Moretonhampstead, Meldon Hill and Ausewell Rocks

This was a series of walks to get nearer to finishing off my list of Dartmoor Tors. To be honest it will always be the way when bagging hills on a list. There’s always a few at the end that need tidying up, I don’t apologise for this series of parking and bagging of the tops, although now I’m a bit more knowledgeable about the area I should be able to link most of them in one walk. Once I’d bagged three summits I headed for Meldon Hill where I did a nice round to collect another two tops. Before driving back home and stopping off to bag Ausewell Rocks. I’m never sure if this one is on private land, some days there’s a sign, sometimes not. I went for it as it was a very quiet Sunday, near to dusk. The first set of pictures below are from the three tops I bagged first, before going on to the Meldon Hill walk and finally Ausewell Rocks. Just 9 to go now

Start – Various

Route – Blackingstone Rock – Heltor Rock – Roadside B3212 – Hingston Rocks

Distance – Not much to each of them Start time – n/a Time taken – n/a Highest Point – Blackingstone Rock 345metres

Weather – A bit grey really

Blackingstone Rock looks imposing from the car park

A grassy path loops you around the rock before you get to this point, a quick scramble up the rock to the stairway to heaven!!

That’s Heltor Rock, I’ll be there shortly

Dartmoor proper is under a bit of low cloud on this grey day

Here I am on the short path up to Heltor Rock

Good views across the East Devon fields

The thimble looking one is Blackingstone Rock, a silhouette on the skyline

After a bit of driving around I found a spot to park near to the stile and permitted path to Hingston Rocks. This is an out and back route and you can’t go any other way that I can find. This is the second stile which takes you up the short hill through the bracken

Follow these markers up the hill, although in summer the bracken will probably cover all this, so come in winter/early spring

Good views to Moretonhampstead from the summit rocks

Hingston Rocks to a cloudy Dartmoor

Start – Meldon Hill parking

Route – Meldon Hill – Padley Common – edge of Chagford – Nattadon Tor – Nattadon Common – Weddicott Cross – Weddicott – Meldon Hill parking – drive to Ausewell Cross – Ausewell Rocks

Distance – 3 miles Start time – 1.10pm Time taken – 1hr 50 min Highest Point – Meldon Hill 390metres

Weather – A bit grey really

© Crown copyright 2016 Ordnance Survey FL 2016 SF

The path up to Meldon Hill

Decent views across to Fernworthy forest on the way up

Chagford from the summit of Meldon Hill

The summit trig is over there, with Fernworthy beyond

To the south all the tors around King Tor and Easdon Tor

Cosdon Hill stands out to the north west

Unmistakable Haytor is also seen beyond Easdon Tor left

Meldon trig point to Cosdon Hill

Christmas leftovers and a coffee, yummy!!

Heading down towards Chagford now, looking across to Fernworthy forest again

The path down from Meldon Hill was muddy in places and I’m now on the steep climb to Nattadon Tor, here looking back across to Meldon Hill

Nattadon Tor looking down to Chagford with Cosdon Hill beyond

I’m at the top of Nattadon Common (the tor isn’t at the summit its on the northern side) looking to Meldon Hill

Now heading around the lanes to get to the left hand edge of Meldon Hill over there

Heading for Weddicott

These two are entering ‘horns of the year’ in a few weeks!!!! Fine looking fellows

After a quick drive south and a short walk through the woods I reached Ausewell Rocks, being deep in woodland I hadn’t a clue what to expect, but they were fairly big for a tor and had very loose rocks on them. Time for a scramble up!!