Back on Dartmoor this week having had a mixture of walking in different areas. We’d had some coastal and some Bodmin Moor recently and it was time to get back into the centre of Dartmoor. This is a walk around the Cowsic River, picking up the tors situated around the head of this river. The valley itself, holding the river, provides some lovely views along its length, none better than from Conies Down Tor. The walk down from South Devil’s Tor can be boggy, especially at this time of year, as the ground is fairly flat between that and Lydford Tor, but we easily managed to avoid the worst of it. Then there is the start of this walk, Black Dunghill is an uneventful place, a green lump of tussocky grass, surrounded by soft ground, this will be the case until you cross the Lych Way and start the climb to Conies Down Tor. The weather was glorious today with plenty of sunshine, although the wind was bitterly cold up at the high points, it was a weekend of ten tors training and we could see a few groups walking the trails back towards Holming Beam to their pickup points, it would have been a cold night for all these groups.

Start – Holming Beam

Route – Black Dunghill – Lych Way – Conies Down Tor – Maiden Hill – Cowsic Head – Beardown Man – Devil’s Tor – South Devil’s Tor – Lydford Tor – Beardown Tors – Cowsic Bridge – Holming Beam

Distance – 7 miles    Start time – 10.45am   Time taken – 4hrs 15mins Highest Point – Devil’s Tor 546 metres

Weather – Lots of sunshine, white fluffy clouds but cold