A bumper day from Meldon Reservoir

29 November 2020

This was an amazing day weather wise for the end of November with sunny conditions and blue sky throughout. As it was a Sunday, this part of the moor was busier than I had ever seen it, especially later in the day. However I still had many tors to myself during my visits and it certainly couldn’t be described as crowded.

I made excellent progress partly due to much of the terrain being very easy to walk on – grassy and not tussocky or boggy – especially during much of the first part of the walk. I had visited nine tors by 11:45 – Sourton Tors, East Tor, Gren Tor, Hunt Tor, Great Links Tor, Little Links Tor, Lower Arms Tor, Arms Tor and Brat Tor. Brat Tor seemed to be particularly busy with a few groups coming and going – most of whom were walking in a different direction to me.

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During my planning I had envisaged Brat Tor to be my turn round point and to begin to head back north to Lower Dunna Goat. However the excellent weather conditions with good visibility had reduced the necessity for continual map reading as I could often see where I was heading to next. In addition I hadn’t realised that the terrain would be so easy to walk on – the parts of this walk I had been to previously had been nearer the West Okement River and it had been boggy, tussocky and relatively featureless moor. I was aware that I would need to allow time for that terrain later in the day – short days are always a consideration at this time of year with sunset around 16:15. I had a head torch, but the moor at night is a very dark place, as I had discovered during my Dartmoor Perambulation.

I hadn’t brought a list of the tors further south, but on the map I could see that the trio of Doe Tor, Sharp Tor and Chat Tor looked like a possible route extension.

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The terrain, as I made my way to the easily visible Doe Tor, became more difficult, with some hummocks and a stream crossing. However I reached it under twenty minutes after leaving Brat Tor. I put my trekking poles down to climb up the last bit – and almost mislaid them. I had the tor to myself. I gave some cattle a wide berth, going a longer way round to reach Sharp Tor; there was no one else there either. As I walked to Sharp Tor, Hare Tor looked tantalisingly close but I thought was too far for the time I had; left for a future expedition, which is just as well because there is also Little Hare Tor nearby which I would have missed as it isn’t labelled on the OS map. From Sharp Tor, I had to take a bearing to Chat Tor. I arrived there at the same time as two experienced looking women with a dog who I had seen earlier on Arms Tor. They were heading off from where I had come and had clearly visited a completely different set of tors to me between our two meetings.

Lower Dunna Goat and Higher Dunna Goat where I went next actually share the same grid reference on my list but they are two distinct tors. From there I headed towards the ruined Bleak House to cross the Rattle Brook. I remembered the difficult parts of the Dartmoor Perambulation from Steng-a-Tor to Rattlebrook Head and the upper part of Rattlebrook as far as Bleak House. I was aware that I had some of that type of terrain ahead of me, although a different route line. However, despite my reconnaissance trips and final successful perambulation being in the summer, I had never previously visited the area here except in wet conditions. It was a pleasant change to see it all bathed in sunlight. I headed up to Green Tor and ate lunch there; a convenient seat shaped stone was a perfect chair and the views were wonderful.

It was just as well that I had eaten as I needed every reserve of energy for the tussocky walk to Kitty Tor. Unfortunately I saw Hunt Tor which I had visited already and spent some time heading that way by mistake. Hence my line to Kitty Tor was rather a dog leg. Eventually reaching Kitty Tor, I discovered some tracks heading roughly the right way to Steng-a-Tor – these were welcome as the terrain here is unforgiving without the aid of tracks or animal paths. This was a much easier approach to Steng-a-Tor than the one from Sandy Ford on the Dartmoor Perambulation. Of course the ground around the tor was boggy as usual. I have been there three times previously all in summer and never seen anyone else – today there were two people there who commented on the bogginess of the ground.

The next couple of kilometres to Branscombe’s Loaf were over mainly pathless tussocks, alleviated by an occasional animal track. It was difficult to walk along a bearing because of the temptation to utilise anything that looked like a path. The tor was eventually visible. However it took almost forty minutes to get between the two tors. A couple arriving from the opposite direction arrived just before me and promptly scaled the rocks and sat on the summit. This made any photograph awkward as they would be in the picture, so I compromised by taking a picture from a distance after leaving the tor.

I had a relatively easy descent to Shelstone Tor – my final tor of the day. It was still sunny but getting cooler as I headed towards the prominent track back to the reservoir. Somehow I even missed the right fork in the path directly to the reservoir and walked two sides of the triangle back to my car. I was delighted to have visited nineteen tors, three more than I had originally planned, all in such perfect weather.