There are a few walks I look forward to every year. The bluebell walk (tick on that for this year here), a snowy walk in the winter (all the snow on Dartmoor was in lockdown so I missed all of that) and a sunset walk. Time to tick that last one off for this year. I always head towards the western side of the moor and in particular the Cox Tor/Pew Tor area. I decided on this walk to head over the Staple Tors to Roos Tor, then on to Cox Tor and back to the car. That way I could watch the sun setting as I descended Cox Tor. As it was, when I arrived, there was a bank of cloud to the west making a nuisance of itself. The whole drive there had been in sunshine, surely I couldn’t be so unlucky.

For a week every night had been great sunsets, however I couldn’t walk any earlier than I did as I needed to wait until at least a week before the solstice, because that’s when the sun sets right on Brent Tor. On reaching Roos Tor, I changed my route because of the cloud, instead heading for Merrivale quarry to give the cloud time to clear and see a different view. Did it work, of course it did and then some. Normally I don’t like having too many people around me on walks, but at the end of this I stood amongst people saying wow, over and over again, loving sharing a simple experience with strangers. Talking to them on how around the 21st June the sun sets on the tor from this angle. I always say every year not to spread the news about this too far, but after this last year of being chained to our living rooms, tell the world, get everyone out here for their mental health, its fantastic.

Start – Merrivale parking

Route – Little Staple Tor – Middle Staple Tor – Great Staple Tor – Roos Tor – Merrivale Quarry – Car park sunset

Distance – 3.5 miles    Start time – 7.30pm    Time taken – 2hrs Highest Point – Great Staple Tor 455 metres

Weather – Cloudy to start and then the sunset