It's Snowdon Jim....But not as we know it!
Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 8:53 pmHaving not been on the Hills for a few weeks I decided it was time to get out - the forecast was good and I had been challenged by an old fella who comes along to the Active Living Cafe I help run of older people that I couldn't find Cranmwere Pool! Not one to bow down to a challenge I decided to give it go! Lesson Number one:
Check the Dartmoor range firing times before leaving!
As Cranmere Pool is within the firing range I had a wasted drive and so had to go to Plan B - I had seen Snowdon on the map and thought...well why not...It isn't just Wales that has a Snowdon!! So I headed to Coombestone Tor Car Park and parked up and still had plenty of time as I had at least set off early in the morning! Apparently Coombestone Tor holds the Dartmoor record for being the Tor nearest to a car park! It's about 15 feet away!
- Coombestone Tor
So off i went into the clag with the full intention of doing a slightly different walk to the one I have posted (as I think this is where I actually went!) Lesson Two: Trust your compass and not your eyes or that little voice in your head that thinks it know's where it is going!
- Ryders Hill is there somewhere!?
- Back towards Coombestone Tor
So off I headed into the clag which was pretty much all there was to see for the first couple of hours excpet for the odd gap in the clag.
- Venford reservoir
- Boundary Marker On Holne Ridge
- Moor Clag!!
This was coupled with some serious bogtrotting throughout this walk - and I am talking about bog that was about shin deep for alot of the walk. If you don't like sucky mud don't do this walk unless it is frozen or baked solid!....or pay more attention to your map and compass!?
- Bogtrotting at Its best!!
After much sucky sounds and pulling the dogs out of the mire once or twice I suddenly found myself on the summit of Snowdon and frankly only really recognised that I was on the summit from some ink drawings I had seen in a book where there is some debate about whether these are summit cairns or ancient burial chambers. Having reached the summit I decided to just stay put for a while and have some coffee and choccy as the weather seemed to be clearing a bit ...which it eventually did and opened up some good views! The downside was...no cafe or railway..the upside was...I had it all to myself (apart form the Dogs!)
- Snowdon Summit Cairns (Burial Mounds?)
- Ryders Hill from Snowdon - or not!
It was then a short hop across to Pupers Hill with some good views from the summit as the weather was becoming decidedly better.
- Pupers Hill Summit Tor with Huntingdon Warren in Background
- Pupers Hill Cairn - Teign estuary in far distance
From Pupers Hill you can then see your next stop which is Huntingdon Warren/Huntingdon Hill - again a shot hop down into the Valley - up to the Warren (good place for a coffee break) and then on to the Hill. The Warren has some interesting history as it was farmed up until the 1950's from what is believed to be the 1600's and it was used for farming rabbits (hence the name). Apparently this become unviable and it was left as a shelter until in the late 50's some cadets managed to burn the place down!! So its all ruin now!
- Huntingdon Warren from Pupers Hill
- Entrance to Huntingdon Warren
- Part of the Warreners House
A short climb up to the summit of Huntingdon Hill then gives you a good view across to Ryders hill as well as a good view all around - although strangely whilst it was clear where I was you could see the clag sitting on the hills to the North still.
- Avon Dam reservoir from Huntingdon Hill
- Tinners Slag and Dartmoor Clag!
So - what follows is yet more bogtrotting across towards Ryders Hill, still hiding in the clag at this stage but there is a relatively clear path to follow as well has having learned lesson number two of the day i ignored the voices telling me to ignore my compass...which turned out to be alot more accurate than the voices!! So made it to Ryders Hill at last!
- Petrie's cross and standing stone on Ryders Hill Summit
I then followed the compass North and headed North for about 1Km before taking a sharp left west toward Skir Gut as I wanted to pick up the old tin workings in this area and have a bit of a mooch around them just for idle curiosities sake. Now the clag was still around albeit it was clearer but as I headed towards Skir Gut I could hear voices again.... (real ones this time!) and this got louder until what sounded like a footbal crowd was heading towards me.....nope.....4 large groups of students practicing for the 10 Tors event later this year!! Still ....no chance of any of them getting lost......they can just follow the noise!
- Skir Gut Workings
I arrived at Skir Gut and then headed south and east towards the Henroost and then on to Hooten Wheals. This place must have been mined extensively by the Tinners over the years. The area around Hooten Wheals looks a bit like a WWII bombsite! Not helped by the fact that there were army cadets there playing soldiers!
- The Henroost from the Bottom end!
- Hooten Wheals Tinners Site
From Hooten Wheals i had a bit of a meander across to Down Ridge as I spotted a stone cross that looked like it might be worth a look and from there headed almost a stright line back to Coombestone Tor which was now visible. Don't try this at home folks! Lesson Three: An OS map will show you what obstacles lie in your way if you read it properly....like walls, streams....and Tinners Leats! So look at the map!!
- Stone cross on Down Ridge
But I eventually made it back to Coombestone Tor and the car! I obviously need to learn the lesson here about using my map and compass and actually looking at the features...not something I usually screw up on...so perhaps it was just a bad day!
As for Cranmere Pool.......I will find it....just on another day!!
