The promise of some nice sunshine, warm weather, but not too warm. Perfect for walking and I figured a good time to head out along the River Erme. Parking at Harford Gate still appears to closed off and as it was Sunday I figured parking on the road at the church might be a bit cheeky. So I headed to Cornwood, this makes the walk in a bit further and as a result I don’t get up as far into Dartmoor. However its not a worry as the majority of the highlights in this area are south of Erme Pound, which is were I turned and headed back. The stone rows come thick and fast around here, Stalldown Barrow has a great one, the longest one in the world (Staldon stone row) starts at The Dancers (stone circle) and I only did part of it on this walk. Then there is one at Erme Pound itself plus another on Burford Down, which isn’t quite as good. The final part of this walk was along the lanes back to Cornwood, passing Hall Farm and one of my last three Dartmoor 365 squares. Just 2 to do now, The Walla Brook and William Donaghy, so another list is coming to a close, so I need to have a think about what else I can do around Dartmoor. The 365 is such a superb way to see all of the moor, it certainly deserves another go at it, simply to visit the places knowing I’m doing the Dartmoor 365. This first go I went to about half of the squares as part of ticking off my tors list or on other walks a while ago so maybe they all deserve another proper visit, plus it gives me some great winter walks along lanes. I still have the coastal path to keep chipping away at, and the Wainwrights when up in the Lakes. Alongside that I’ve got a bit behind on my website updates anyway, about 3 weeks (and 3 walks) as I type this. I’m off to the Lakes again in a week or so, which usually pushes me back as well!! The main reason for the slow updates has been some improvements to my site as a whole that I’ve been engrossed in. I’ve added maps to each of the Dartmoor Tors pages, alongside the bridges and buildings pages, marking each of the 500 tors on a google map or the buildings and bridges, so it makes things easier to find for us all. More of these maps to come on the parking pages, historic and probably one for the Dartmoor 365 page as well. I have to thank Melodie and her hiking part of her website for giving me the idea.
Right so its fairly early and I’m parked up, booted and ready to go. The sun is shining and its fairly warm already, I slap on some suncream and head off along the road towards CornwoodJust to Cornwood, not London!Cornwood was fairly quiet at 9.30 on a Sunday morning so I was quickly along the lane to Wisdome BridgeHeading slowly uphill along the lanes helps to gain some height easily, the butterflies were out in the sunshine, including this CommaI’d meant to do a walk in this area to check out parking options after Harford Gate car park was closed in 2021 (can only hope this decision is reversed as it makes access to the area behind Stalldown difficult to access. This is the lane to New Waste and as you can see you’ll get one car (possibly two) where the red one is up there.\, about 500 metres from the New Waste gateLooking across to Penn Beacon, as I head into the edge of Dartmoor proper the cloud builds a little overheadClimbing up the side of Stalldown Barrow towards the first of my stone rows. Views to Plymouth Sound from up hereStalldown Barrow Stone Row, lots of large upright stones on this one so its one of the better rows on the moorThe way I am heading, out the back of Stalldown Barrow is tough walking, lots of tufty grass and boggy in places. Those with a keen eye will see the dimple in the distance which is Redlake. Not going that far todayNow I’ve been this way twice now and both times I’ve handrailed the River at this point, (notice the tree, there are very few trees this side of the river), never ever do this, as a few metres after the tree is an area of wobbling ground sat on top of a bog. Like me you will go knee deep and have a wet sock for the rest of your day out. This was the first weekend in July, prior to the exceptionally hot batch of weather we had a week or so laterThe boggy section on the previous photo is down there, you can just make out the tree/bush by the bend in the river. Don’t mess about down there instead stay on the bank to the right as I look back. That way as you head up head towards The Dancers, your feet will be dry and you will be able to look back at this lovely view along the Erme to Sharp Tor and Stalldown Barrow on the right.Same view as previous but now with The Dancers, this is the start of the Staldon Stone Row, said to be the longest in the world, it runs for 2 miles finishing north of here at Green HillLots of green, and one of the few paths here following the stone row northA small skipper butterfly, a few of these out here todayStalldown Barrow covering the back of the photo, River Erme on the left and the Staldon Stone Row heading that way. I’m going behind me at this pointI tried to cross the river at the point near where the stone row also crosses, there is a sort of ford there but with the high rainfall at the end of June the Erme was running a bit high. So I found about 10 large stones set out perfectly for me to traverse downstream of the ford area. A few minutes later I was stood here at Erme Pound. Now the ground in this area is horrid, the grass is thigh deep in large parts of it and you can’t see were to put your feet for large parts in this area.Here looking upstream towards Stingers Hill, the Staldon Stone Row is on the other bank over the River Erme. My only real option was to walk the banks above the tall grass, I didn’t fancy ascending up to the Two Moors Way path above me, as I only need to walk back a mile downstream to cross the Erme again by the weir. So I stayed nearer the river and picked my way around the pound and its banks, following what sheep paths I could.It was whilst trying to pick my way around the Pound that I stood on a pile of large rocks to try to see a way through the long grass. One particular rock rocked on me and as I put my other foot down to balance myself, my weight tipped the rock backwards, I fell backwards with the rock trapping my leg against another large rock. Lay flat on my back I was unable to sit up enough to push the rock away, luckily however I managed to get my left leg back to lever it away. I hobbled to this point, but I was lucky as there wasn’t anything worse than a cut below the knee and a sore leg (it bruised a day or two later).The weir on the Erme or at least the pool before it. I crossed the river down on the right here as I wasn’t sure if the weir was crossableThe weir and it wasn’t crossable, not sure it ever is unless there is barely any water heading over it.This is the good path used by the water board out to the weir, and makes a fine quick path to get you back around Stalldown Barrow. Leg still not great at this point, but I had passed my first people of this walk nowPiles Copse and Sharp Tor above. The camping in Piles Copse is currently out of bounds, hence the closure of the Harford Gate car park to help with this, however it seems that people coming here cannot read as a fire has damaged more of the area in that woodland caused by us. We are talking about an SSSI, one of 3 upland ancient oak woodlands on Dartmoor and the owners are trying to protect it, allow it to regenerate itself a bit before opening it again. Surely a few years camping somewhere else can be accommodated by people to allow this, or would it be better that we are never allowed in there again, utter clowns.looking out along the Erme in the direction of Ivybridge, the hill on the right has Tristis Rock on top, I’m heading there nextOn Burford Down now and the floor colour has changed from an ever present green to this yellowy grass which was swaying in the breeze alongside this purple headed thistles of which there were thousands sticking up like thisTristis Rock looking back along the Erme ValleyAnd the other way out to IvybridgeBurford Stone Row and Stalldown Barrow, I’d originally climbed left to right up that one earlierJust down from Tristis Rock, following a grassy path is a gate at the corner of woodland, this takes you down a lovely path towards Harford village bridge and the road to Hall Cross.The road to Hall Cross, tree tunnel!!As I reached Hall Farm I spotted this Ringlet on the verge. My first ever one of these, which is weird considering how common they areSign at Hall FarmEntrance to Hall Farm, my Dartmoor 365 square for the day, just 2 to do nowRed Admiral on some nettlesPenn Beacon in the distance as I walk the lanes back towards Wisdome Bridge and CornwoodAnd a Small Tortoiseshell to finish this walk, to be honest there were Meadow Browns, Large and small Whites and Peacocks all along this section of the walk but I figured you’d prefer to see at least some of the views and not just the butterflies!! The end of a good walk which could have turned out a lot worse, I got a bit lucky with my leg and was still hobbling all the way back to the car, but I was glad it was just that and nothing else.
I felt like an absolute clown, trying to do a sit up to push a rock off my leg!! Not done a sit up since about 1992!! Just glad I could push the daft boulder off with my other leg otherwise I’d have been stuck there
I think we all have little incidents from time to time. I certainly do as my balance isn’t always so good. Sounds like your incident could have been more serious with that leg getting trapped.
treksandtors 
Good to see I’m not the only clumsy oaf out on the hills
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I felt like an absolute clown, trying to do a sit up to push a rock off my leg!! Not done a sit up since about 1992!! Just glad I could push the daft boulder off with my other leg otherwise I’d have been stuck there
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Well it’s not an outdoor hiking story but…. I fell off a pogo stick into my parents garden pond and broke my hand!
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Now that is impressive
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I think we all have little incidents from time to time. I certainly do as my balance isn’t always so good. Sounds like your incident could have been more serious with that leg getting trapped.
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I think if the stone had have been a little bigger I’d have been in a bit of a pickle
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