Walking around Walkhampton

The weather was set fair and off we went for a walk with one of our regular Thursday groups. Back on the eastern edge of Dartmoor for this one.

The route took us on an almost figure-of-eight route with our starting point, Lowery Cross car park, at the centre. I clocked 6.2 miles on my GPS. An interesting route and one that we had not done before. There doesn't seem to be an end to the places that we haven't visited yet.

Heading down a lane from our starting point, with Walkhampton church in the distance. We dropped about 400 feet over the first half mile of the walk. As the saying goes, what goes down, must go back up.

Situated on a hilltop half a mile from the village of Walkhampton, St Mary's church, with its 85 feet pinnacled tower, dominates the surrounding landscape. It is built in local granite and originates from 1259 although most of it now dates from the 1450s.Interestingly, the bells were cast by Pennington, from our own parish, in 1764 and 1769 The fact that the church lies outside of its village indicates that it predates the village and was built in this location at a point being central to several local farms. Sadly, this is one of the few churches we've come across that remain closed to visitors outside of service times.

Next door to the Church is the old Church House, which is well documented and dates from the early sixteenth century. A plaque on the wall gives the date of 1698, but it is thought that this was probably put there when alterations took place to build the second floor. 

The Church House originally belonged to the parishioners and would have been managed by the church wardens. Its original purpose was to brew and sell ale and it would have been open for business straight after church services - a Public House owned by its customers, what more could one ask for! Besides the brewing of Church Ale, it was the Council Chamber, a collection centre for local Tithes, the distribution centre of bread for the poor and, of course, an inn on the route from Buckfast Abbey to Tavistock Abbey. It ceased trading in 1894 and was restored in the early 1980's. It is reputed to be the oldest house in the parish and certainly the one with the most history attached to it.

We quite often encounter cows on our walks and rarely have any problems with them, although, as with all large animals, their docility should not be taken for granted - especially if there are calves around.

A fingerpost pointing to Dartmoor - what more invitation is needed?

A gateway to the open moor, with Great Staple Tor in the distance. Going through the gate is like stepping over the threshold into another dimension.

Lots of beech nuts or beech mast around. And some of them were larger than normal and gave a reasonably sized nibble. Due to their high fat content, oil extracted from the masts was used for cooking and lighting in the past, and once it had matured was claimed to be no inferior to olive oil.  There is an eighteenth century reference to the kernels being put in soups. Another old source comments that suitably treated they could be turned into bread, it is also claimed that roasted beechnuts have been used as a coffee substitute.
All beech trees are capable of producing seeds as the trees produce both male and female flowers. The trees have mast years (is this year a mast year?), where an abundance of seeds is produced. This is induced by climatic factors, and observations have shown that drought years are often accompanied or followed by heavy mast years.

We walked a couple of miles along the track of the old Princetown Railway, a 10¼ mile single track branch railway line that ran from Yelverton to Princetown via four intermediate stations, Dousland, Burrator and Sheepstor Halt, Ingra Tor Halt and King Tor Halt. The line closed in 1956 and is now a very popular cycling and walking route.
Here's a thing: what is it about some cyclists that makes them never use warning bells when they are sharing a path with walkers? Do they delight at the prospect of running us down? Or are they, as I think, simply mindless dolts who couldn't care a toss about those of us on foot? Not that I wish them ill but I hope they are perennially saddle sore and have punctures galore.

Lunch stop with a view. Well worth the effort of getting there.

The Devonport Leat was constructed in the 1790s to carry fresh drinking water from the high ground of Dartmoor to the expanding dockyards at Plymouth Dock, renamed in the early 1800s to Devonport. It originally ran for some 30 miles but now stops at Burrator Reservoir. Here some of the water goes to Dousland water works and the rest falls down a waterfall into the reservoir. 

A kissing gate at Burrator and Sheepstor Halt station that led down towards the dam and reservoir. As is the case here, quite often these gates alongside railways have posts and struts made from bent railway rails. The etymology of the name is that the gate merely "kisses" (touches) the enclosure either side, rather than needing to be securely latched - and you thought it was to do with old-fashioned philematology!

Looking across Burrator Reservoir towards Sheepstor. Compare and contrast with the IR version of the same scene below. I know which one I find more interesting.

When you've got an itch, you've just got to scratch it.

I'll finish up this post with a few infra-red images. I carry the camera so I might as well show some of the photographs I took. As experience grows, I'm being far more selective about using it and am getting a better feel for what may turn out to be a reasonable image. Beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder for some of them as they are a representation of reality rather than the real thing.

Looking down from the edge of Yennadon Down, where we started, roughly to the north. IR makes the sky look much more menacing than it was. Keen eyes will pick out Walkhampton church and Brentor, making it an image that is worth studying as there's so much in it.

Walkhampton church as we approached it over the fields.

The church tower.

This shot has a rather Victorian sepia feel to it. Although the church is constructed of granite blocks, they are so smooth that they could be mistaken for concrete.

Looking across Burrator Reservoir towards Sheepstor. I prefer this one to the full spectrum version above.