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WALK 4

Scorriton, Chalk Ford, Hapstead Ford, Ryder's Hill, Snowdon, Pupers Hill, Lud Gate, Chalk Ford

Start	In the village of Scorriton, Map Ref 704686.
Distance	12km (7.5 miles)
Grade	Moderate

Please be careful to park without causing an obstruction or blocking gateways. There is the Church House Inn. There is also the Tradesman's Arms at Scorriton itself. Buckfastleigh is only 4km (2.5 miles) away with all the facilities offered by a small town.

You start by setting off up the lane that runs west out of the village of Scorriton; it is the same lane that you might have come down if you completed Walk 3. It climbs quite rapidly to 256m (850ft) below Scorriton Down. Do not take the track to the right through the gate but keep left down to Chalk Farm. You can cross the river here not by a ford but by the new footbridge. There used to be a clapper bridge here as this was an important route off the moor.

From the bottom of the steep valley of the Mardle you follow a track which runs westwards climbing up the hill. It is joined by various other paths but keep on until you cross Snowdon Brook flowing down from the tin workings higher up. The river Mardle is now well below you in the valley as you come, after a while, to Mardle Ring, marked Homestead on the maps, which is a prehistoric enclosure with a hut circle in its upper part.

Soon the path leads down to the river again and you pass a ford and after 1km (0.5 mile) another one called Hapstead Ford. This is on one of the ancient pathways across Dartmoor for travellers who wished to cross the river to reach farms and villages to the south-east of the moor. Do not cross the river but follow on up through fairly marshy ground to the remains of the tin workings and the boundary stones to the cairn and Triangulation Point on Ryder's Hill, which also has the name Petre's Bound Stone. Your height now is 515m (1700ft).