Friday 24 May 2013

Belstone Tor

Continuing from our holiday in Cornwall, we'd travelled a little North to stop with some friends of Peter's on a wonderful farm in Devon.  We were very well looked after there.  So well in fact, we didn't leave till late morning.
We'd planned a short walk from Belstone to Belstone Tor and back.  Only five miles,(because we'd have a long drive afterwards),  but this would be my first experience of Dartmoor, and I was really looking forward to it.
Dartmoor didn't disappoint:

Nine Maiden stone circle
The Logan Stone and the Irishman's Wall
Higher Tor
Wind Carving
Oke Tor

More rocks at Oke Tor
This area is owned by the MOD and used for training.  As we sat at ate our lunch at Oke Tor, we heard several bouts of automatic gunfire.  The noise continued and the firing sounded quite close.  I looked around for the red warning flags that would've have told us we shouldn't be there.  There weren't any, (so we hadn't missed them), and we could only assume we were safe.  But the noise was quite unnerving, and probably hastened our decision that it was time to leave.

Looking across to South Tawton Common

<< Mulder n Scully could base a whole episode on this lot. This area is owned by the MOD.  I wonder what went on here?

Sadly, this was the last day of our holiday.  But we have had a fantastic few days, and would very very gladly do it all over again.

Map of the route        >>


Many thanks to Sylvia and Rod for making us so welcome and looking after us so wonderfully well. 

4 comments:

  1. So pleased that you enjoyed your walk over Belstone Tor Tracey. . . but oh dear! . . . so sorry that you were driven away by the noisy firing practice! Every time we have been up there it has been so peaceful and beautiful, but I have heard others say that it can be noisy. . . and we were so disappointed that it spoiled your walk!

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    1. Thanks Sylvia, but don't worry, it didn't spoil the walk at all, it just made us get up from lunch, (wonderful sandwiches by the way) a little sooner. Thank you again for looking after us so well. :-)

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  2. For some reason, and I'm not quite sure why, the sound of nearby gunfire would be enough to get me heading for home! :-)

    Looks interesting. I'm not particularly familiar with Dartmoor, but it always seems to produce an intriguing blog post. Perhaps we should give it a go.

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  3. So glad you enjoyed Dartmoor! Belstone Common is one of my favourite walks. :-)

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