Week Ford, Badger’s Holt and Stone Park Tor

Bank Holiday Monday at the end of August and time to get out for a walk. We’d done house stuff on Saturday with a family get together on the Sunday, so we were ready for a bimble somewhere. Avoiding the obvious spots on a bank holiday is a normal tactic however on this day we…

Honeybag Tor and the Holwell Bluebells

It had been a couple of years since we had been to Holwell at bluebell time and we were due a revisit. The display we had seen in 2023 was truly superb, and probably difficult to beat (you can see that walk here), but we thought a loop over the tors to the west before…

Widecombe in the Moor and Wooder Goyle

After 6 weeks without any rain at all through March and into April, the Easter period brought a few showers and some cloudy weather. In the main it was still dry, but the ground, and particularly Dartmoor, needed some rain. This walk was after a rainy night, and walked in improving weather as the morning…

Haytor sunset, without the sunset

So we were looking for a walk which would take advantage of the lighter evenings, plus somewhere we hadn’t been for a while. Haytor is always good for a short walk and visiting at this time means it is far quieter than in the day. We’d also checked the weather, with a small chance of…

Dartmeet, Luckey Tor and Sharp Tor

Another Sunday and another half decent forecast, dry, some bits of sunshine, warm but a little hazy with the distance views. No complaints from me though as its early March and we could have all sorts of weather at this point in the year, and considering on this walk that I was stripping off layers…

Looking back at 2024 and on to 2025

I said at this point last year that 2023 had “passed in the blink of an eye”, well I’m not sure I even managed to get a blink in, and 2024 was gone. So here I am typing up what happened throughout last year. As with previous years I’ll start with the review and look…

Christmas Cadover Bridge to Shaugh Bridge walk

This year we were pretty active between Christmas and New Year, heading out for a walk on 3 days, one day in work, one day a party and one day lying around lazing (New Year’s Eve). This was the second walk of the three and the boys joined us for one of my favourite walks,…

Penn Beacon, Lee Moor and the Yealm

So it had been around 5 weeks since our last walk in the Lake District, and we’d taken a bit of a sabbatical away from walking. Not for any specific reason, although we did start packing the house up, in preparation for our upcoming house move. Finally in mid-September we decided to head out again,…

High Willhays and Yes Tor

A good day was forecast weatherwise and we thought we needed a bit of serious climbing, to put us in the right fitness for our Lake District holiday, which was due to be a week later. So why not head to the highest point in England, south of Kinder Scout in Derbyshire, which is High…

Sharpitor, Leather Tor and Peek Hill sunset

So our second evening walk this year and another really good sunset. This wasn’t the normal walk for our sunset, as we normally head out to Pew Tor/Pork Hill/Cox Tor area to catch the sun setting beside Brent Tor. This walk however would be number 57 of my Round 2, but only one square this…

Legis Tor and Gutter Tor

It was well into spring and we hadn’t been out for an evening walk yet, so time to put that right. The plan on any evening walk is to keep the driving and walking distance down, find somewhere that is interesting or looks good in different light and might have a sunset. With a mainly…

Corndon Tor and Cathanger Rock

The first walk of the New Year and unlike last year, where we’d walked 3 times by this point, this was our first one. A mix of bad weather and Linda picking up a bad pain in her neck, had meant we’d stayed away from walking. We also chose a short route with very little…

Looking back at 2023 and on to 2024

So that was 2023 gone in the blink of an eye and we all start to look at walks and places to visit for 2024. I’ll save talking about 2024 for lower down in this post and first look back at 2023, which will go down as one of my best walking years with plenty…

Pew Tor, Walkhampton and Sampford Spiney

A walk that suits the winter weather, with plenty of lanes, villages, Dartmoor squares and a short dart on to Dartmoor proper for a couple of tors, before leaving via the lanes again. This walk is number 39 of my second round, picking up O4, O5, P4, P5 and Q4. The walk started from the…

Postbridge and Bellever Tor

Despite October being pretty wet in the main, especially after the first week of the month, we seemed to get lucky each weekend, with some nice sunshine to accompany our walks. This walk in the centre of Dartmoor was no exception, again the sun was shining and reasonably warm for the time of year and…

Hen Tor, Trowlesworthy Tors and Shavercombe Waterfall

So a walk in an area that probably doesn’t get enough attention, considering its the area on Dartmoor nearest to my house. I’ve walked a lot around the Trowlesworthy Warren, but heading back to Hen Tor doesn’t happen very often, and that’s a mistake. This would be walk number 36 of my second Dartmoor 365…

A grey day around Great Mis Tor

One last walk before we packed the car and headed off for an adventure around Llangollen, Snowdonia and Bolton. This walk was decided on to make sure I could walk the planned Snowdon and Moel Siabod routes and would slightly extend the length I walked around Falmouth, the week before. This was walk 31 of…

Lake Viaduct, Great Nodden and Sourton Tor

We started out on Walk number 20 of Round 2 with a good weather forecast, the winds from the east mean that clearer weather will be found on the western side of Dartmoor, meaning we should be good for squares D4, E4 and E5. Now its not often that this happens, mainly in the winter,…

Gutter Tor, Ditsworthy Warren and Eylesbarrow

It was the day of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral and we’d decided to head out early and take in the blue skies forecast. However we faffed a bit and didn’t get going until after 10am, luckily its a short drive to Gutter Tor so we were off and walking around 11am. This is Walk 3 of…

Wheal Jewell wildcamp

We hadn’t camped since our visit and walk along the coast at Boscastle, back in July (here). It was time for another outing and the weather was forecast to be good for the bank holiday weekend. In fact we were in a bit of a warm section of weather in which it had been hot…

Dewerstone, Wigford Down and Cadover Bridge

As we all know the weather recently has been hot, days without a breeze are rare down in the south west but when coupled with hot sunny weather, it makes for unpleasant walking conditions. This was one of those days and as a result I was up early and parked at 8.30am for my favourite…

Staple Tors and a sunset

There are a few walks I look forward to every year. The bluebell walk (tick on that for this year here), a snowy walk in the winter (all the snow on Dartmoor was in lockdown so I missed all of that) and a sunset walk. Time to tick that last one off for this year.…

Fur Tor, The Queen of Moor

After last weeks successful foray into the centre of the South moor, I fancied something similar. Fur Tor is always a trek, no matter which way you approach it. You can go from Postbridge, along the East Dart. You can head from Bagga Tor, across rough ground or from Lane End, through Tavy Cleave. I…

Sampford Spiney, Pew Tor and Whitchurch Down

The last walk before restrictions on distance you can travel are lifted. You can’t stay overnight, but out and back home is all I need for now. This walk however stayed fairly local and included parts of a walk I did with the boys a few weeks back (here). This walk headed up towards Pew…

Devonport Leat, Black Tor and Crazywell Pool

I wasn’t sure what to title this post and walk, its a walk in the area of Burrator but most of it tries to avoid the crowded hotspots around the reservoir itself. In fact if you headed uphill from Leather Tor Bridge you could miss out Norsworthy Bridge and the busy road section at that…

Rugglestone Rock and the rocks on Hameldown

As promised, not as long until my next big walk and this one is a bit of a change in locations for myself, especially the outward route. After a dry summer I decided to have a go at looking for Rugglestone Rock, plus a number of outcrops on the side of Hameldown. These all seemed…

The sunset on Cox Tor

I’d missed out on the bluebells of Holwell Lawn this year. so I’d vowed that I’d would do my best to get here for my yearly sunset. The weather played ball and gave me a few options to decide between. As normal I had tea and headed out for any of the car parks below…

3 crosses and a Gutter Tor

A second day in a row out for a walk and probably the best weather I’ve had for quite a while. A crisp frosty start turned into a nice sunny day and despite a bit of haze towards the end it stayed warm enough for 2 layers. I’d walked this area only a couple of…

Rippon Tor and the Holwell bluebells

Road closures due to the Plymouth half marathon meant I was cut off from the north and west of the city. This meant a drive around the back roads to Ivybridge where I figured that I might as well continue along the A38 and go to the area around Haytor. This also meant a chance…

Cuckoo Rock and Click Tor

Bank holiday weekend and the weather is set for sun, sun and more sun. The mercury is set to rise as well, so I chose a walk that would be through trees for quite a lot of the time so we could stay in the shade. I didn’t fancy driving too far either so I…

All around Hameldown Beacon

The weather had been good for most of the week and on into the weekend, the mercury on the thermometer was dropping. The icy winds from Russia were certainly blowing as I headed out from above Widecombe In the Moor and it was certainly hard underfoot as I stepped on to Hameldown. It was Baltic to…

Kes Tor and Frenchbeer Rock

I’d taken a day off work and planned a good walk that would take me from Fernworthy reservoir up to Scorhill, round to Gidleigh and back via Kes Tor. I set off in poor low cloud hoping that the eastern side would clear a bit, the forecast said it would. Well I arrived as I…

Hockinston Tor, Leigh Tor and Poundsgate

I’ve been banging on about the weather down in these parts a fair bit recently, with all the rain the ground underfoot has been boggy to say the least. Well this time I decided to change things. I chose a walk that was fairly low (nothing over 350 metres high) and involved plenty of tracks…

Collard Tor and Hawks Tor

The weather in September down here in the south west corner of Devon has been pretty abysmal. Particularly at the weekends. This was only my second Devon based walk this month, and like the last it was very short and between the rain showers. Bring on the colder weather. This walk is an easy one,…

Cadover Bridge, Shaugh Bridge and Wigford Down

I thought I’d had my last evening walk a couple of weeks ago at Great Mis Tor  however I managed to squeeze another one in, on a day when the rain was supposed to pour. Luckily for me the weather reporters were wrong and I enjoyed a walk in probably my most walked area on…