We spent today on the Moor. Initially, we drove to Moretonhampstead and had a coffee. Spoke to the man in the coffee shop who gave us information on how to get to Grimspound.
Grimspound is amazing. It’s a late Bronze Age settlement dated around 1300 BC. It contains 24 hut circles and is surrounded by a massive granite perimeter wall, which is believed may have stood at 1.7 metres in places. The roundhouses, with an average diameter of 3.4 metres, were each built of a double ring of granite slabs with a rubble infill - a technique still used in Dry-stone walling. One hut has a surviving porchway, with the two jamb stones still upright, although the lintel has fallen. The entire site measures at the widest point 132 metres by 155 metres and nestles between the high points of Hockney Tor and Hameldown Tor at a height of about 458 metres above sea level. It is generally believed that the pound was the home of a farming community rather than being built from a defensive point of view.
Initially, we walked to Hookney Tor which was pretty amazing in itself. The granite rocks here are nothing like we know them back home (although in some ways they are not unlike the pancake rocks found in Kakadu National Park). The Tor overlooks Grimspound and from here it looks like a ring of rocks. When you get to the pound that all changes when you start exploring the hut circles. While they’re all in ruins (of course) it is still amazing that these are the remains of human dwellings over 3,300 years old.
We wandered around, exploring, for quite a while (and were visited by some Dartmoor Ponies) before making our way back to the road. Found more highland cattle near the road. While they look ferocious with their huge horns they appear such docile animals without a care in the world.
For lunch, we travelled along the road to the Warren House Inn, another pretty amazing spot. It’s out in the middle of nowhere and claims to be the 3rd highest pub in England. The fact that that is only 434 metres above sea level indicates (I guess) that there are not too many high areas in England. This particular pub has been here since 1845. The original pub across the road was burnt down and it was probably built in the middle of the 18th century, certainly well before a turnpike road was created in 1792. The fire in the hearth, it is rumoured, has never been allowed to go out and has itself become part of the folklore of the inn. It is said that when the inn was rebuilt, the glowing embers of the fire were carried across the road on a shovel to the new hearth.
There were lots of photos on the wall of the pub being snowed in 1963. They were cut off for 12 weeks and supplies had to be carried in by helicopter.
Lunch was good, Jill a burger without the bun and I had fish and chips (and salad and peas - they like their peas in England). Considering they run a generator to do everything the pub was a very pleasant little spot.
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| Hockney Tor |
Initially, we walked to Hookney Tor which was pretty amazing in itself. The granite rocks here are nothing like we know them back home (although in some ways they are not unlike the pancake rocks found in Kakadu National Park). The Tor overlooks Grimspound and from here it looks like a ring of rocks. When you get to the pound that all changes when you start exploring the hut circles. While they’re all in ruins (of course) it is still amazing that these are the remains of human dwellings over 3,300 years old.
We wandered around, exploring, for quite a while (and were visited by some Dartmoor Ponies) before making our way back to the road. Found more highland cattle near the road. While they look ferocious with their huge horns they appear such docile animals without a care in the world.
For lunch, we travelled along the road to the Warren House Inn, another pretty amazing spot. It’s out in the middle of nowhere and claims to be the 3rd highest pub in England. The fact that that is only 434 metres above sea level indicates (I guess) that there are not too many high areas in England. This particular pub has been here since 1845. The original pub across the road was burnt down and it was probably built in the middle of the 18th century, certainly well before a turnpike road was created in 1792. The fire in the hearth, it is rumoured, has never been allowed to go out and has itself become part of the folklore of the inn. It is said that when the inn was rebuilt, the glowing embers of the fire were carried across the road on a shovel to the new hearth.
There were lots of photos on the wall of the pub being snowed in 1963. They were cut off for 12 weeks and supplies had to be carried in by helicopter.
Lunch was good, Jill a burger without the bun and I had fish and chips (and salad and peas - they like their peas in England). Considering they run a generator to do everything the pub was a very pleasant little spot.
After lunch, we went for another walk on the moor starting from Bennett's Cross. The origin of its name is not known but in 1902, William Crossing, a well-known writer about Dartmoor, reported that it is mentioned in a document of 1702, where it is referred to in such a way as to indicate that it was already well-known. It has been suggested that it may have been erected by the monks of a local Benedictine Order ("Bennet" was a common corruption of "Benedict") or it may be named after William Bennet, who was a miner who attended a Stannary Parliament on Crockern Tor in the early 16th century. There are lots of beautiful pink/purple heather and yellow gorse. We also found a lot of wild blueberries which were edible – Jill says delicious but they were a bit sour in my opinion.
From here we could see where they were doing an archeological dig. This morning’s coffee man had told us that they had just made the most significant find in the past 100 years – prehistoric jewellery and pottery.
Back to Dunsford via Whiddon Down – the closest petrol station open on a Sunday.
Back to Dunsford via Whiddon Down – the closest petrol station open on a Sunday.
