The weather in the south west continues to disappoint. Day after day of rain driven in by strong winds have been the pattern since November and especially since the New Year. To be fair Dartmoor resembles more of a water park than a National park with the amount of puddles and running streams everywhere. Saturday, they said. would be dry. Then they said it would be just dry in the afternoon, so we headed out at 1.30pm from the house in the direction of Princetown. On the drive it was still raining and now they were saying it would be 3pm before it went sunny. My eldest quipped that he’d forgotten his sun cream, and we needed to go back, as the rain pummelled the windows as I pulled into Four Winds car park. I did a little sun dance as I put my boots on hoping that the weather would improve. We set out in a very strong wind and it drizzled as we walked to Merrivale stone row, it continued as we passed Longash Tor and then the miracle happened, the wind pushed the clouds away at 40mph and replaced it with sunshine. Moods improved as we dried out and we fought the wind on top of Kings Tor, leaning as far as we dared into the gales!! A brilliant little walk
| Start – Great Mis Tor parking |
| Route – Merrivale Stone Circle and Row – Longash Tor – Hucken Tor – Little Kings Tor – Kings Tor – Great Mis Tor parking |
| Distance – 2 1/2 miles Start time – 2.15pm Time taken – 1hr 30mins Highest Point – Kings Tor 380metres |
| Weather – Very strong winds and driving drizzle to start then ping out came the sun but the wind kept blowing |
© Crown copyright 2017 Ordnance Survey FL 2017 SF
Soggy Dartmoor and a dull Kings Tor
These two aren’t very happy to be out in the rain. Even Merrivale Stone Row fails to brighten things.
The nearby cist, full of rain water
The little man has some homework about solids, liquids and gases. Here is the solid part (tick) and the liquid part is at the base (tick). In fact we found plenty of deep puddles which he took photos of, plus some gas bottles at the nearby farm which counted for the gas bit as well
Longash Tor with a murky Vixen Tor beyond. The boys are off down to the track below
The track to the farm where we found the gas bottles. We head through the farm, across a stream and then upwards to Hucken Tor
Vixen Tor, at least it has stopped raining, however……..
Its like someone has flicked a switch. Bang, blue skies and sunshine on Hucken Tor. Taken 5 minutes after the last photo
A sunny Vixen Tor beyond Hucken Tor. Heckwood Tor up to the left
The boys are off to Little Kings Tor and Kings Tor
Bright sun to the south as I look along the Walkham Valley
Walking up to Kings Tor I look back across to the Staple Tors and Roos Tor. Little Kings Tor to the left
Kings Tor
Great views from here down to Merrivale, the quarry and the Staple Tors
Swell Tor to the left (not today though), with Sharpitor and Leather Tor to the right behind
The huge scar of Foggintor quarry from Kings Tor
Great Mis Tor up to the right, the upper Walkham Valley to the left
As you can see the wind was still blowing. This is another of the homework pictures showing gas!!!
Heading for the tress straight ahead at Four Winds
A far better picture of Kings Tor than the first picture of this set. As the sun starts to set to the right
treksandtors 
Wonderful antiquities.
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Hmmm, I timed it badly. That sunny weather arrived while I was down by the River Taw. I walked in that nastiness for four hours. I needed a dry-suit. All good fun though, sort of. 😀
That looks like another excellent short walk. One of the things I’m learning about a Dartmoor is the huge variety of walks, long, short, tours, moorland, valleys, forests, rivers lakes.
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To be honest with the boys, they aren’t always happy with 6 or more miles. So I’m being inventive and picking shorter, more suitable walks for them. The longer walks are for me!! Lots of stuff to see
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Lovely light once the weather improved. Bet you were glad you persevered.
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Absolutely. I was hoping that it was coming, but with the weather recently down here I couldn’t be sure. Then bang the sun was on us
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