Sunday 27th October Powdermills

The day before the storm?  Well dank and grey with strong wind and heavy showers.  I set off up the track from the quarry by Two Bridges.

Then over to Crockern Tor.

This was the site of the ancient stannary parliament....

Longford Tor and Higher White Tor in the distance - I followed this wall before.....

....turning right to go down to find the track through the bog.

The track I was looking for is not marked on the OS map but I have walked up it once before. Several attempts to find it failed and I came back up to this bank of clitter.  I followed this to the end...

 ...and then I found the track - a solid path in a desolate area of wet bog.

Soon I was at Powdermills.  A disused gunpowder factory.

I crossed the Cherry Brook and headed up to one of the old buildings.  The buildings  were well spread out.

The gunpowder was needed for the many mines on Dartmoor during the 18th and early 19th centuries.

 The buildings were of very solid granite but they had very thin roofs so that in the event of an explosion the only damage would be to the roof and not the rest of the building.

 The walls were certainly very substantial.

Next I was heading back up to the higher ground and Higher White Tor.

But, first back across the Cherry Brook but this time no bridge - I found a suitable crossing point and...

...up the hill to the wall junction with two stiles and...

...just above this is Higher White Tor.  Longaford Tor is in the distance.  There was a really heavy shower here and an incredibly strong wind on the ridge.

 

 This was the easy part Littaford Tors ahead.

Looking back.

Then down to the car park.  By now my waterproofs had completely dried out in the strong wind.  this was a recee for another day.  It won't work for the planned evening walk but it might another time for a daytime walk.