Dartmoor Weekend

12 – 14 June 2026

I saved this weekend to supervise a D of E expedition which was cancelled, but nonetheless I was keen to spend some time on Dartmoor, partly to test out a new 65 litre rucksack. Hence it definitely needed to be an expedition with a tent! However, as it turned out to be a self-indulgent weekend away rather than a volunteering weekend, it had to fit between my other volunteer roles – toddler group on Friday morning and “story and song” (an under fives group at a local elderly residential home) on Monday morning. I was warned but I never believed retirement would be so busy!

So I left Exeter on Friday afternoon. I had decided to take what was for me a new route on to the moor after leaving Ivybridge Station. Rather than climbing on to the Two Moors Way near Western Beacon, I crossed to the west bank of the River Erme in Ivybridge and followed the Dartmoor Way route along a scenic, wooded and increasingly less busy riverside path.

I emerged from the woods and reached Kings Barn as well as Kings Barn Rock – not on the LDWA tor list but nonetheless a significantly sized rock pile.

Soon I was walking on narrow lanes, passing Hall Cross and then Wisdome Farm which appeared to be an old fortified farm – at least I spotted what I thought was an arrow slit.

Wisdome bridge, marked as a historical site on the OS map, is scenic. This was all a new route for me that I had never previously explored.

Eventually I reached the open moor at East Rook Gate and climbed over Penn Beacon and Shell Top, where I have walked previously. I climbed further to the trig point at 492m then began my descent over tussocky ground to Shavercombe Tor.

I’ve camped very close to the brook previously but this time it was very overgrown so I found a flat grassy area nearer to the stones, not apparently disturbing any nearby sheep. I was very fortunate that the risk of rain all weekend was low.

The next morning I packed an almost dry tent – some wind dried off most of the condensation. I headed for Hen Tor and then a convoluted route over Lee Mooor to avoid cattle (successfully), tussocks (not successfully) and holes in the ground (I spotted and avoided putting by foot into them).

Eventually I reached Hexton Tor – that turned out to be my only “new” tor on the LDWA list to bag all weekend.

I omitted the small diversion to Shadyback Tor after all the faffing around avoiding cattle but I did spot some of the Neolithic remains on Trowlesworthy Warren.

Reaching the track near the River Meavy there were people around and lots more as expected near Cadover Bridge and a car park.

I had rejoined the Dartmoor Way which I attempted to follow all the way to Horrabridge. Again this was a new area for me to walk.

I spotted West Down Tor near the path but didn’t deviate from the path to visit Shaugh Beacon. I walked through the car park and past the brick kiln at Shaugh Bridge then reached the place where the Dartmoor Way crosses a minor road. Unfortunately I missed the path and ended up on the cycle path which is the route of an old railway line.

I regained the Dartmoor Way where it crosses the next minor road and ended up at Yelverton where I was tempted and bought a welcome bacon roll to augment the food I was carrying.

Soon I arrived at Horrabridge where I left the Dartmoor Way as it wends its way further north and west via Tavistock. I headed north east through the village and attempted to follow some footpaths going straight to Sampford Spiney. Unfortunately some of the paths were extremely overgrown and I diverted to a road at one point. However, eventually I regained the footpath and reached Sampford Spiney. I’ve been there recently so I didn’t try to visit the church this time.

I was on known ground and followed minor roads plus a short byway to reach the moor at Walkhampton Common. It was a familiar stroll across the moor following the Dartmoor Way High Moor Link to Princetown.

I was tired – but little wonder as I had walked over 32km according to my GPS on what had turned out to be a warm day. The camping field at the Plume of Feathers has reopened and that was where I camped for a very reasonable fee. I had to ensure I had 4g signal as we had a family Zoom meeting that evening to discuss our upcoming holiday in Shetland (with my daughter, son-in-law and his parents as well as my husband). The beer was good too – Dartmoor brewery of course!

I was away early the next morning on another dry and sunny day – but not as early as the minibus from Bristol Grammar School – it looked like supervisors in the bus and there weren’t any groups of teenagers at the campsite so I guess the students were camping elsewhere.

Most of my planned walk was over open high moorland with few paths – in contrast to the riverside valley walks earlier in the weekend.

I was on well known terrain over North Hessary Tor, down to the road at Rundlestone and to the summit of Great Mis Tor. My only problem was with cattle and meant that I took a dogleg route up Great Mis, passing close to Little Mis. Great Mis on a clear day is a superb vantage point.

I descended, again giving some cattle a wide berth, to ford the River Walkham close to Dead Lake Foot.

I omitted a small diversion to Clay Tor and climbed to White Barrow.

From White Barrow, I had to deviate to the east to avoid more cattle. In the clear conditions, I could see Limsboro Cairn in the distance and Lynch Tor follows a very short distance after.

I could see Fur Tor from Lynch Tor and made a beeline for it. However my eventual route was more wiggly as I tried to minimise my descent into the Tavy Valley and also avoid the worse of the tussocks and bogs.

At Fur Tor there was a single walker who had started from the Beardown Farm area and a group of four who had been camping and I would meet later on the train from Okehampton. They were the first people I had seen since leaving Princetown, even on such a beautiful Sunday morning.

After a quick lunch break whilst admiring the view, I headed off towards Cranmere Pool Letter Box. This was hard work on heavily vegetated pathless ground without the benefit of many animal tracks.

Eventually I arrived at the letter box and signed the book. In fact I spotted a box just above the traditional box – there had been concern that some work to improve water flow to Cranmere Pool would make the old box temporarily difficult to access.

The path from Cranmere Pool wasn’t clear so took longer than I had hoped; not only was the path difficult to follow but there were yet more cattle to avoid.

Having reached the Okehampton range track, I knew that the final few kilometres would be relatively easy and fast. I realised that I was on target for the 18.32 train, as long as I kept a steady pace. Much of the route was downhill too. I decided that the diversions to Ashbury Tor and Fatherford Rocks would have to wait for a future visit.

I made it with just over fifteen minutes to spare. I was tired and my GPS registered over 29km of walking (much was hard work on pathless terrain too). The four men who I had seen at Fur Tor emerged from a side turning having taken a different route. I chatted to them on the train and they also had crossed the moor starting from Ivybridge on Friday and camping. They said that there was no way that they would have managed to continue walking the next day – and they were active post graduate students in their 20s. Meanwhile, I felt that I would have been happy to walk the next day but of course didn’t mention it to them!

A positive but tiring weekend of walking, testing my fitness with a heavy pack and including several parts of Dartmoor that I hadn’t previously visited.