So we were back from Wales and headed out for a proper Dartmoor walk after some reasonably dry weather over the last month. I had a route in mind, although the bit after Round Hill Tor had me scratching my head as I was unsure if there was a clear path by the wall, leading towards Blakey Tor (which there is) or if there is another path which follows the Blackbrook river to Prince Hall Rocks (which there isn’t). I figured I would eyeball it once there. We set of in cloudy but cold weather from the layby near Princetown, the jail in view as we descended to Ockery Bridge (Oakery Bridge on new OS maps). We headed through a gate into fields above Round Hill Tor and I spotted signposts pointing sort of towards Roundhill Farm, but the path didn’t seem to be heading the right way after that. Later in the walk I would see a possible route, and decide that reversing it might have been better, but I learnt a bit about an area I don’t walk in too often. As it was we crossed the bridge over Blackbrook River and followed the wall. The path started ok, but soon became boggy, then swampy, then impassable. We walked back a short distance and looked up at possibly drier ground, we climbed over two barbed wire fences and a dry stone wall to get to marginally better ground, then it started hailing as we navigated swampy ground upwards towards Blakey Tor. We managed to walk below the tor (20 metres from it) and pick up a path down towards a gate which took us to Prince Hall Rocks. We weren’t happy bunnies at this point. The sun came out a little and we sat having lunch, before returning back to Blakey Tor, the way we came. We could see from our lunch spot a path on the other side of the river heading towards Roundhill Farm, a possible route back if the route was reversed. Looking towards Princetown, a huge black cloud loomed ominously, the other way blue skies and sunshine abound. Then we heard a distance clap of thunder, we figured hunkering down by Blakey Tor, under an overhang would be the best spot for a while, the hail dropped again but thankfully no more thunder. We carried on uphill to the main track back to Princetown, the sun shone and dried us a little before reaching the car. Not our finest walk, the boggy ground clearly still a result of some biblical rain from January to March which hadn’t dried up and was still pooling a foot or so deep around the wall and the path. Must plan better Steve, D minus!

Start – Princetown parking

Route – Ockery Bridge – Round Hill Tor – Round Hill Bridge – Prince Hall Rocks – Blakey Tor – Dartmoor Way/Conchie Road – Princetown

Distance – 4.5 miles   Start time – 11.30am  Time taken – 3hrs 30mins  Highest Point – Princetown 416 metres

Weather – Cold, hail, breezy, cloud and some sun. A real mix