This was a short Dartmoor walk, just as the weather started to improve and warm up a bit towards the end of June. We fancied somewhere central and I had an eye on picking off lots of my second round of tors. Both Blackslade Rock and Bovey Rock sits beside lanes, so are easy to get to, but Rugglestone Rock is not easy, with marshy ground very much in evidence here and lots of scrub, shrubs, bushes and fallen trees all around. We set off from the very convenient Cold East Cross car park heading towards the Ruddycleave Bridge and on across Pudsham Down. The majority of the first third of the walk was on lanes, with one exception being the diversion to see Scorbitor, with this tor being on private land. You can get quite close to this one, however the nearer you get the worse the view, so we took a higher viewpoint to get the best view. Next up was Blackslade Rock and here we stopped for a coffee and were joined by a group of riders on horses. After a short section of lane we headed off towards Rugglestone Rock, the ground here is bad in the winter, and although the trees will have less foliage, the ground is very marshy. After the winter and elongated wet weather that we’ve had, the ground is still very wet, and if I’m honest I can’t see it drying now before the next winter. Needless to say the ground was wet for us and on at least two occasions my boot disappeared under soft ground. We were glad to be heading out and upwards towards Bovey Rock, which we initially walked past with the high bracken. We then chose to follow a grassy path to Hollow Tor and then contour onwards to Tunhill Rocks, both of these tors have a fabulous view down to Widecombe and beyond. All that was left was for us to walk the well used path back to Cold East Cross and the car. So for us it was a short walk this time out, but after our long coastal walk we were happy to be back on the moor.

Start – Cold East Cross

Route – Ruddycleave Bridge – Pudsham Down – Scorbitor – Blackslade Rock – Venton – Rugglestone Rock – Bovey Rock – Hollow Tor – Tunhill Rocks – Blackslade Down – Cold East Cross

Distance – 5 miles  Start time – 11.30am  Time taken – 3hrs 30mins  Highest Point – Blackslade Down 383metres

Weather – Blue skies all day