Dartmoor CAM

This walk: 2008-6-12 - Scout Hut, Whittenknowles Rocks / Settlement, Drizzle Combe stone rows, Giants Basin, cairns, cist, mine workings.

This page in stereo

Walk details below - Information about the route etc.

A view of a round house / hut circle and settlement boundary wall at Whittenknowles Rocks at SX 58495 67048.

View towards the Drizzle Combe stone rows with a solitary menhir in the foreground.

Solitary menhir at somewhere near SX 58892 66898, but this is a guess - the position was not 'fixed' by GPS.

The menhir at SX 59056 67003 � 4 meters.

Menhir at SX 59056 66964 � 4 meters, as in previous photograph, with 6 ft 3 ins (1.90 meters) Ron beside it, to show the scale. The Giant's basin can be seen at the right edge. Another, larger menhir can be seen in the background. Both menhirs have stone rows running north-eastwards away from them. Devon Archaeological Association's Field Guide No. 11 "The Drizzlecombe Stone Rows" gives its height as 3.2 meters (it was re-erected in 1893).

The Giants Basin, at SX 59195 66940, with part of the double stone row from the menhir in the foreground (it is not double for the entire length).

View across the Giant's Basin looking towards the larger menhir.

Menhir (4.3 m high) at SX 59211 67003 again with 6 ft 3 ins (1.90 meters) Ron beside it, to show the scale. A stone row runs back from the standing stone to a terminal cairn. This is possibly the tallest stone on Dartmoor.

The tall menhir, seen from the side.

Near the far end of the stone row that runs from the menhir, looking at the terminal cairn. Another settlement can be seen up the hill beyond (at SX 5930671, from the map).

Looking back at the Giant's Basin caught in a patch of sunlight between the clouds. Trowlesworthy tors are on the skyline, Great Trowlesworthy Tor on the left and Little Trtowlesworthy Tor on the right.

Cist at SX 59220 67475 (from downloaded GPS 'track' on Memory Map).

Ford over the stream at SX 59250 67655.

Mine workings at SX 591 676 (from map).

I am informed that this is a covered flue, to convey smoke or fumes away from the smelting house. There would have been a chimney at the end of the flue but it is no longer standing.

Another view of the mine workings.

View of the Scout Hut (at SX 581 673, from map), with Gutter Tor behind.

View of Gutter Tor between trees at the Scout Hut.

Walk details

MAP: Blue = planned route, Red = GPS satellite track of the actual walk.

The blue lines are the compass or GPS bearings. The red line is the route actually walked: it deviates sometimes from the blue lines to avoid obstacles such as thick bracken, gorse, bogs or clitter, and often to use paths or animal tracks that are not on the map.

Reproduced from Dartmoor OS Explorer map 1:25 000 scale by permission of Ordnance Survey
on behalf of The Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
© Crown copyright. All rights reserved. Licence number 100047373.
Also, Copyright © 2005, Memory-Map Europe, with permission

The area is approached either from Plympton, via Cadover Bridge, Ringmoor Cottage and Nattor or from Burrator Reservoir via Sheepstor village and then Nattor. Some of the roads are narrow, as is common on Dartmoor. Parking was at the P symbol on the map, at SX 57890 67300.

Statistics
Distance - 5 km / 3 miles
Start 10.10 am, Finish 1.10 pm, Duration 3 hrs.
Moving average 3.6 kph / 2.25 mph; Overall average 1.7 kph / 1.0 mph