Lets start with a positives, the weather was glorious on this walk. I started out with a baselayer, a t shirt and a fleece and finished in just the baselayer as the temperature rose during the day. The sun was out, hardly any wind and I got a bit of a tan, it was great weather to be out. Then there is the history, you have stone rows coming out of your ears on this walk, 4 of them to be exact. Now when you think of the worlds biggest, or longest, or highest of something, I doubt that Dartmoor would spring to mind for many. But there is a stone row, Staldon, that is said to be the longest in the world. At a little over two miles in length, it starts at the stone circle behind Stalldown Barrow and runs north to finish at Green Hill. It crosses the River Erme and plenty of other streams along the way and is a magnificent example of man 5000 years ago.
That said the walking was as tough as I can remember on the outward leg, the area behind Stalldown Barrow is very tussocky, like walking on balls sticking up out of the ground. Bad for the ankles. Then there was the boggy ground, twice I went in knee deep, stepping on what looked like firm ground which turned out to be pretty much water. It is pretty pathless out the back and it wasn’t until I reached Quickbeam Hill on the return that I finally was able to pick up the pace. That said these 12 or so miles are as good as I’ve had on Dartmoor, its a fab place
| Start – Harford parking |
| Route – Harford – Harford Church – Harford bridge – Tristis Rocks – Burford Stone Row – Stalldown Stone Row – Stalldown Barrow – Hillson’s House – Staldon Stone Row – Stingers Hill – Drylake Ford– Black Rocks – Wollake Tor – Redlake Ford – Quickbeam Hill – Zeal Tramway – Leftlake – Three Barrows – Sharp Tor – Piles Hill – Butterdon Stone Row – Hobajons Cross – Harford parking |
| Distance – 12.5 miles Start time – 10.15am Time taken – 6hrs 30mins Highest Point – Quickbeam Hill 467metres |
| Weather – Cloud to start, then sun, hardly any wind, glorious |
© Crown copyright 2017 Ordnance Survey FL 2017 SF
Blue skies beyond Harford Gate
Tristis Rock can be seen on the hillside by the copse of trees over there. I’m heading there first. Between me and it is the River Erme, so I drop down to Harford and the bridge
Past Harford church
And across this bridge in Harford village
Once over the bridge you following a marked footpath along the Erme, through the trees and then steeply up to here, which is Tristis Rocks. The view is north along the Erme valley
Burford Stone Row is by Tristis Rock, its the first of 4 today and easily the least impressive. Stalldown Barrow is the bulk behind, my next target
Looking back down from the climb up Stalldown Barrow
Views to the sea and Plymouth Sound from here
Stalldown Stone Row, now this is one of the best rows on Dartmoor, the stones are at least 1.5 metres tall and in places they are higher
You get glimpses of the terrain behind Stalldown Barrow from here
The summit of Stalldown Barrow is marked by Hillson’s House
You can see the weir on the river Erme down below as I descend down the back of Stalldown. I was also looking at Leftlake from here (the bumps above the weir) and wishing I was over that way, at this point I probably had around 8 miles from where I am now to that point
Tussocky and rough. The terrain behind Stalldown
I love the sky in this photo as the river Erme wiggles between Stalldown right and Sharp Tor left
This stone circle is called The Dancers, after the 26 maidens that came to party and dance here on a Sunday. God struck them with lightning, turning them to stone on the spot. From here starts the longest stone row in the world
And on it runs, northwards to Green Hill which can’t yet be seen
Part way along is this cairn as I look back to Stalldown
Erme Pound is across the river showing how popular this place was 5000 years ago
As I climb Stingers Hill, Redlake comes into view
My bag marks the top of Stingers Hill, the dip in the distance is Erme pits, the tin mine from many years ago
Three Barrows is the lump, it looks a long way away from here
This is a short section of the Abbots Way, Erme Pits on the left
This is Philpotts cave on Black Rocks
There is some argument over where Black Rocks actually is. Some sites says it is those rocks over there on the bank. William Crossing the maestro on Dartmoor (memorial at Ducks Pool nearby) says it is on the eastern bank of the Wollake, which is these rocks right here
This is Drylake, I cross this and head for the hill to the left which is Quickbeam Hill
Wowsers
As I climb Quickbeam Hill I get another look at Redlake, I did think about going there today as well as Green Hill but the boggy ground between the two put me off
Redlake Tramway and Three Barrows to the right, my pace picked up along here
Lunch stop with a view to Plymouth Sound
These are the settling pits for the clay on Quickbeam Hill, as you walk the Zeal Tramway you will see evidence of the clay pipe that runs to Leftlake
Stalldown Barrow and part of the clay pipe in the foreground
Leftlake and Three Barrows behind
The tramway bridge at Leftlake
Just glorious now, that’s the Tramway down there as I climb up to Three Barrows
Three Barrows looking south
Heading down to Sharp Tor and some darker skies to the south
On Piles Hill looking back up to Sharp Tor left and Three Barrows centre
The start of the Butterdon Stone Row is at Piles Hill
Hobajons Cross is part of the stone row as well. This was my fourth and last stone row of the day
The Harford reservoir in the trees to my left as I walk to the car. The last time I was here was just 3 weeks ago, in a blizzard and about 25 degrees C colder!!!!
treksandtors 
Glorious walk, tussocks are wonderful terrain to walk on 🤔
Nice to see some sunshine as well, beginning to forget what it looks like
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It was great to have the decent weather. And now they say the heat wave is coming!!
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Blimey, the skies changed a great deal during the course of your walk. That mackerel sky is amazing, very atmospheric. I’m afraid I’d never heard of Stone Rows before I read this post. Fascinating.
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Dartmoor has some absolute cracking stone rows. There;s the Cosdon triple stone row up in the north, the ones at Drizzlecombe and my favourite the Down Tor stone row, plus these 4. I’ve been to 15 of them on Dartmoor so far and there are more out there!!
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