We don't just walk on Dartmoor

Just to show that we don't just walk on Dartmoor, here's a rather nice route on the eastern fringes of Bodmin Moor. It has a different feel to Dartmoor and it's one that's grown on me over the years.

A fairly straightforward route of 5.5 miles starting at the car park for the Halvana Plantation. After a mile or so on tracks through the plantation, we crossed East Moor to Rushford and Carey Tor. From there, it was a simple trek across to Fox Tor and then back through Eastmoorgate. 

Tourists bombing it down the A30 into deepest Cornwall will pass the  Halvana Plantation but very, very few will visit. The dark, foreboding mass of trees makes the uninitiated wary – something only an evergreen forest can accomplish. It covers 186 hectares and there are many well made tracks running through it. There are also quite a few not-so-well made tracks!

With war looming on the horizon at the beginning of the 20th Century, Britain could no longer rely on timber imports. Woodland resources in England covered just 5% of land area by 1917, due to demands during the First World War (especially trench warfare and the need for pit props in the coal mines). In 1919 the Forestry Act came into force and conifer plantations like Halvana were established to ensure a strategic reserve of timber. It is a shame that many of the ancient broadleaved woodland areas around England were cleared to make way for the faster-growing conifer trees.

Whilst some plantations are gradually being replanted with native species, Halvana Plantation remains as a fascinating stretch of woodland to amble through and explore. The interior of evergreen plantations have a tendency to be dry dead places, due to the needles blocking out light and suffocating the forest floor. This forest is the complete opposite, with an endless carpet of moss creeping over everything, including up the trunks of trees.

Even the odd piece of litter is absorbed into the forest and quickly becomes something special. This glass bottle has turned into a tiny biome, complete with plants growing inside it. I look out for it every time we are walking here but I don't always find it. This time I did.

Could be one of my favourite trees. Isolated and windswept - just as I like them.

The ruins of the farm at Rushyford. Abandoned for some 80 years and, before then, it was used as a smithy and probably serviced the neighbouring farms. So many of these are now derelict and/or disappeared that it's difficult to appreciate how populous the area was 'back in the day'. And be amazed that the ivy covering comes from the single stem, coming in at an angle on the left. 

Imagine a family huddling around this fire on a bleak and dark winter's evening with a storm raging outside. Could be quite cosy.

The ford at Rushyford Gate, not that it was on our route. The Withey Brook is quite a barrier to unprepared walkers for most of the year. It is quite wide so leaping across is not an option. Debooting and paddling seems to be the most commonly adopted solution.

A huge chunk of granite on the way up to Carey Tor. Look closely and you make out the distinctive drill marks of someone who worked hard to split it. Why, after so much work, was this abandoned in situ? Did it split in the wrong way? Was it no longer needed? We'll never know but I hope he was paid for his labour.

Granite boulders, a blue sky and clouds from Carey Tor. And, in the distance, a buzzard could be heard mewing.

Some interesting and rather unusual weathering on these boulders. Normally, the cup marks are seen on the top surfaces.

Looking westwards, with Kilmar Tor in the distance and Trewortha Tor creeping in from the right. A favourite area for those who know Bodmin Moor and one less frequented by the casual visitor.

A rather bedraggled but still cheerful group at the trig point on the top of Fox Tor. There was no view! Compare this photograph with the others and you'll appreciate the truth of the statement that "if you don't like the weather on Bodmin Moor, wait five minutes and you'll get something different"! It applies equally to Dartmoor.