Merrivale Walk

October 20th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

Since it became a National Park in 1951 Dartmoor has been popular with walkers and pony-trekkers but, in practice, you can walk all day without seeing another human being. As you pick your way across tussocks of grass and apparently random boulders, it is easy to imagine the landscape has remained more or less unchanged […]

When You Get Home (Merrivale)

October 20th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

One of the pleasures of walking is observing unfamiliar creatures; there is, however, little sign of wildlife on Dartmoor and few birds, just the odd buzzard glimpsed high above Staples tors. This dearth is unexpected given the lack of human habitation hereabouts. Merrivale Warren and the nearby Conies Down sound promising but there are few […]

Winterbourne Abbas Walk One

October 1st, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

WINTERBOURNE ABBAS    Walk One Route:   Winterbourne Abbas – Winterbourne St Martin – Hampton Stone Circle – Little Bredy – Winterbourne Abbas Length:  c. 12 miles     The best map is OS Explorer OL15 (1:25,000 scale) otherwise use Landranger 194 (1:50,000). This walk can be combined with the last part (reversed) of Winterbourne […]

Winterbourne Abbas Walk Two

October 1st, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

WINTERBOURNE ABBAS  Walk  Two   Route:  Winterbourne Abbas – Martin’s Down – Kingston Russell stone circle – Little Bredy – Winterbourne Abbas Length:  c. 11 miles                 Inset of Chesil Beach                                   […]

When You Get Home (Dorset)

October 1st, 2012 § 7 comments § permalink

When You Get Home   Often the best way to proceed is to select the most interesting place from the walk and then use a stream-of-consciousness technique to move through the various layers until something sparks a connection, which may be ancient lore or reveal carefully ignored territory. Most often it will just be rediscovering […]