Whitchurch Down and Sampford Spiney

Heading through October the weather was very mixed, continual weather fronts bring rain, some bright spells but the mild weather meant rain was never far away. This Sunday was due to rain in the morning and then clear from the west around 1pm. We figured a drive up to the moor, a short ish walk planned and to start walking as the weather was due to clear up. We parked up in rain, ummed and ahhed a bit and decided to eat lunch in the car first, surely the rain was due to stop soon. The weather app had push the rain clearing to 2pm, so we set off, heading for Pixies Cross. The one advantage of the rain was no golfers on the Tavistock course, so we walked the fairways in a direct approach the cross. Arriving quickly I again looked at the weather app, now saying 2.30pm for it to clear. We headed off downhill to Furzey Lane Bridge and then looped over to Pennycomequick Bridge, which meant with the cross and the first bridge we had 2 Dartmoor squares picked up. We set off for Sampford Spiney, with a plan to climb Pew Tor on the way, the rain was still falling and cloud was low so we headed of to the village first. We dried off a bit inside the church, but before long we headed back out into the rain, the app now saying 3.30pm for it to clear. We climbed a little back to the road which would take us to our car, and as we walked underneath Pew Tor for a second time, the cloud started to clear and blue sky could be seen to the west. Too late now to head up to the tor, we trudged back to the car, arriving as the sun hit it, a very damp walk all in all and not one to make any year end best walk lists.

Start – Warren’s Cross

Route – Tavistock Golf Course – Pixies Cross – Furzey Lane BridgePennycomequick Bridge – Moortown – Sampford Spiney – Sampford Spiney CrossSampford Spiney Church – Dartmoor Way – Warren’s Cross

Distance – 6 miles   Start time – 1pm  Time taken – 3hrs  Highest Point – Above Sampford Spiney 245 metres

Weather – Drizzle, low cloud until right at the end

© Crown copyright 2025 Ordnance Survey FL 2025 SF
Looking out across Whitchurch Down in the direction of the golf course, by this point we’d driven here in rain, sat eating sandwiches in the car watching the rain and then booted up in the rain. So we headed out in the hope the forecast would turn out right
Tavistock golf course is reached, and the advantage with the falling rain here is we can walk across without worrying about avoiding the players
Pixies Cross, one of the Dartmoor squares today
A narrow valley which runs towards Taviton Mill House and on to the River Tavy
The brook here heads through the valley in the photo above, emptying into the River Tavy, in the trees is the hard to photograph Furzey Lane Bridge, any grassy bit around here is pure soft bog, it took me a few minutes of hopping to get to this spot and still I couldn’t see it
So I took a photo from the road as well
Still raining and still smiling. Credit to Linda who’d done a couple of goes at re-waterproofing our jackets and trousers. They held up well here
Through a nice bit of woodland, along a path that links Furzey Lane bridge with …………
Pennycomequick Bridge, another that was shy and hiding behind a tree
Wet lanes as we walk to Sampford Spiney
George 6th post box
The brilliantly named Grimstone and Sortridge leat was crossing the moorland and we came to a spot where a bullseye dropped water to a pipe (can be seen as a small spout) to feed a house to our right. There are still a fair few properties across the moor fed by the leats of Dartmoor, the hamlets of Grimstone and Sortridge will no doubt take water from this one.
The cloud seemed to drop more and the rain kept falling as we reached Sampford Spiney, this is the old school building with the cross of the village in front. You can see the shadowy church spire through the mist over the trees
Sampford church, its sits just off the Abbots route between Tavistock and Buckfast, and was visited regularly by those walking to and from, the cross on the green waymarks this church.
Inside is a simple affair
It was harvest time when we visited
On leaving the church we came across huge patches of fungi, this was one of 3 or 4 that we saw
Now then what is this, blue sky in the distance. It was around 3.30pm at this point and 2-3 hours later than forecast. Even at 1pm they had it arriving earlier than this, it was like they waited for it to happen before forecasting it
Pew Tor above now comes out of the cloud
Brent Tor away in the distance as the blue sky moves across
Cox Tor is now unveiled as well. Bales of bracken all rolled up, not seen them do that before. Any ideas why they do that?
And to finish a similar view as the first one on this walk. Far from a classic but still some lovely things to see.

9 thoughts on “Whitchurch Down and Sampford Spiney

  1. Pingback: Jo’s Monday walk : Niebla | Still Restlessjo

  2. Type 2 fun! Sometimes being optimistic during a spell of bad weather pays off and sometimes….But you have to keep on keeping on or you miss the good days. Loved the church, and I always appreciate an old postbox. But best of all, for me, and I know I’ve said something like this before, those names! Pure poetry. Pixies Cross, Furzey Lane, Sampford Spiney, but best of all Pennycomequick Bridge – you couldn’t make it up. Except, I suppose, somebody must have.
    Brilliant.

    Like

  3. Like Mark, I just love the names! Sounds very much like my day walking from Belstone a few years ago when it was supposed to stop at 11am and it stopped at about 3pm by which time I was soaked through to my – well you get the idea!

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.