Читать книгу Walking on Dartmoor - Earle John - Страница 8

INTRODUCTION

Very often people have asked me when I return home after one of my expeditions to the Himalaya, Tierra del Fuego or Baffin Island, whether I do not find Dartmoor rather tame and unexciting after the great mountain ranges of the world. Settling down to write this guidebook to Dartmoor has made me pause, think and try to justify and back up my claim that I find Dartmoor a most exciting, interesting and intriguing corner of our varied world.

Dartmoor has been called, rather glibly, the last great wilderness in England. This, of course, is true for whatever that really means. It is indeed a huge, largely uninhabited, lonely area of moorland, of some 365 square miles. They also say that you can be, on Dartmoor, further from a road, and therefore I presume civilisation, than any other wild area of Britain south of the Scottish border. On the North Moor near Cut Hill and Fur Tor it is over 3 miles (2km) to a road, if you count the military road from Okehampton Camp, and on the South Moor, near Stringers Hill and Erme Pound, the nearest road is again over 3 miles away.

So that is one reason why I find Dartmoor attractive. I love the wild, lonely, remote areas of uplands and mountains. Even at crowded holiday periods you can still get away from the masses and walk all day without seeing a soul.

Then, even if I have only been away for a few days, when I return to my home near Widecombe-in-the-Moor, as I get out of the car I take a deep breath, for Dartmoor has a strange, indefinable scent that changes with the seasons. Sometimes the misty air is full of the smell of damp, peaty moorland, at others the pungent scent of gorse; in March when the farmers are swaling (burning the moor to improve the grass for grazing), the wind brings a waft of burnt heather and gorse or the smell of the smoke itself.

Meldon Reservior

Blacktor Falls, River Meavy

The rolling, sweeping horizon of Dartmoor with its huge skies always thrills me. Except for a few steep-sided valleys you are never shut in on the moor; you always have the feeling of distance and vast open spaces. Everywhere, except in prolonged summer drought, there is the presence of water; quaking bogs, small streams and the peaty, moorland rivers tumbling down over water-rounded granite boulders, while high overhead the skylarks pour out their own evocative liquid song.

Of course a lot of the landscape, certainly on the margins but also in some of the remote river valleys, where the tinners have been at work, has been fashioned and changed by man. Man has lived, hunted and worked on Dartmoor since prehistoric times and obviously has left his mark, from hut circles, stone rows and megaliths, to tinners’ spoil tips and blowing houses, to newtakes, peat cuttings and ancient fields, to china clay works, forestry and dams.

I find this history of man on Dartmoor, especially the prehistoric period, fascinating. I still feel a strange, prickling sensation in the scalp when I am alone in one of the areas of hut circles or stone rows. Almost I sense the spirits of the Bronze Age people of 4000 years ago. It is no wonder that Dartmoor has its share of legend and folklore and up in the deep peat hags of Cut Hill you could almost believe in the stories of pixies!

Sadly there are very few of the true, old Dartmoor farmers and their families left in our modern times. Men and women for whom a trip to Exeter or Plymouth was a once-a-year outing, who thought nothing of travelling to market in gig or cart, taking two or three hours there, and back again, whose slow, hard life revolved around the seasons and the harsh taskmaster Dartmoor.

Life and the old ways have changed from the days when every small village had its bakery and blacksmith, when the grocer, the butcher, even the fishmonger from Brixham, the haberdasher and tailor delivered to the door of remote farms by pony trap; when harvest suppers and whortleberry gathering parties were part of the year's major social events. Modern farmers on Dartmoor are a different breed, but just here and there are a few folk whose memories reach back into the old days and the ways of their fathers and grandfathers before them.

The wildlife on Dartmoor is not outstanding but when you do come in contact with the secret inhabitants, it is the more exciting. The buzzard, I suppose, with its moth-like wings and the mewing call, like a kitten, is the most common big bird on the margins of the moor and in many way epitomises Dartmoor with its soaring, wheeling freedom or sitting like a sentinel on a pole or bare tree surveying the world. Then there is the thrill as a couple of red grouse get up with a clatter and their loud ‘go back’ call, or the excitement or the brief glimpse of a reddy-black, arrogant hill fox loping off in no hurry. But it is the skylark, that minute speck in the blue summer sky, with its bubbling song, that brings back a surge of happy, childhood memories of walking or riding on hot, breathless days into the heart of the moor and I still scan the skies trying to find the little, soaring creature pouring out its ecstasy.

The Nine Stones lookng back to Cullever Steps with High Willhays beyond, Walk 34

I hope therefore to share with you, through this Guide, some of the magic and mystery of Dartmoor. I should like to show you places to visit that I think will interest and fascinate you, so that like me, you will become a person who loves and appreciates this lonely wilderness and will return to it again and again, for it has a haunting, almost hypnotic influence on those who walk there.

Geology and formation of Dartmoor

This Guide is no place to give a full and detailed description of the geology of Dartmoor. For those who would like more information, it can be found in some of the excellent books listed in the bibliography. However to appreciate and understand the moor and its landscape, it is interesting at least to know how Dartmoor was formed and something of what happened over the millennia since its creation.

At a time when the Earth began to look green as plants and even small trees evolved and the seas were full of vertebrate animals such as primitive sharks that eventually led to the existence of the first amphibians, where Devon and Cornwall are now was part of a huge flooded plain. The sediments of certain areas of this plain became the early rocks seen now, such as the Dartmouth slates and Devonian limestone. This time in the development of the Earth was known as the Devonian period and occurred 400 million years ago and lasted some 50 million years.

As the warm seas encroached the southern areas of what was to become the British Isles changes took place. Coral reefs grew in the seas and volcanoes erupted here and there. Sediments, mud and sand, accumulated round the coral reefs and volcanic debris and we have the beginning of the Carboniferous period, 345 million years ago, which overlapped with the previous Devonian period. It was, of course, the chief coal forming age associated with the coal seams and carboniferous limestone.

Then as this period came to an end, about 290 million years ago, both the Carboniferous and Devonian deposits were subjected to mountain building pressures and foldings known as the Armorican movements. The rocks and soils of Devon and Cornwall as we know them now were formed at this time. The limestones and sandstones appeared, caused by the great folds and upthrusts.

It was about this time too, 290 million years ago, that the granite of Dartmoor probably arrived from below the earth's crust, though dating such events is fairly difficult. Granite is an igneous (Latin: fiery) rock and is formed under conditions of intense heat. Dartmoor granite arrived as an igneous intrusion into those overlying sedimentary rocks which, because of the violent folding they had been subjected to, had many faults and cracks. Some of the granite was able to follow these weaknesses to the surface while in other areas the granite welled up under the Devonian and Carboniferous rocks like water in a blister. Some of the sedimentary rock even became absorbed into the granite itself because of the ferocious heat. So we have the characteristic dome-shaped mass of rock, in an area some 365 square miles, in the centre of Devon.

Because the granite was protected by the layers of rock above from the cold air, the molten rock cooled very slowly resulting in large visible crystals; the slower the cooling process, the larger the crystals. Gradually the protective layer was eroded and destroyed by the weather during the Permian period and in time the granite boss was exposed.

Scorhill Circle, Walk 33

Later during the millions of years that followed a layer of granite itself between 50m and 200m (150–650ft) thick was also eroded, until we have Dartmoor as we know it today.

Dartmoor granite is composed mainly of three types of crystal. First quartz, which is the glassy grey substance that in its pure form produces the distinctive six-sided crystals with pyramidical points and striations on the sides. Next the small dark, glistening specks of black mica, a crystal that occurs in many of the massive rocks, and lastly felspar, which gives granite its colour: red, white or grey. These are the larger crystals seen in granite. It is felspar, when it has decayed or been decomposing by weathering, that becomes kaolin or china clay.

For several different reasons there are many varieties of granite to be found on Dartmoor.

Surrounding the moor like a ring is an area called the metamorphic aureole where the encircling rocks have been changed in composition by the intense heat of the igneous intrusion. (I shall be writing briefly below about the ancient tinners of Dartmoor and other mining activities. Suffice to say, at this stage, that most metallic ores are associated with plutonic rocks or areas of metamorphosis.)

On the margin of such granite masses as Dartmoor, superheated water or gases forced their way into the cracks and deposited layers of crystalline minerals including the ores of metallic minerals. The way this process led to the present position of the various areas of minerals is very complicated. Put in simple terms, the mineral-bearing fluids and gases started deep down in the granite mass and as they were forced up to the surface the minerals crystallised in the order of their crystallisation temperatures. So obviously minerals with the high crystallisation temperature became solid near the hot granite and the others followed in order as the temperature decreased towards the surface. However, the erosion mentioned earlier has resulted in the mineral deposits on and around Dartmoor, shown in the mineral digram on the previous page.

Simplified mineral diagram

This period of mineral deposition probably took place 190 million years ago but the process might well have been spread over as long a period as 115 million years.

A final word must be written about the tors (Celtic twr, a tower) of Dartmoor. They are after all its most distinctive feature, sometimes described as ‘cyclopean masonry’. It has even been suggested that they were put up by the Druids! They are, of course, residual features left after both chemical and mechanical weathering has taken place. Controversy surrounds their origins and which of the two methods of weathering is the most important.

(i) Chemical weathering is the actual rotting of the rock itself and depends on the composition of the crystals in the rock and how they react within themselves.

(ii) Mechanical weathering is straightforward erosion by water, frost, freezing and heat.

But however they reached their present state, they are fascinating features that are fun to explore and scramble on, each one being different from the next.

Surrounding many of the tors are large areas of rocks lying scattered over the slopes leading up to the tors. These rocks are called clitters and were broken off the main mass of the rotten tors as they became exposed, by water freezing in the cracks and joints and finally pushing them off onto the slopes around.

Finally I refer you once again to the geology books if you want to follow up more details about the tors and the formation of Dartmoor.

Vegetation

Dartmoor usually conjures up thoughts of mists and quaking bogs; Great Grimpen Mire of The Hound of the Baskervilles. A lot of the moor is indeed bogland and while there are a few areas, usually very small pockets, where a horse or a bullock could sink in, and I presume human beings, there are no bottomless pits like quicksands covering large areas of moorland. After rain a lot of Dartmoor makes for wet walking and you have the extraordinary situation of bogs on the top of the moorland – not just by the streams and in river valleys. This is the blanket bog found in areas of eighty inches of rain in a year. Here grow bog asphodel and tormental with sphagnums, also a little heather with sages.

Peat made up of fibrous dead roots forms in areas where the angle of the ground is less than 15 degrees and again where there is abundant rainfall. Then you find areas of valley bogs; marshlands with reeds and the sources of streams and rivers. Here also is found sphagnum as well as cotton grasses, pale butterwort, bog asphodel, sundews and bog violet. The wet areas of moorland that are not blanket bog have got cotton grass, ling and bell heather and purple moor grass.

On the drier moor it is heather and in other areas whortleberry that thrive. Bracken grows in profusion also on the lower slopes of the drier moors and after swaling or burning the heather, bracken will colonise large areas.

On the high moor itself the three ancient woodlands of Wistman's Wood, Black Tor Beare and Piles Copse are fascinating. They are all three found on the west-facing clitter slopes and the trees are mainly stunted oak, never more than 3–5m (10–16ft) high, with a few mountain ash. On the floor of these woodlands, on or among the rocks, are mosses, ferns, wood rushes, lichens, liverworts and whortleberries, while epiphytics festoon the branches of the trees themselves. Even the barren granite tors have mosses and liverworts in the deep crevices and lichens on the rock faces.

Finally there are the delightful wooden stream and river valleys that run down from the granite moorland. The vegetation in them is often profuse: golden saxifrage and sphagnum, stonecrop, daffodil, wild garlic and St John's wort.

Fauna

I mentioned briefly a few of the creatures you can see on Dartmoor: buzzards, red grouse, foxes and skylarks. If you are lucky you might also come across badgers at dusk or the shy, almost extinct otter by the rippling streams and rivers. Stoats, weasels and the ferocious mink that has now colonised certain areas having escaped or been let loose from mink farms, can all be discovered. Rabbits still breed and live in profusion in spite of myxamatosis. The harmless grass snake and the not so harmless adder basks on the warm rocks in summer, as do lizards.

Gorse

Red Campion

Kestrels with pulsating wings hang on the air and the sparrow hawk also hunts the moor. Ravens, carrion crows and rooks are all inhabitants of the margins of Dartmoor. The crows and ravens are hated by farmers at lambing time when they are quick to see the weak, helpless lambs and move in for the kill. On the higher moor the wheatear starts to arrive in March from Africa, to breed here; in Victorian times these small birds were considered a delicacy on many dinner tables.

By the rivers, the dipper, that remarkable little black and white bird that seems to fly underwater and builds its nest on overhanging rocks just above flood level, darts about with low flitting flight. You will often disturb an old grey heron fishing in the streams and rivers and off he will go with long, languid flaps of his great wings.

Early purple orchid with bluebells

Primroses

The moorland streams themselves are the homes of the brown trout and salmon and the beautiful salmon trout called peel in Devon.

Finally black slugs will appear on moist, damp days and probably the Dartmoor midges. A vast number of insects are found including honey bees, dragonflies and spiders while butterflies and caterpillars, including the Emperor Moth, catch the eye with their bright colours.

Man has grazed his animals on Dartmoor from the time of the Bronze Age and herds of cattle still roam certain areas, while large flocks of sheep, including the Scottish black-face that has done so much damage to the whortleberries, are found almost everywhere.

But it is the ponies that most people associate with Dartmoor. They are called ‘wild ponies’ but they are all owned, in fact, by the farmers who have commoner's grazing rights and if you look closely you will see that they have brand marks on them. They are rounded up twice a year but the most important ‘drift’, as they call it on Dartmoor, is in the autumn for the local pony markets. When you look at the ponies on the moor you soon realise that they are a mixture of many different breeds that have been introduced into the area. However, there are a few studs that are trying to purify the strain and get back to the thoroughbred pony, the true emblem of Dartmoor.

Man on Dartmoor

It has often been said that Dartmoor is a landscape fashioned by man, which up to a point is true. Man probably first wandered onto the uplands of Dartmoor as a hunter as early as 8000BC when the moor was a wild, mountainous region of towering tors, very different from that which we see today. These men from the Old Stone Age actually lived in the limestone caves and rock shelters of the coastal areas of Torbay and Plymouth, but they left hardly any signs of their visits and certainly did nothing to change the landscape of Dartmoor.

Neolithic man also came up onto the moor and may well have settled there but archaeologists have found no evidence of this. What is clear, however, is that forest clearance had started on Dartmoor before this period and certainly continued through the Bronze Age when man first came to live on the uplands.

So it is with Bronze Age Man, from around 2000BC until about 500BC, that we have the first evidence of man's dwellings and activities on the moor, by which time the topography was very much as we know it today. One of the great delights of walking on Dartmoor is that it gives you the chance to visit some of the many Bronze Age remains to be found there. Dartmoor is perhaps one of the richest areas in the world for prehistoric sites. Even on the shortest walks one usually stumbles on some evidence of Bronze Age Man. There are the hut circles that usually occur in groups, sometimes within a surrounding wall or pound. In recent times archaeologists have shown great interest in the old reaves or long earth and stone banks that mark ancient fields and territorial boundaries. There are many barrows and cairns, the old burial sites where in some cases the earth and stones have disappeared leaving the actual burial chambers themselves, called kists or kistvaens, looking like large stone boxes. Near these burial mounds you can often find the mysterious stone rows and standing stones or menhirs. Nobody is really sure why they were put up but the stone circles may have been places of worship and the stone rows often lead towards the bigger barrows or burial mounds. There have been attempts to explain them as markers for the seasons or solstices or even phases of the moon, but for whatever reason they were erected, the larger circles and rows are well worth visiting. The longest stone row on Dartmoor, by the way, is over two miles long, near the River Erme and Erme Pound.

Hut circle near Grimspound, Walk 24

A tinner's Mould Stone

Early Iron Age men were next to live on Dartmoor as the remains at Kes Tor proved, where a whole community dwelt, with an iron-smelter's house and workshop nearby in its own pound. The date has now come up to the fifth century BC. Then there appears to be a gap in the human occupation of the moor from about 400BC until the coming of the Anglo-Saxons at about 700AD.

It was at this time that the houses changed from the round hut circles of the Bronze Age to rectangular shapes with their surrounding field systems. The remains of these houses are stone-walled but excavation has discovered that very often below the foundation are the post holes of wattle and turf huts from earlier times, the sites having been rebuilt on many times. The medieval village at Houndtor is perhaps the best-known example. By the various dating systems used, it is interesting to find that the early Saxons built in wood though there were large quantities of stone available and there must have been evidence of earlier men building in stone. It was not until about 1200 that stone buildings reappear.

All through the early days of the Saxons and into medieval times Dartmoor was not actually claimed by any group but plenty of people took advantage of the good summer grazing and drove their sheep and cattle onto the moor as the many lanes leading up onto the high land indicate.

It was the Normans who made Dartmoor one of the royal hunting forests and so began the organisation of administration and allocation of land on the moor. The name Dartmoor Forest has persisted from this time and can be misleading. It was a term used for a royal hunting area and did not necessarily mean that the land was covered with forests. It was also about this time that the ancient Dartmoor tenements were founded and the whole conception of ‘commoners’ who had grazing rights on the moorland started.

Tin was mined in Cornwall in the times of the Bronze Age but we first find documentary evidence of alluvial tin in streaming in the year 1156, near Sheepstor and Brisworthy. In that year about 60 tons of smelted tin were produced. Within fifteen years or so the production had risen to over 300 tons a year.

So the early tinners used an opencast mining system working on the broad, shallow, river valleys where the rich tin deposits had been carried by floods and were contained in the sands and gravels. The larger stones containing tin ores were crushed in primitive mills and then washed or streamed with the other tin-bearing sand from the river bed. Smelting took place over a peat fire which produced impure lumps of tin but there were also more refined smelting centres.

By the 13th century blowing houses had been introduced for smelting where charcoal was used as the fuel and the molten metal ran from the furnace into the moulds. The name blowing house comes from the fact that huge bellows were used, powered by water wheels, to help produce the intense heat needed. Quite a few remains of blowing houses can be found on Dartmoor though not many have the moulds and wheel pits to be seen.

Medieval Village, Walk 36

The output decreased over the years and by 1243 only 40 tons were produced, but tin streaming continued until shallow adit mining began in the 15th and 16th centuries and later still this method was changed again to shaft mining in the 18th and 19th centuries.

So all over Dartmoor you have the evidence of the work of the tinners throughout the ages, from the mounds of rubble left behind after the early streaming, great gullies of opencast mining, to the old ruins of the buildings, wheel pits and engine houses of more recent times.

The tinners themselves in medieval times were probably small farmers who tried to add to their meagre living by forming small groups to search for tin. However, during this period the tinners were a powerful and favoured group of workers with a large number of privileges which included exemption from certain taxes and dues, and from serving on juries and with a right to form their own militia. All these privileges seem to stem from the formation of the stannaries which controlled the tin industry and taxed it for the Crown.

Dartmoor itself was a stannary and was almost a self-governing country with its own laws, courts and even a jail. So it was that the tinners had rights, privileges and protection as providers of royal taxes which put them beyond many of the laws of the rest of the land.

Each of the stannary areas has a town where the taxes or coinage were collected and these towns were around the edge of Dartmoor: Tavistock, Chagford, Ashburton and so on. The countryside under the control of these coinage towns covered vast areas even as far as the north coast of Devon but the boundaries all met at Crockern Tor in the middle of the Dartmoor stannary. This led to the Great Court or Parliament of Crockern Tor sitting at this windswept part of the moor, the first recorded meeting of which was in 1494. It was here that the huge task of setting the laws and rules of the tin industry were worked out. The day to day administration was dealt with by courts in the stannary towns where they also heard legal cases to do with the tin industry such as wrangles over ownership of land, bad management, even common assault. As I said, the tinners were a law unto themselves but they dealt impartially with all cases and handed out punishment equally impartially.

The Parliament of Crockern Tor was also aware of its duty to the rest of the country, for in 1532 they discussed the problems caused by vast quantities of sediment and waste, caused by the tinners’ works on Dartmoor, being carried down the rivers Dart and Plym and silting up the harbours at their mouths.

But over the years the importance of the tin taxes for the Crown lessened and the power of the Great Court of Crockern Tor decreased and many of the privileges for the tinners were withdrawn. The last tin coinage was in 1838 and by 1896 the stannary courts were abolished. The tin industry in Devon was dead and so were the powers and privileges of the tinners, men who knew that in the early days they could defy the laws of the land because the king depended on them for a large part of the royal income, but in return created their own laws and rules often more severe than common law.

Farming on Dartmoor is another huge subject that I can only touch on here. Clearly prehistoric man herded his animals on the moor. In the twelfth century the Cistercians from Buckfast Abbey drove their own sheep up onto the moor near the abbey to graze there and indeed travelled across the moor by the Abbots Way (described later) to Tavistock Abbey with their wool.

I mentioned earlier the Ancient Tenements of Dartmoor which came into being with the Normans. It was the increase in population at this time that made more and more people look for farming land on the higher areas of Dartmoor, and this is clearly the start of farming settlements on the moor as we know them now. Most of the land was owned, as a lot of it still is, by the Duchy of Cornwall, and the tenants had to pay their rates to the Duchy and agree to certain feudal duties.

Most farmers looked to increase the acreage of their land on Dartmoor by the system called newtakes, which had been operating since well before the 14th century. The average farm on Dartmoor was about 40 acres. This old system of newtakes allowed the farmers on the ancient tenements to enclose and reclaim eight acres of rough moorland every time a new tenant took over a farm.

The modern Dartmoor farmers of today still have to contend with the harsh conditions faced by the tenants of years ago. Many of the farms are still rented from the Duchy and are occupied by the same family for generations. Cattle, sheep and ponies are still all important; keeping livestock is the way that they make their livings. If the farm has some good enclosed pastures they may keep a herd of Friesians for milk. Lower down, maybe in a sheltered valley, the less harsh climate will allow farmers to grow a few cereals as well as keep dual-purpose cattle, sheep and ponies. A few pigs and chickens, usually managed by the farmer's wife, may all add to the possible income for the typical mixed Dartmoor farm. At the other end of the scale there are a few high moorland farms which might really be called smallholdings which in these hard days are not really economic to run even with the subsidies that are given to hill cattle farmers.

Riders near Great Mis Tor, see Walk 26

Hay, of course, is an important crop for all Dartmoor farmers who have large numbers of animals to feed in winter, but with the high rainfall and uncertain summer sun it is not surprising that many now make silage instead of hay.

Several of the old moorland farms have the word ‘warren’ after their name: Ditsworthy Warren, Huntingdon Warren and there is the Warren House Inn, the third highest pub in Britain, we are told. They were all farms where rabbits were bred commercially, the oldest being Trowlesworthy Warren which dates back to 1272. If you visit the ‘warrens’, which I hope you will, you can often find the remains of the old burrows that were constructed of stones and earth where the rabbits lived and bred. Nets and dogs were used to catch the rabbits and at Ditsworthy Warren you can still see the stone dog kennels made in the walls of the yard behind the farm.

I need to make passing reference to a few of the other industries that have brought man onto Dartmoor and in all cases have changed the landscape by his exploitation of the resources. Peat-cutting, quarrying, china clay mining and forestry all fall into this category. Of these four, only peat cutting is no longer carried out on Dartmoor on a commercial basis, but the remains of the old workings at Rattlebrook are well worth a visit and there are many large areas near the tinners’ works and mines and the old farms where there is plenty of evidence of the peat cuttings of the past.

I have not been able to mention all the activities of man such as the moormen, the packhorse routes, the cutting of peat-passes, the building of the prison at Princetown or the Dartmoor crosses but I hope to make up for some of these omissions in the Guide itself. However, I will end with what many consider a highly controversial use of Dartmoor by man and that is the activities of the military.

Of course it is nothing new and there were military manoeuvres on Dartmoor as far back as the 1860s, and from that time on firing and exercises have taken place on the various ranges that have been created. I need not dwell on the various licences and Bills that make it possible but all of you who walk on Dartmoor have to be aware that on quite a number of days of the year large areas of the north moor are closed for use and that you need to check always in newspapers, local post offices and other centres to make sure that there is no firing taking place; a subject I shall return to later.

Above and below:Dartmoor Ponies

Legends of Dartmoor

As man has lived on Dartmoor since prehistoric times and as the landscape itself is often mysterious, it is no wonder that there are many legends and folk tales to be heard. Many of them of course are to explain some of weird features of the moor or to give an explanation to some unaccountable occurrence. Again, as might be expected, many of the stories are linked to the Devil and perhaps the best known comes from my own village Widecombe-in-the-Moor.

However, this legend starts in the Tavistock Inn, Poundsgate where some of the locals were enjoying a pint on the morning of Sunday, 21 October 1638. They heard the sound of a galloping horse approaching and then suddenly the door burst open and a tall, dark stranger entered. There was something sinister and foreboding about him but the people in the inn shrugged it off as the stranger ordered a tankard of ale. He paid with gold and raised the tankard to his lips. As the beer went down his throat there was a loud sizzling noise and the locals drew back in horror and astonishment. Within a moment the pot was empty and the Devil, for it was surely him, swept out of the bar and the sound of his horse galloping off towards Widecombe could be heard in the silent inn. Later when the landlady opened her till, after drawing a great many pints to calm the nerves of her customers, she discovered that the gold given to her by the stranger had turned to withered, autumnal leaves!

The scene now shifts to Widecombe church and a young, dissolute tinner called Jan Reynolds who was a heavy drinker and gambler with a weakness for the cards and the girls; something of a ‘no good boyo’! It appears that he had sold his soul to the Devil for money, to pay his numerous debts, forgetting, as is often the case, that eventually there has to be a day of reckoning.

On this particular Sunday Jan had spent quite some time in the Old Inn before the service and now was slumped at the back of the church very much the worse for drink and playing cards to while away the time during the sermon. But quite soon, with the combination of the drink and maybe the sermon, Jan fell asleep. No sooner had he dozed off, than with incredible suddenness, a terrible storm blew up with ferocious winds, thunder and lightning. The congregation cowered in their pews and then with a loud explosion and, I am sure, fire, brimstone and a smell of sulphur, the Devil appeared through a hole in the roof of the tower, seized Jan by the scruff of his neck and before anyone could move, shot back to the top of the tower, where he had tied his horse to one of the pinnacles, taking the hapless Jan with him. With a final thunderbolt the Devil rode off with Jan in tow, sending the pinnacle to which he had tied his horse crashing down into the churchyard. They were sighted passing over the Warren House Inn, the last hostelry Jan Reynolds was ever to see, and then he vanished forever.

Looking towards Saddle Tor, Low Man and Hay Tor from Rippon Tor, Walk 23

Take this story as you will but there are parish records of a terrible storm on Sunday, 21 October 1638 in which four people were killed and 62 injured in Widecombe church. This storm has a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the worst tornado ever to have taken place in the United Kingdom.

I could fill a book with the numerous other legends there are but let me whet your appetite by mentioning a few more in the hope that you will be able to find out the stories yourself. First Jay's Grave on which, it is said, there are always flowers to be found. Then the Hairy Hands, seen and felt, if you were to believe the legend, where the Cherrybrook flows under the road near Powder Mills. Or Childe the Hunter, who in Norman times was caught in a blizzard while out hunting on the moor near Fox Tor Mines. To try to protect himself from the freezing storm Childe killed his horse and crept into the carcase but to no avail; his body was found by the monks of Tavistock Abbey, who because of the conditions of his will written in the horse's blood, were left his lands at Plymstock for giving him a Christian burial. A 19th-century cross over a kistvaen marks the spot where Childe was supposed to have died: Childe's Tomb on the map.

Then there is the Coffin Stone near Dartmeet. Or the story of Benjie of Cranmere Pool. Or the Dewerstone or Devil's Stone where he is supposed to hunt with his pack of Whist hounds, coal black creatures with eyes of flame. Hound Tor has the same legend. Near Hound Tor is the Bowerman's Nose, another hunter, turned to stone this time. Then there are Branscombe's Loaf and Cheese, Lady Mary Howard, the White Bird of the Oxenhams, the Hound of the Baskervilles. The list is endless.

Dartmoor today

Dartmoor was one of the first National Parks in the British Isles and dates from 30 October 1951. The headquarters and offices are at Parke, Bovey Tracey, Devon TQ13 9JQ, telephone 01626 832093.

This guide is no place to enter into the controversies and politics that surround the National Parks in Britain and in particular the Dartmoor National Park. The pressures on such areas of wild beauty, from those of you who, I hope, will want to walk on the moor to the many thousands who just drive up there in their cars and coaches and look for parking space, through to those with commercial interests such as farming, forestry, military training, china clay works and dams for water, not to mention building roads within the boundaries of the National Park are enormous. I read somewhere that more terrible things have happened to Dartmoor since it became a National Park than ever before it was designated!

Clearly as the pressures of urban life build up, more and more people will want to escape into the quiet and peace of the countryside, but do they really want that? I sometimes doubt it when I see the crowded car parks at Dartmeet, Princetown, Widecombe, Postbridge and New Bridge. So there has to be control, discipline, money and understanding care to make sure that Dartmoor still retains its beauty and wildness without, on the one hand, stifling and thwarting those who have to make a living on the moor, on the other, making the National Park like some awful exhibit never to be changed, with tight controls for entry and concrete paths to walk on as you find in some of the American Parks.

For people to come to Dartmoor means that in many cases they have to be educated as to how to use the countryside and this includes the open moorland which many regard as land that is not owned by anybody. This is in fact not true. Dartmoor National Park does not belong to the nation as the name implies; it is all owned by the Duchy or by farmers who have common grazing rights (the commoners) or other landowners. There are however small pockets of land owned by Devon County Council, one of which is around Hay Tor.

To start then you could find no better advice than the Country Code:

1. Guard against all risk of fire.

2. Fasten all gates.

3. Keep dogs under proper control.

4. Keep to paths across farmland and then only if there is a right of way.

5. Avoid damaging fences, hedges and walls – particularly climbing over them.

6. Leave no litter – take it home.

7. Safeguard water supplies.

8. Protect wildlife, wild plants and trees.

9. Drive and walk carefully on narrow country roads. (It is important to know how to reverse your car and be prepared to do so!)

10. Respect the life of the countryside.

Coupled to this last one I should like to add one more.

11. Do not make unnecessary noise.

The path leading up to Bell Tor from Bonehill Rocks, Walk 22

I feel that I should also mention the notices put up at many points that state that there should be ‘No Vehicles beyond this point.’ This is not a National Park Law but a Highway Law that states that no vehicles should be driven more than 15m (50ft) from a road. Following on from this I would urge all car users to park sensibly and with consideration. Do not block gates as local farmers and other users of the moor may need to come and go without hindrance. Do not park in narrow lanes or on busy roads.

The other problem is caused by Dartmoor ponies. Obviously the visitors are intrigued by them, especially the younger ones and there is always the temptation to feed them. But this is a most dangerous thing to do. Firstly it attracts the ponies to the roads where they loiter hoping for titbits. Driving at night or in mist or pouring rain with bad visibility, it is a fearful hazard both for the pony and the driver to come on a group of ponies suddenly, tucked round a blind corner. Secondly, by feeding them, it gives them food that is not suitable and also make them less capable and determined to fend for themselves which they must do during the long, hard winter months.

Access can also cause problems. No wonder many Dartmoor farmers still regard the tourist as a scourge. I have seen many people tramping across a fine crop of hay to have a picnic. All too often groups will climb the drystone walls to cut off a corner. Once one rock is disturbed a great many more usually fall. I have heard farmers complaining of gates left open and animals wandering on the roads or in fields where they should not go. We have all found empty tin cans and broken bottles left lying around; a terrible danger to livestock. Cigarette packets and butt ends, fish and chip papers and fried chicken cartons all litter the popular areas of the moor and often private land.

Many of the footpaths and bridle paths are clearly signed with boards and rights of way are well marked on the maps that you will be using. Please stick to and respect the rights of way and do not stray off them. As a good, general rule you can assume that all enclosed fields are private and that you should not enter them unless there is a marked right of way.

If you have any doubts, the Dartmoor National Headquarters at Parke are always very happy to help and advise. There are several seasonal information centres at strategic places on the moor including Parke and at Princetown, Postbridge, New Bridge, Steps Bridge, Okehampton and Tavistock. You will also see going about their work quite a number of the park rangers who, amongst their many jobs, act as a liaison with the public.

Public transport onto Dartmoor sadly is limited. Gone are the days when the railway circled the moor and the one splendid line to Princetown took you across rolling moorland to well over 400m (1500ft), and every moorland village had its bus service. However, there are still a few local bus routes in summer. The Dartmoor National Park Authority and Devon County Council are keen to cut back on the numbers of cars coming onto Dartmoor and suggest that walkers should use the buses that run on Dartmoor and are willing to stop at various points across the moor.

For full details a free booklet called Dartmoor Discovery Guide gives the timetables of all the bus routes running across or onto Dartmoor with a lot of other useful information. You can get the details of these services from Parke or local bus companies (see Appendix B). But I must assume that most of you will come to Dartmoor by car.

Where to stay

As you drive across or around Dartmoor you will often see farms and small guesthouses advertising bed and breakfast and you may be the sort of person who likes to try places on the off-chance that they will have vacancies, but at the peak holiday periods you would probably be better off booking. There are many excellent hotels in the area ranging from the large and expensive to the small and not so expensive. There are youth hostels at Steps Bridge on the Teign and at Bellever near Postbridge. The Dartmoor Expedition Centre near Widecombe-in-the-Moor offers full board or self-catering bunkhouse accommodation.

As I have mentioned all Dartmoor is privately owned and permission must be obtained from landowners before pitching tents or caravans. Some farmers will allow you to camp on their land for short periods; a few have recognised sites. The National Park Authority has a leaflet that gives you further details about camping and also lists the various sites on or near the moor.

The most comprehensive guide to accommodation in the Dartmoor area is the Dartmoor Tourist Association's Annual Guide. (See Appendix B for address.) The Dartmoor National Park Authority's excellent free information newspaper Dartmoor Visitor also has details of accommodation, camping barns, hostels and a wealth of other really useful information.

The Tradesman's Arms, Scorriton

Dartmoor weather

As with many upland regions on the west of Britain you can expect a high rainfall on Dartmoor. The prevailing westerly winds come in from the Atlantic loaded with moisture and as Dartmoor is situated on a peninsula between the English Channel on one side and the Irish Sea and Bristol Channel on the other, the rainfall of over 80 inches a year at Princetown and much of the surrounding moor is only to be expected.

This oceanic climate coupled with the fact that much of Dartmoor is between 200m and 600m (650–2000ft) high means that there will be strong winds as well as heavy rain and of course the notorious mists which can blow up in minutes. All walkers on Dartmoor must be prepared both physically and mentally for mist and bad weather with hard frosts and snow in winter.

You can get recorded telephone forecasts for the south west including Dartmoor on 0891 500404. The newspaper Western Morning News prints comprehensive local weather forecasts (see Appendix B).

One final word about flooding rivers. Dartmoor is like a great sponge which retains water until saturation point is reached and then it releases huge quantities with amazing suddenness. The rivers can come up several feet within an hour or less. The power and weight of the water of a river in flood is something you would never imagine unless you try to cross. The rule is, don't! It is far better to walk extra miles to an easier crossing place or a bridge rather than attempt to wade across, especially with young people. Hopping from boulder to boulder is also to be discouraged at all times, even more so with a river is in spate; it usually ends with wet clothing or, worse, a sprained ankle or broken bone. If you have a light rope, then in a real emergency you might feel you could cross using one of the correct safe-guarding methods found in Langmuir's book (see Appendix C).

Clothing

Let me start at the top. You lose an enormous amount of heat from your head and therefore some form of headgear is extremely important all the year round for, even in summer, warm sunny days can quickly become wet and cold on Dartmoor. In winter a balaclava is well worth carrying. It is also worth mentioning that a broad-brimmed hat is a good thing to have on hot summer days for with a slight wind, sunburn is another hazard coupled with heat exhaustion and even heat stroke.

For winter walks thermal underwear is excellent, but not essential, and a woollen shirt is valuable. For summer lighter shirts will be sufficient. The rule is that several light layers of pullovers are better than one large, chunky sweater. It means that you have more control of your body heat and can shed one layer at a time when you are wearing several. Thermal, fleece jackets are very popular and to wear a light sweater with one of these jackets to put on or take off seems a good combination.

I like to wear breeches with a pair of long socks but you may prefer trousers. Whichever you choose, for winter walking they should be made of a thick material such as a woollen mixture and loose enough to allow easy leg movement; jeans are too thin and usually too tight to be ideal walking clothing but for summer they will do. There are plenty of excellent lightweight trousers designed for walking on the market.

Next, thick socks; loop stitch are very comfortable. Now perhaps most important, boots. The choice here is vast and nearly everyone has their own preference. Lightweight boots are very popular and for long days of walking they are far less tiring. However, the boots that are partly made of fabric cannot be said to be really waterproof unless you wear them with the type of gaiter that has a rubber rand that fits into a special groove round the welt of the boot. So probably I would suggest a lightweight, leather boot with a cleated rubber sole to be worn with gaiters, especially those with the rand. The sole should be flexible so that it bends with your foot as you walk.

Clappper Bridge over the River Avon, Walk 6

If the boots are well treated with waterproofing wax and you wear gaiters you should then be dry to the knees and I hope you do not go any deeper than that! I see no need for the heavy leather mountaineering boots for Dartmoor. You should get adequate ankle protection with lighter boots and there are no long scree slopes to descend.

I shall probably incur the wrath of some experts, but to be honest a good pair of wellingtons are excellent for a lot of Dartmoor and there are quite a few types of rubber boot on the market made with studs that can be taken out when not needed. Obviously it depends on your feet and whether you feel that you can walk comfortably all day in wellingtons.

Then you will need an outer layer of waterproof clothing. I am afraid that you will certainly need both jacket and trousers if you are going to walk a lot on Dartmoor in summer and winter. For summer walking a jacket only will be sufficient, but I do feel that a good hood is essential to stop the wind and rain going down your neck.

There are many breathable fabrics on the market but it seems that whatever you wear you will be very lucky to remain completely dry if you are out for several hours on Dartmoor on a wet and windy day. Either the garment will leak or you will get wet with sweat! In any case water will seep up your sleeves and down the neck! But do not be tempted to leave your waterproof and windproof garments behind as they are a life-saving and essential part of your equipment. The choice of which one to buy must rest with you: Gortex, Entrant, Ventile, waxed cotton, nylon proofed with rubber or PVC. The best answer is to visit a good equipment shop and look at the various makes available.

Finally, gloves or mittens. I prefer wool for inner gloves and indeed for most of my outer clothing such as shirts, sweaters and breeches; wool stays warm when wet. Again it is useful to have a waterproof and windproof outer glove for winter walking.

Equipment

You will need a small day rucksack to carry your food, spare clothing and all the other little bits and pieces I shall be suggesting. If you are thinking of camping you will have to consider a 65 to 70 litre capacity sack, but for a day walk up to 40 litres will be sufficient. A sack is useless if it does not keep the contents dry and it is usually a wise thing to put all your clothes into a polythene bag inside the rucksack.

A word should be written about some of the other small items that I feel might be taken with you for safety and comfort. Food for the day obviously is needed but it is a good idea to take a little extra in the form of ‘emergency rations’ such as chocolate, sultanas, nuts and raisins, mint cake and flapjack. On a hard day's walk you will need some 4000 calories and in cold, bad weather even more. I usually take a water bottle or a Thermos flask. Drinking from moorland streams can be dangerous: so often there is a dead sheep or cattle in or near the water and many people find the peaty water upsets their stomachs in any case.

Keeble Martin's Chapel, Walk 5

It is always wise to carry a spare sweater or thermal jacket, and a torch might well be of vital use if the walk takes longer than you expected and you have to finish in the dark.

I hope that you will never have to use it but a whistle to attract attention if need be, could save a life. The international distress signal is six long blasts on a whistle or six flashes with a torch in quick succession, then a minute's rest and then the signal is repeated followed by a minute's rest and so on until help comes. The answer, by the way, is three blasts or flashes followed by a minute's rest.

Next you might like to consider carrying a polythene survival bag or space blanket to shelter in if you or one of your party has an injury or suffers from hypothermia and has to lie out on the moor waiting for help. You will also need a small first-aid kit which you can either make up yourself or buy. It should contain bandages and dressings to deal with minor scrapes, cuts and blisters. On the subject of blisters it is far better to stop early on when the first slight burning soreness is noticed and put a plaster on. It is no good hoping it will go away. If you can feel it then the damage may have been done and blisters can ruin a day's walk. If you then add antiseptic cream, a triangular bandage, a crêpe bandage and finally some pain killing tablets these will make an excellent and useful first-aid kit to take for a day's walk.

Finally I know some people who like to carry a short length of nylon climbing rope with them on Dartmoor. I think that you are unlikely to have to use it except as a last resort to cross a flooded stream or river or to pull someone out of a deep bog! However, if you feel you need one, 30m of 9mm rope will be sufficient for Dartmoor, though for more mountainous regions you would need 45m.

Maps and compasses

For your safety and for you to get the maximum enjoyment from walking on Dartmoor it is wise to be proficient at understanding how to use your map and compass which are, of course, probably the most important bits of equipment you should have with you.

It does not take long to master elementary mapreading but I hope you will want to take it all a step further, for maps can tell you a vast number of interesting and important things about an area. More than anything else you have to be aware of the limitations of maps because they represent the three-dimensional features of our earth on a flat sheet of paper, but with practice this soon becomes no problem. I am fascinated by maps and spend hours just pouring over them and imagining the countryside they portray.

Dew on Conwebs

First you need to consider the scale. The Landranger Series of Great Britain have a scale of 2cm to 1km (1:50,000) or about 1.25 inches to the mile. You will need two sheets for the whole of Dartmoor: Sheet 191, Okehampton and North Dartmoor, and Sheet 202, Torbay and South Dartmoor. The Ordnance Survey has a Dartmoor map in its Outdoor Leisure series, Sheet 28. This is a marvellous map for detail as the scale is 4cm to 1km (1:25,000) or 2.5 inches to the mile, but as it covers the whole of Dartmoor it is a huge sheet and printed on both sides. The problems of folding and getting the relevant section that you want to use visible are enormous on windy, rainy days. Even if you prepare the map before you set off you are bound to want a section that is hidden!

You can of course buy smaller individual sheets of the 1:25,000 maps for both First and Second Series but you will need quite a few of them to cover longer walks. However, this scale is ideal for Dartmoor as many more details are shown as well as walls and small differences in height, both important when navigating on the moor.

Finally, Harvey Map Services has two Dartmoor maps (north and south Dartmoor) in its Mountain Recreation Series with a scale of 2.5cm to 1km (1:40,000). They use an orienteering style of presentation with different colours to indicate vegetation. The physical features of the moor are all important on this map and there are very few place names printed; the result is a very clear and uncluttered map.

Next you will need to consider the conventional signs; the shorthand of maps. Most sheets have the conventional signs printed on them. I was taught to repeat like a parrot that contours are imaginary lines joining all places of equal height. This may be so, but more important is to be able to read the contours so that you can see if you are going up or down or if it is a steep slope or a gentle slope and where there are valleys and gullies. It does not take long to get the feel of the land from them.

The parallel lines printed on all the maps that you are likely to use are the grid lines. Each line has a number to identify it. The numbers of the lines that run up and down the sheet increase as they move toward the right or east and the lines are called eastings. The ones that run across the map increase as they move up the sheet or north. They are called northings. Each of the squares created by the grid lines is 1km by 1km. The diagonal across the square from corner to corner is 1. 5km. Once you know this it is very quick and easy to estimate distance. Regardless of the scale of the map the grid squares are always 1km by 1km. Obviously the larger the scale of the map the larger the square will be on the map.

The other more important use of the grid lines is to give grid references and I shall be using these in the Guide to pinpoint places. You must always give the eastings first and than the northings. So to give the position of a large area such as a village you need only give a four figure reference to indicate the square. For example, the village of Holne lies in the square 70 eastings and 69 northings, in other words SX 7069. However, it is usual to give six figure references and to do this you will have to subdivide each square into tenths. You give the main number of the easting square followed by the tenths eastward followed by the main northing square and the tenths northward. For example, the reference for Dartmeet would be 672 eastings and 732 northings, given as just SX 672732. It must be remembered, though, that this actually represents a square 100m by 100m on the ground and if you want to become really accurate then eight figure references are better but to be honest it is almost impossible to work them out correctly. You should always prefix your grid reference with the grid letters as similar references recur at intervals of 100km. For Dartmoor these letters are SX but as I am only referring to Dartmoor I have not included them.

A lot of your navigation will be done visually and to do this you must orientate your map. I assume that you know where you are when you start! So to orientate your map you identify some features in the countryside such as a tor, a forest boundary or a building and you turn your map until the features are lined up with their representations on the map and everything else will fit into place.

Now you need to consider the compass. There are many different makes on the market ranging from simple ones costing £7.00 to £15.00 to the more sophisticated costing up to £60. You will need a proper navigating compass as the small button compasses you can buy are no use. They should have a clear plastic base like a protractor with a swivelling capsule and at least a luminous needle – other luminous points are useful for night navigation.

Clapper Bridge over Dean Burn, Walk 6

You can now orientate your map using the compass. The top of the map is always true north and for all intents and purposes the easting grid lines point to true north.

First place your compass on the map with the rotating capsule turned so that the north arrow on the compass card or dial is in its correct position at 0 (or 360) degrees, and with the whole compass pointing to the top of the map (north). You can use the grid lines to help you do this. Slowly rotate the map, and yourself if needs be, keeping the compass firmly in place pointing to the top of the map (north) until the compass needle itself swings and points to magnetic north which is just 2.75 degrees in 2002, to the west of true north, in other words 357.25 degrees. Your map is now set and you should be able to identify features.

This last operation mentioned that the compass needle points to what is called magnetic north, located to the north of Hudson Bay in Canada, rather than true north and this must always be taken into consideration when navigating and especially in the next stage of compass work. By the way this magnetic variation decreases 0.50 degrees every four years.

There will be occasions where the moor is featureless or you are in thick mist or even at night when you will not be able to navigate visually either by lining up features or walking towards known points identified both on the map and on the ground. It is then that you will have to rely on your compass by taking and using compass bearings. To do this place the edge of the clear protractor part of your compass along what is called the line or direction of travel; in other words from where you are to where you want to go.

Now turn the capsule until N (north), usually shown by an arrow engraved in the bottom of the dial, points to the true north (the top of the map). Once again the parallel grid lines will help you do this. Pick up the compass and ADD, by gently rotating the capsule, what is called the magnetic variation (the difference between magnetic north and true north) which as I mentioned is 2.75 degrees in 2002. (This does decrease over the years and you should check with your map which will give the information.)

Now hold the compass in front of you and turn you body until the red (north) end of the swinging compass needle points to the north on the compass dial: this is the arrow engraved on the bottom of the capsule. The larger direction- of-travel arrow on the front, longer end of the compass, will now point at where you wish to go. Choose a landmark or a feature on this line (not a sheep or a cow!) within the limits of the visibility and walk to it without looking at the compass except perhaps for a brief check. When you arrive choose another new landmark and repeat the procedure until you arrive at your destination.

With this brief information you should be able to find your way around on Dartmoor but navigation is a fascinating subject and well worth following up and it is just as well to have more than one person in your party who is competent with a map and compass.

One final bit of advice. I should get a good large, waterproof, clear plastic map case or cover for your map, or spray it with one of the waterproofing fluids that are available. Wet, windy days on Dartmoor can quickly destroy a map!

Dartmoor letterboxes

This unique curiosity, found in no other moorland or mountainous region, was more or less started in the last century by a man called James Perrott whose grave you will find in the churchyard at Chagford.

James Perrott was known as the Dartmoor Guide and he used to take his clients to the remote and barren areas known as Cranmere Pool in the heart of the north moor. (There is yet another Dartmoor legend about Benjie Gear, by the way, associated with Cranmere Pool.) To record this achievement the walkers used to leave their visiting cards in a pickle jar that Perrott had left there in a small cairn that he built in 1854.

When you consider the costumes of those Victorian times, especially for the ladies, and the fact that there was no military road from Okehampton to within a mile of the Pool, as there is today, the walk of over seven miles over difficult moorland was certainly something worth recording.

Fifty-one years later, two keen moorland walkers placed a visitor's book there so that people could sign their names when they arrived at the desolate spot. By 1908 the numbers visiting Cranmere each year had risen to over 1700. The most famous person to sign his name at Cranmere was perhaps the late Duke of Windsor who, when he was the Prince of Wales, visited the box in 1921. The next letterbox to be established on Dartmoor was in 1894 at Belstone Tor.

After Cranmere the next best-known box is at Duck's Pool on the south moor which was placed there in 1938 in memory of William Crossing, writer of many books about Dartmoor, the most outstanding of which is his Guide to Dartmoor. By the 1970s there were some 15 boxes and the position of some were even marked on the one-inch maps of this period.

You are now probably wondering how the name letterbox arose. It developed from the idea that when you visited a box you left a letter already stamped and addressed ready for the next person who came there to collect and post in a conventional letterbox. The interesting thing was to see how long it was before your letter came back to you. In the early days of the 1950s when I walked on the moors it would often be weeks, especially in wintertime. As most of the boxes had their own specially made rubber stamp your letter would come back with a most unusual postmark! Sadly vandals and pilferers have been responsible for this custom no longer being a sensible or even a possible thing to do.

Since the 1970s some people would argue that the Dartmoor letterboxes have got out of control. There is no law to stop anybody who wishes from establishing their own letterbox and while there are some excellent ones with beautifully made rubber stamps, there have been, at times, over 1000 boxes scattered around the moor but many of these new boxes only stay out for a few weeks.

As I mentioned earlier a great many of the popular, well-known boxes are visited by vandals and have their rubber stamps stolen and the books defaced. It is no wonder that there is an air of secrecy about the location of many of the new boxes, to be divulged only to genuine box hunters.

Taken by and large there are probably about 450 boxes now on Dartmoor and a club has been formed called the ‘100 Club’ whose members are keen letterbox hunters who have found and recorded over a hundred boxes.

Climbing on Dartmoor

Wherever there is a climb or an outcrop of rock sooner or later man will want to climb it! Dartmoor is no exception and there is reference to climbing on the tors in a book called Climbing in the British Isles by the famous father of British climbing, Haskett Smith, published in 1894. In spite of this book there is no more recorded information about rock climbing routes on and around Dartmoor until 1935 when climbers tackled the great granite cliff of the Dewerstone and put up what are still considered the classic routes of the area: ‘Climbers Club Ordinary’ and ‘Climbers Club Direct’, both over 50m (160ft).

Buckfast Abbey, on the Abbot's Way

It was not until after the Second World War that there was an enormous increase in activity with climbers both on Dartmoor itself and at the Dewerstone. Mention must be made of one man, Admiral Keith Lawder, who pioneered a lot of the routes himself and whose infectious enthusiasm encouraged many young climbers to develop the area, and then documented all the new routes in the first professionally produced guidebook.

Both in the 1960s and 1970s there was another surge in climbing on the moors and many new routes were added and increasing numbers of people came to Devon to climb, not to mention a strong local climbing group and the instructors at what was then the Outward Bound School at Ashburton.

So as you will have gathered there is plenty of excellent climbing to be had on a great many tors from short ‘bouldering’ problems to longer routes of 100 feet and at all standards, while the Dewerstone offers a whole range of climbs in a magnificent setting high above the River Plym.

For those of you who are interested there is a guidebook entitled South Devon and Dartmoor, a Climber's Guide by Nick White, which covers all the climbing in those moorland areas and supersedes the previous guides published by the Royal Navy Ski Mountaineering Club and Cordee.

Walking on Dartmoor

Unlike many upland areas it is, of course, possible to walk anywhere you like on Dartmoor because of the character of the countryside. You do not have to follow ridges or valleys as you do in mountainous regions. You can choose a point and then walk more or less straight there, avoiding the bogs of course!

There are tracks marked on the maps of Dartmoor but to be honest they are really not much use except for a few like the Sandy Way and the early parts of the Abbots Way. The others are not always in the position marked and in any case they soon peter out and with the maze of animal tracks on the moor it is hard to decide which is the actual path. So on the whole it is better to ignore them because one always assumes that the paths are going to where you want them to go and very often they do not!

There is no reason why you should not plan your own walks to go to areas you wish to visit and places that interest you but I have outlined in this Guide some walks that I hope will take you to some of the exciting locations Dartmoor can offer you.

Both on my suggested walks and the ones you may plan yourself you might like to work on the formula known as Naismith's Rule for finding out how long it is going to take you. Naismith was a Scottish climber who in 1892 suggested that people walk at 3mph and that they had to add half an hour for every 1000ft they climbed (5km/h plus half an hour for every 300m of ascent). This really is only a starting point because in bad weather, or if you are unfit or carrying a load, or if the terrain is difficult you must take all or some of these into consideration and it is important for you to work out your own rule accordingly.

Dartmoor view with Great Mis Tor beyond

Dartmoor is deceptive country for walking. Because it is not a true mountainous region and looks like a rolling, undulating landscape, many people think they will be able to keep up with Naismith's fastest timings. This is just not possible because much of the walking on Dartmoor will take you over tussocks of grass, heather, bracken in the summer months, peat hags, marshy areas, gorse bushes, rocky slopes all within a few miles of each other. It is also impossible to get into that slow, rhythmical, steady stride that will keep you going all day and that is so important for easy walking. All the same try to keep a steady pace and with luck you may be able to average just over 3km/h (2mph). You should allow at least 10 minutes every hour to rest and look around and certainly more if you wish to stop and explore some of the points of interest I shall mention.

Avoid the really swampy areas (they are well marked on the maps) and also avoid the large clitters unless you have to thread your way through to get to a tor. The higher parts of the moor are not necessarily the driest but they may be better than the stream valleys.

So plan your route. Work out how long it is going to take you. Check the weather by telephoning for a forecast before you set out and then keep a ‘weather eye out’, as they say, while you are walking.

Check to see if there is any firing on the ranges, if you are going onto the North Moor, by looking in the local papers, post offices or telephoning if you have any doubts. Watch out for the red flags flying during the day and the red lamps at night on several high points on the edge of the ranges. Remember that it is dangerous to pass the line of red and white posts marking the boundaries of the ranges when there is firing in progress. (An address for information about firing on the Dartmoor ranges is given in Appendix B.)

Solo walking is a most exhilarating and worthwhile thing to do but it has its dangers. Ideally your party should be three in number, from a safety point of view, so that in the event of an accident one of you can go for help while the other stays with the injured person. I hope it will never happen to you, but if you do find yourself in trouble on Dartmoor with an injured person, or one of your party is suffering from hypothermia, or if somebody is lost you may have to call out the Dartmoor Rescue Group. To do this either ring 999 and ask to be put in touch with the police or go to the nearest police station and they will call out the rescue team. This is the normal procedure in all mountainous areas when you need to mount a rescue operation.

Some advice that I most certainly would not give for people walking in the mountains in other parts of Britain but that on Dartmoor would be quite safe, is to follow a stream or river down if you are really badly lost. It will take you off the moor to civilisation and probably a telephone.

Finally, always leave word with someone telling them where you are going and how long you reckon you will be. Better still, leave a written route card with details of your walk and estimated times.

Using the Guide

The walks are grouped into the four large areas of Dartmoor:

South Moor

The South Moor with the road from Ashburton to Tavistock being the northern boundary.

Widecombe Walks

The triangular eastern section with the road from Ashburton to Two Bridges being the southern boundary and the road from Moretonhamstead to Two Bridges the northern edge.

North East Moor

The north-eastern part of the North Moor with the Moretonhamstead to Two Bridges road as the southern limit and approximately the 60 easting grid line as the western edge.

North West Moor

The north-western part of the North Moor with the Two Bridges to Tavistock road as the southern boundary and again approximately the 60 easting grid line as the eastern limit.

Obviously some walks, especially on the North Moor, edge occasionally into the neighbouring area.

As explained there is little or no public transport for much of the year on Dartmoor, though it is possible to use the Dartmoor buses in summer. However, these services may not take you to the areas that I shall be suggesting as the starting places for some of the walks, so I have assumed that most of you will be travelling by car. This means that most of the walks will be circular.

The walks are graded by length: long – 12km (7.5 miles) or more; medium – 4km to 12km (2.5 to 7.5 miles); short – under 4km (2.5 miles).

They are also classed as hard, moderate or easy, depending on the difficulty of the terrain, the climbing involved and the mapreading and navigation skills involved. With this last, however, it is wise to remember that what may be easy on a clear day can become tricky if the mists come down.

I assume that you will be able to find your way to the starting points by car from the six-figure map reference given, but I must admit that the maze of lanes, on the eastern edge of Dartmoor particularly, can be confusing!

I refer to left and rights as if you are following the correct direction of travel. But I refer to the true left and right banks of streams and rivers, that is, as if you are looking downstream.

It is a good idea to read up on the walk and on how to reach the starting point before you set out and refer to the map so that you have a good idea of where you will be going. Do not forget to check the Firing Notices if you are setting off for a walk on the North Moor.

I do not give a length of time for the walks as each of you will need to work it out for yourself depending on the age and fitness of your party, and whether you want to wander gently exploring and looking as you go or put your head down and rush round as fast as you can. I hope it will be the former!

Quite often you will be passing places or objects to which I have referred in the Introduction so you may need to check back to the relevant section, but I hope to add more information wherever possible and indeed introduce some new topics of interest. Please note that place names are occasionally printed incorrectly on the Ordnance Survey maps.

With nearly all the walks, I have made it possible to shorten them by cutting off corners and leading back onto the route at another place. Even if I have not indicated this in the description of the route, by studying the map you will be able to make your own cuts, I am sure, if you wish. Equally, you might well find that you can cut into a walk from a starting place of your own choice different to the one I have suggested. Also it is often quite possible to link into one walk from another and even end up at the starting place of that walk, if you can get someone to drive the car round! What I am really saying is that I hope you will use this Guide as a basis for walks that you can work out for yourselves rather than follow slavishly every route I have described, though I hope you will follow some of my walks as they are all ones that I have enjoyed over the years.

Vixen Tor with King's Tor and the Hessary Tor mast beyond, Walk 18

I cannot begin to cover every inch of the moor and take you to every hidden corner. There are many interesting things to see that would not really make up a full worthwhile walk. I must leave you to find out about these other places yourselves and visit them when you have time.

In this Guide I have not provided detailed, precise descriptions of the routes (not every rock is mentioned, and neither compass bearings nor exact distances are given). I hope that you will use your own maps and compasses yourselves with a sense of exploration, discovery and route finding. The routes and the maps here are only a rough guide to help you work out your own journeys based on my general information.

Finally, I hope that some of you who cannot walk or may not want to walk will also be able to use this Guide so that, with the aid of a map and what I have written, you will be able to come on some of the walks, in your imagination, and find out more about this extraordinary and fascinating place, Dartmoor.

All that remains is for me to wish you safe, enjoyable and interesting walking.