Walking on South East Dartmoor

A short two-night break at Ashburton enabled us to have a couple of walks in a part of Dartmoor that we are visit infrequently. An enjoyable sojourn.

Walk 1 (bottom left), just under 5 miles, took us from New Bridge on the Dart up around Aish Tor, along Dr Blackall's Drive and then back down to the river for a finishing leg along its bank. Walk 2, around 6 miles, involved a few tors (Rippon, Pill, Top, Hollow) and Buckland Beacon with its carved Ten Commandments stone. 

Autumn is coming and the trees are starting to shed their leaves. Not at their best colour yet but not far off.

Looking west from the side of Aish Tor. The folds of the meandering River Dart can be clearly seen.

At the top of Rippon Tor looking south. The keen eyed can see the Teign Estuary just to the top left of the rocks in the foreground. Perhaps it's 15 miles to the sea at Teignmouth from here.

Looking down from Top Tor towards the church at Widecombe-in-the-Moor. We had a meal there in the evening at the Rugglestone Inn. 

From Hollow Tor, looking over the browning bracken towards the moor around Princetown. Wonderful views like this all the way on this walk and, most of the time, not spoilt by the rain clouds.

The cluster of buildings which make up Bowden Farm. We think it's a long-house, with a cross passage separating the people (under the thatch) from the animals down the slope in the rest. There's clearly been some modifications made and additions built on but the core of the mediaeval farmstead can still be discerned. 

Some serious stone-walling on either side of the green lane leading from Bowden Farm up onto the moor. For many generations this track has functioned as a drove road for farmers bringing their stock up to graze on the high pasture from further down the valley around Buckland-in-the-Moor.

The delightful little church of St Peter's at Buckland-in-the-Moor. Dating from around 1100, it's a typical moorland church in a sublime setting. Can you notice anything unusual about the clock face?

St Peter's still retains its original 15th Century painted rood screen. This is one of the very few we've come across that you can climb up the rood steps in the wall of the church to see the broad top of the screen. 

The screen has some magnificent carvings and, on the congregation side, the lower panels are covered in these paintings of saints and dignitaries. Although much faded now, their original colours must have been very bright. On the reverse of the panels, obscured by the pews, are painted 'grotesques' - mythological creatures and the like. I don't think they have any religious significance but were the fashion for a period.

And the clock face? Look closely and you'll see 'My dear mother' inscribed instead of the usual numbers. Nothing mysterious about the origin of these as they date from the 1930s and were placed there at the behest of the local squire in memory of his mother. The same squire was responsible for the carving of the Ten Commandments on the eponymous stones on the nearby Buckland Beacon. Actually there are eleven verses carved there as the mason had some spare space to fill. Although the carvings were re-incised about twenty years ago, they are suffering from significant erosion now.