Tuesday 20th March Belstone

A gloomy day on Dartmoor.  We walked through the picturesque village of Belstone and out on to the moor.

Our first stop was the Nine Maidens - the remains of a Bronze Age burial site.

A short distance then to Scarey Tor (87) - it's not and no idea why it got the name.

Down to  Gullivers Steps and the paved ford.  Paved in the eighteenth century by the army so that horses could draw gun carriages through the water.  Without these the cobbles the carriages would have gouged deep ruts in the river bed.

 Nearby is this boundary stone with the initials OPB marking the spot where Okehampton and Belstone parishes meet on the line of the old "Forest of Dartmoor" boundary.

 We followed the very old military road alongside the Black-a-ven Brook.













Along the military road with Oke Tor and Steeperton Tor in the distance...

...and up to Oke Tor (88)

It now being the start of the picnic season we stopped on the side of Oke Tor for an early lunch...

..but by the time we had finished it was feeling colder and with the wind on the ridge extra clothing and gloves were necessary.  In the middle distance Knattborough Tor (89)....

..not much of a tor at all really

A short distance to Winter Tor (90)....

...Higher Tor (91) was just up the hill

With to Belstone Tor (92) along the ridge past Irishman's Wall in the foreground.

 Finally down to the appropriately named Tors End (93)

Then back into the village of Belstone past a tractor which has seen much better days!

A seat where the wooden boards have been  removed - they have been neatly sawed through so probably the result of the health and safety police - vandals would just have smashed it up!

A memorial to Winston Churchill.

And the village stocks!














On today's walk Charlie, Roger, Carol, Colin, Amber, Terry and Rosemary.