Summer Solstice Walk

June 21st - Summer Solstice - and, whilst the druids did their thing around Stonehenge, we did our thing around Hay Tor, on the eastern side of Dartmoor. Did you know that 'solstice' means a stopping or standing still of the sun? Yesterday it did just that; the sun stopped and the rain came...and came...and came! Not that it stopped us walking or, by all accounts, enjoying ourselves.A small but select band of six set out from Saddle Tor car park and completed a fairly energetic 7-miler taking in:
*  Saddle Tor*  Becka Brook and its eponymous clapper bridge.
* The mediaeval village on the slopes of Hound Tor (Hundatona - a group of thirteeenth century stone farmhouses, built on land originally farmed in the Bronze Age. The buildings were probably abandoned in the early fifteenth century).
* Hound Tor.

* Hay Tor Quarry and associated mineral tramways.
* Hay Tor

* Thence back to our starting point.

As and when the rain lifted, the scenery was very lush - and it doesn't get that lush without adequate supplies of water! As ever on Hay Tor, a highlight is the mineral tramway. I believe it is unique as the 'rails' are carved from granite, even down to the switching points. The tramway took the granite extracted from the quarries on Hay Tor down to a canal in a neighbouring valley and from there to Newton Abbott for loading onto ships. My photograph shows a small part of the tramway, with associated puddles.

And then it was all back to our friend's house in Bishop's Steignton (Bishop's Town on the Teign) for a meal. A very good day.