A walk from East Rook Gate, South West Dartmoor

South West Dartmoor is a not an area that we visit too often for a couple of reasons: it's an hour's drive which puts it just beyond reasonable and it's not that accessible. Over the years, the easiest access points have been blocked to walkers by various landowners and, because of this, it can mean fairly long walks along lanes before reaching the open moor. Notwithstanding these caveats, we did drive to Cornwood and got onto the moor at East Rook Gate. A good circular walk followed.

We started at East Rook Gate and went up to Penn Moor, via Penn Beacon. From there, we skirted around Stalldown Barrow and came off the moor at New Waste. After that, it was pleasant lane walking back to our starting point. It came in at 7 miles and was not particularly strenuous: I'd class it as 'moderate'. 
If you look at the map, you'll come across Dartmoor terms such as 'waste' and 'lake'. Here are some definitions from a Dartmoor Dictionary that should help you make sense of them.
Leat: A small watercourse built to supply water by means of gravity from its take-off point on a stream or river to the place where it would be used as a power source or a drinking water for farms, villages, towns, and cities. The leat builder art ensured that the courses followed the physical contours of the land thus ensuring a gentle, gradual, downward flow of water. Leats are also known as ‘gutters’.
Lake: A very confusing term as on Dartmoor the word denotes a stream, many of which whose source was once a small lake or tarn. All of these tarns have now been drained but originally the term applied to both the source pool and the stream which flowed from it.
Waste: This term describes a small area of enclosed rough pasture and mainly occurs on the southern moor.
Burrow: A general moor term to any mound or heap and includes cairns, barrows, or spoil heaps.
 Clapper bridge: Built built by large flat slabs of stone, mostly granite, supported by stone piers or by the banks of streams and rivers. They were mostly erected in medieval times and mainly built for people and packhorses, but a few are larger to take small carts. They are found on the moors and in other upland areas in the UK crossing over rivers or streams or manmade leats.

The end of the lane at East Rook Gate. To describe it as a car park would be an overstatement. Room for 2 or 3 cars only and, as it's at the end of a few miles of narrow, twisty lanes, it's not a well visited spot. Although it is not clear from the photograph, the water of the ford is a good two feet below the level of the tarmac.

'Path to the moor'. And that's where we headed, up a very rough cattle track to the open moor.

Penn Beacon is not technically a tor but there is a scattering of outcrop-type rocks near the Beacon casting a large clitter on the slopes. The cairn itself (top right) acts as a conspicuous object from Plymouth, with a shelter, of sorts, positioned well for any south-westerly. The OS Surveyors clearly saw this as a striking viewpoint by erecting a trig point beside the highest point, at 429m, with the number '3427' inscribed onto the ruined flush bracket.

Looking across to the china clay (kaolin) workings at Lee Mill, with the white clay standing out in stark relief to the surrounding moor. They have been mining here for approximately 200 years. I think there's what can be described as a 'dynamic tension' between the china clay company and the Dartmoor National Park Authority over the encroachment of the workings into the National Park.

A clapper bridge to nowhere? You can just about make out the linear depression in the ground following the contour and I don't think I'm wrong in assuming that this marks the course of a leat. The clapper was placed there to allow animals or humans to cross without having to paddle.

The largest stone boundary wall that I've ever seen. It dates from the early 19th century and stretches for miles.

Another view of the wall. The Great Wall of Penn Moor? And to think that this was all built by hand. It probably delineated a 'newtake'. Newtakes are enclosed areas of moorland on the edge of common land. Each newtake is part of one farm and is not used for shared grazing.

Yealm Waterfall (or Yealm Steps) is a spectacular cascade just over one kilometre from the head of the River Yealm. There are remains of medieval and later alluvial and eluvial streamworks situated above and below these falls as well as around Ranny Brook. 

We came across this substantial concrete structure, seemingly in the middle of nowhere and not associated with any other discernible structure. We couldn't figure out what it would have been used for and Mr Google has come up with nothing other than that the Tuco Chemical Company was dissolved many years ago and was part of the Upjohn chemical/pharmaceutical company. And why name the company after a South American rodent, the Tuco Tuco? Perhaps we'll come across an answer on another walk.

Walking across the valley caused by tin streaming over many centuries.

A very impressive stone wall, lining the lane up to New Waste. New Waste was once a very popular access point for the moor but access was stopped when land was purchased by the infamous Alexander Darwall, a modern day villain who does not want anyone enjoying his part of Dartmoor. I think he's the 6th largest owner of the moor and is no respecter of ancient rights or the concept of 'right to roam'. Unfortunately, he has determination and lots of money.

A benchmark on Wisdome Bridge on our way back to East Rook Gate. 

While trig points were used as accurate fixed points for mapping coordinates in the National Grid, benchmarks were fixed points which were used to calculate a height above the mean sea level. Benchmarks have been around for a long time, much longer than trig points. While the first systematic network of levelling lines and associated benchmarks was initiated in 1840, some benchmarks date back to 1831. Why call them ‘benchmarks’? The horizontal marks are used to support a stable ‘bench’ for a levelling stave to rest on – hence ‘benchmarks’. This design ensured that a stave could be accurately repositioned in the future and that all marks were uniform.

I do like walking with a group - most of the time. However, I quite often dissociate myself from the throng so that I can really hear and see what surrounds me. At the end of this walk, I deliberately went ahead and spent time leaning on this gate, just looking at the scenery, listening to the sheep and birds and savouring every last second. A time of immersion in the countryside. It brings to mind the poem by my fellow countryman, W.H.Davies, 'Leisure'. He's right, we really should take more time to stand and stare: it's a poor life if we don't. Davies wrote ' Autobiography of a Supertramp' about his travels in the USA in the late 1890s and early 1900s. This featured in a reading list in my first year in secondary school and I remember enjoying it. I must reread it. And for lovers of trivia, the group Supertramp (of Dreamer, Logical Song and Breakfast in America fame) took their name from his book. Enjoy the poem and do take time to stand and stare.

Leisure by William Henry Davies

What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. No time to see, in broad daylight, Streams full of stars, like skies at night. No time to turn at Beauty's glance, And watch her feet, how they can dance. No time to wait till her mouth can Enrich that smile her eyes began. A poor life this if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.

Leisure by William Henry Davies

Leisure
by
William Henry Davies

What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. No time to see, in broad daylight, Streams full of stars, like skies at night. No time to turn at Beauty's glance, And watch her feet, how they can dance. No time to wait till her mouth can Enrich that smile her eyes began. A poor life this if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.

 

What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. No time to see, in broad daylight, Streams full of stars, like skies at night. No time to turn at Beauty's glance, And watch her feet, how they can dance. No time to wait till her mouth can Enrich that smile her eyes began. A poor life this if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

And talking of ' streams full of stars', maybe you can spot a few in this clip of the Ranny Brook.

And let's finish with a clip of Supertramp and Dreamer. Enjoy.