 6,7 and 8 complete.