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A couple of Sundays ago I missed a perfect walking opportunity. A beautiful still sunny day beckoned but I had something else on and missed out. I’d been rueing it ever since. Until today that is. I woke up in the morning to the exact same conditions as two weeks ago and Dartmoor beckoned.
The south-east moors are the most scenic of all Dartmoor. Rivers, waterfalls, forests, hills, wooded cleaves, it has the lot. One of my favourite routes is the nine mile trek around Widecombe taking in two high level walks – the flat plateau of Hameldown and the ridge walk across the valley comprising of several good rocky tors, namely Bonehill Rocks, Bell Tor, Chinkwell Tor, and Honeybag Tor. These tors are viewed at their best coming across the moors towards Widecombe where they show off their granite rocks to perfection, managing to appear much more dramatic than they actually are.
Most people do this route anti-clockwise but it is equally as good in the other direction. I try to rotate it evenly but I invariably forget which way I went the previous time. Today I’d chosen the clockwise route as the other direction ends in an uphill struggle on a country lane from Widecombe to Bonehill Rocks and is not welcome at the end of a tiring march.
It’s nine miles all told and usually takes me three hours almost to the minute. Today I’d be taking more photos than usual (for this report) and I was anticipating a slightly longer walk timewise. An added bonus is that this route begins at a car-park just before the steep drop down into Widecombe and is reached in only fifteen minutes from Newton Abbot. Consequently, it doesn’t require an early start like the north moors. Even in winter leaving at midday still gets you back to the car before it starts to get dark. I left about eleven from the car-park, heading across the wide grass path to Bonehill Rocks and then down the country lane to the village of Widecombe which was surprisingly serene for a change. In the height of summer you can’t get moving for hoardes and hoardes of Grockels, coach loads of them who come to the moors’ village hoping to catch a glimpse of Uncle Tom Cobley and all. Maybe it’s time someone told them Widecombe Fair is in September or that Tom Cobley died in 1884 (although this is debatable).
And now for an explanation of the word ‘Grockel’. Basically, it’s Devonian slang for holidaymaker. They found the need for a new word as ‘holidaymaker’ doesn’t really describe what they feel about their tourist friends. Grockel is not a term of endearment. It’s a mocking expression. For those who rely on tourism they are welcomed with open arms, but for the rest of Devon (and Torbay in particular) they are a necessary nuisance. During the height of holiday season the roads are gridlocked around Torbay at rush hour and it’s a nightmare even trying to get to Torquay from Newton Abbot (and vice versa) for work. When I first moved down here I actually thought they were called ‘F***ing Grockels’ as workmates would say things like ‘It took me over an hour to get through Kingskerswell last night. F***ing Grockels!” Fortunately, I do not have to rely on tourism for a living, neither do I have to travel through Kingskerswell to get to and from work.
One minor fact about Widecombe is that it featured as one of four possible answers for a question on the TV show ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ and they spelt it WIDDICOMBE instead of WIDECOMBE. Very unprofessional, Mr Tarrant. I have to say here that Widecombe exists only because of tourism. It consists of one pub, the Old Inn (two if you count the Rugglestone Inn outside the village) and several gift shops and tea rooms. The customers are ferried into two large car parks before they are tempted by Devon cream teas and little porcelain toby jugs of the Tom Cobley characters. Widecombe needs its Grockels. It would die on its feet without them.
A sign points the way along a narrow country lane to the start of the path up onto Hameldown. It was so still and warm in the valley that I had to take my jacket off and walk in only a light fleece. I knew I would have to put it back on again on top of Hameldown as I have only ever been up there once when it wasn’t blowing a gale and that was last February when the down was covered in a couple of inches of snow. It was a sunny day with not even a breath of wind and was actually warmer that day than in the middle of summer when winds blew me across the top at a decent rate. I was walking in a northerly direction today with a cold north-east wind in my face. A light wind thank goodness. There are extensive views up here across to Princetown and all the way past Fernworthy Forest to Cosdon Beacon and the north moors.
The motorway path across Hameldown is part of the ‘Two Moors Way’ and is just as easily followed in thick mist as clear weather. I can’t think of a wider more obvious path on the whole of Dartmoor and it is always busy no matter the weather or the season. At the top of the initial climb is a stone tablet to mark Hameldown Beacon, one of eight specific beacons on Dartmoor where they used to light signal fires in the days before telephones. The top of Hameldown is one long flat plateau about 3 miles long and it tops out at 532m. This started me thinking that if the sub 2000ers on this site was extended to include Dartmoor then I would be well ahead of the pack. I was chatting to someone on Pillar in the Lake District last year and we got round to talking about Dartmoor. They said they had never been there but always imagined it to be completely flat. Not sure where they got that idea from. The main Dartmoor Tors and hills are higher than the Pentlands.
At the far end of the plateau is Hameldown Tor, or rather a poor excuse for a tor as it seems to consist of a pile of rubble scraped together into the shape of a cairn and a trig point. No granite stacks around anywhere unless someone moved them elsewhere. In the valley below is Grimspound, the remains of Dartmoor’s largest Bronze Age settlement from the days when the temperatures on Dartmoor were way higher than those of today. And to think they managed to arrive at this Global Warming situation without the aid of the internal combustion engine or coal-fired power stations. I’m not convinced about Global Warming. First they tell us that recent years of extremely mild winters and intermingling seasons is a result of Global Warning and now, when someone correctly points out that we have had two Artic winters in a row, they are saying we should expect very cold winters and hot summers as a result of Global Warming. Try making your minds up, why don’t you.
The distinctive lone white building of the Warren House Inn is visible from Hameldown Tor. Three years ago me and my walking buddy Stu (‘buddy’ is a slight exaggeration obviously) called in at the Warren House to discover they were charging £3.40 for a regular pint of bitter. It must be near enough a fiver by now. Talk about ripping off the Grockels. My advice is to avoid it like the plague. The previous week we were walking around Kes Tor up Chagford Way and discovered a pub called the Northmoor Arms. They were charging £2.65 for a pint. Are you listening Warren House Inn? Also, they have created an Urban Myth about the peat fire in the pub having burned constantly for a ridiculous number of years without ever having gone out. This is utter rot. The first time I went in there (many, many years ago) it was a hot August day and there wasn’t so much as a piece of ash in the grate never mind any burning peat. Again, it’s a story to charm the tourists, or a fairytale more like.
The descent path passes a memorial stone on the lower slopes of Hameldown. It commemorates the people involved in an air crash – a Wellington Bomber returning from a mission in France during the Second World War. It’s intended destination was Scampton airforce base just outside Lincoln (where, coincidentally, some of my family used to live). Now, I’m no kind of aviation expert but something tells me they had a severe navigational problem. In technical terms that means ‘lost’. I would like to hope they were heading in a north-easterly direction when they ploughed into the hill, otherwise why would they be anywhere near Dartmoor when heading for East Lincs? Not surprisingly, all four crew members were killed.
The route from Grimspound down to the back lanes of Nattsworthy opens up views of the return ridge and also extensive views across to Easdon Tor, Hayne Down, Hound Tor, and Haytor. Up until recently there used to be a 30ft high wooden (green oak) chair at the top of a field in Natsworthy. It was designed by a local artist as a sculpture to celebrate the natural environment. There was no planning permission, however, and it was allowed to stand by local authorities for three years before being dismantled. There was talk of objections by locals because of traffic problems and other such garbage, but the chair is no longer there having been removed in July last year. It can still be seen from Google Earth though. I climbed up on it a couple of times and I’m sure I must have been breaking some kind of ridiculous Health & Safety regulation
The walk along the lane to Honeybag tour is quite a decent stroll even on tarmac. Today is was nice and peaceful and very warm, almost Spring-like in fact. A farm road leads to a path which skirts round the bottom of the tors to the lane at Bonehill Rocks but that would be defeating the object. Another path leading from this one gains the ridge between Honeybag and Chinkwell. However, by following the wall on the left it allows you to start the ridge below Honeybag and all four tors can then be tackled end to end in a straight line starting from the north and working south. It was possible to view the wooden chair from the top of the stacks on Honeybag Tor and I have included two photos of this view, one before and one after the removal of the chair.
There are unsurpassed views on this ridge walk across the valley to Hameldown and of all the main south-east tors, including the famous trio of Haytor, Saddle Tor and Rippon Tor. It is also the very best viewpoint for Widecombe nestling in the valley directly below. The highest point on this ridge walk is the summit of Chinkwell Tor which is marked by two fine cairns. Once again, the Ordnance Survey people have short-changed Dartmoor by not giving it a spot height on their maps. They have given a height for the adjacent (and lower) Honeybag Tor of 445m but not the main one. In case you’re reading this OS, it’s 451m. Perhaps you’d like to add it to your maps at some stage?
And so back full circle to Bonehill Rocks. These are a very popular scrambling/bouldering venue and throughout the summer are teeming with budding rock climbers armed with their little foam safety mats. I have posted pics of one of the most difficult scrambling routes which I tackled last year. The red ‘X’s mark the horizontal cracks which you have to gain in order to progress, after first stepping across to the lower ‘X’ from the rock in front which is not attached and is separated by a good three foot gap. When I pulled myself up on to the second horizontal crack, I discovered I could not get back down as there were no handholds. There was only one way to go and that was up. I completed it by jamming a foot into the vertical fissure and then using my knee to gain the top of the rock. I have to say that these bouldering types cheat by using sticky slipper-like climbing shoes. I did it in my hiking boots.
Arrived back at the car at two-thirty. Not bad for a lazy nine mile stroll.
- Bonehill Rocks
- A nice little scramble
- Follow the Red Route
- Return Route – left to right Honeybag, Chinkwell & Bell Tors
- A busy route on to Hameldown
- Looking across to Princetown from Hameldown Beacon
- Hameldown Plateau
- Hameldown Tor summit
- Grimspound & Hookney Tor
- A distant Warren House Inn
- Entrance to Grimspound
- Walkers take up Squatter’s Rights on Grimspound
- Looking back to Grimspound & Hameldown
- The mighty Haytor!
- Airforce Monument
- After the chair was removed
- And before
- Can we have out chair back please?
- A candidate for Dartmoor’s best – Hound Tor
- Haytor and Saddle Tor
- Chinkwell Tor
- Looking back to Honeybag Tor
- Chinkwell Tor summit cairns
- On the skyline - Haytor, Saddle, and Rippon Tors
- Granite-framed Hound Tor