Sunday afternoon under a blue sky and a taste of black cherry ice cream at Sidmouth - as busy a day as we saw all summer. The lanes of deepest Devon taken through Yettington and Pinn. The Tamarisk and Cyclamen in bloom and a pair of parapenters floating high above the cliffs On the way home a detour to deliver a card at Longdown saw us in previously unexplored territory. The ford at Ide is a narrow stream bed pictured here.
Low tide at Sidmouth
Tamarisk
Parapenters
Cyclamen
The ford at Ide
Driving along the stream bed
Turn left here into deep water under the bridge--Not recommended
Down beside
Bone Hill heading west into Widdecombe a steep narrow lane is entered between
two granite posts and bounded each side by boulders and a brook.
The hill on
the other side of the valley is a little steeper with few passing places for
oncoming traffic. I carry on by skirting
Hammel Down up past Grimspound. Along the way one farm notice warns of “lambs
on the road” . Expect the unexpected hazard, ponies wandering free, horses,
dogs, sheep and cattle. It’s time to stop
for a pint of Tribute Ale at the Warren House Inn before retracing my steps.
A few years
ago there were numerous derelict granite farmsteads around here, forlorn and forgotten
but today most have been renovated, acquired by the second home set and often seen are their four wheel drive Porsche Cayennes in metallic anthracite and
Landrover Freelanders in Santorini Metallic Black. They vie with supercharged air
conditioned tourist coaches deep into sleepy Devon.
At the
Warren house Inn many different accents may be heard beside the smouldering log
fire, kept burning all year round. Bristolian and Norfolk are my favourites but
in these parts one is just as likely to hear Australian. Time to down that pint.
Bridges
found on Dartmoor are often narrow and single track, some are set beside
narrower sister versions as is the case at Two bridges, Merrivale,
Postbridge and Dartmeet. Some are hard
to find and lost to view in woodland, others unavoidable and crossed by traffic
every day.
One of my
favourites is Huckaby over the Dart at Holn.
Another is a little hidden away bridge between Manaton and Bowermans Nose
preceded by a farm gate which must be opened and then closed behind you on
foot, unless your passenger will do the honours.
Almost
always set at the bottom of steep valleys and approached by a sharp bend. The
ancient routes on Dartmoor originate from footpaths, trackways and droveways.
The clapper bridge shown here is made of slabs of granite on rough shaped piers
that serve today as milestones to the past. Maps (2) - Pin-pointing these locations:
