Dartmoor CAM

This walk: 2009-11-11. Parke (National Trust - leased to Dartmoor National Park Authrority), apple tree, mistletoe, walled garden, fungus, ant's nest, honeycomb, river views, Canute's Throne, weir, old railway track, specimen trees, Haytor tramway rails as fence posts, mushrooms*, Parke House, hay wagon, Dartmoor pony sledge, Haytor tramway truck, Devon cart.

* - Thanks to Phil Page, Dartmoor Nature Tours, for identifying the fungi.

Walk details below - Information about the route etc.

Apple tree with mistletoe .....

Zoomed view of the mistletoe.

Notice at the entrance to the walled garden .....

The walled garden, in allotments - a community project - we saw a very large swede - good for pasties

Assuming this fungus has spines rather than gills, it is probably an old specimen of the Hedgehog Fungus (Hydnam repandum).

Autumn leaves on the footpath.

A wood ants' nest.

A piece of honeycomb found on the path.

A view of the River Bovey through the trees .....

..... and again .....

Canute's throne

More river .....

Coming to a weir ..... probably made to provide a headweir for the leat. The leat is shown on a 1640 map of the estate and used to provide power for a mill in Bovey Tracey; latterly it fed the estate pond

..... more violent water .....

..... looking back at the weir .....

Dartmoor CAM movie. TIPS .....

once viewing, make movie viewer "Full Screen"
click the loop or "continuous play" icon (if there is one)
press F11 to make more "Full Screen", remembering to press it again to regain Normal Screen.

Static view of the River Bovey
File size: 2 MB
12 secs download on BT Broadband Parke-1.wmv- Plays for 10 secs.

Panorama of the weir and bend on the River Bovey
File size: 2 MB

Looking back at a gate on the path.

View along the old railway track. The railway was a branch line between Moretonhampstead and Newton Abbot; 12 miles long, rising 550� to Moreton. It opened in 1866 with it�s hey day in 1930 when up to 11 trains a day ran along the line; the line closed in 1964.

Another river view with a section of footpath in view just above the water.

Probably Brick Cap Fungus (Hypholoma sublateritium) growing on an piece of old tree trunk.

From a bridge.

A section of old leat.

Possibly a Jelly Fungus, unless it had gills. Who's going back to have a look?!

A specimen oak tree.

More specimen trees in the grounds of Parke.

Ditto, in autumn colours.

Who let this lot in - Pat, Sue, Isobel, Chris, Sam, Liz & Jim. By an old fence post made from a reclaimed Haytor tramway rail, in granite .....

..... another piece of tramway rail, showing feather and tare marks where it was cut (top left side) and the central worn groove from the wagon wheels.

Parke, from a distance.

Field Mushroom (Agaricus campestris) in the meadows .....

More mushrooms.

Mistletoe or Witch's Broom?

The front of Parke House: leased to Dartmoor National Park Authority.

Hay wagon, see notice below .....

Self-explanatory notice.

Dartmoor pony sledge, see notice below .....

Self-explanatory notice.

...

Haytor tramway truck .....

Haytor tramway truck, see notice below .....

Self-explanatory notice.

Devon cart .....

Self-explanatory notice.

Architecture at the back of Parke House.

Walk details

MAP: The red line is the route actually walked.

This walk was accessed from the A38 via the Trago Mills turn-off, then by following the A382 to Bovey Tracey, turning left at the second roundabout and then right into Parke which is about 250 metres from the roundabout.

Statistics
Distance - 4.29 km / 2.7 miles.