OVERVIEW: A looped walk starting at Burrator Reservoir. The route goes up Sheeps Tor, and Down Tor, and then snakes it’s way back through some wooded areas along Devonport Leat. Opportunity to find Pixies House or Piskies House Cave.
START: Burrator Carpark (SX 549 676)
END: As above (looping route)
DISTANCE: 10 Miles
TERRAIN: Mostly path. Some off path areas on top of the Tors. Also limited path after Down Tor for a while before picking up the path again.
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| Rough route: OS Maps |
It was a lovely sunny Saturday when I went for this walk and so the carpark at Burrator was really busy. However, after a little fight for a space I left the car park and headed down the hill towards the reservoir. I then walked across the big dam/bridge and followed the road down to where you can enter a gate and cross the second dam with the view of Sheeps Tor ahead of me.
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| View of Sheeps Tor from the second Burrator Dam |
The path across the dam took me through the small wooded area seen in the picture above. Not long after I came to a gate where I could get back onto the main road. I was only on the road for a minute or two when I took a muddy track that veered off the road (SX 558 681) towards Sheeps Tor. This path wound through a bit of trees before opening out onto the moorland and a steep slope up to the tor. Between the hill and the heat it was a sweaty slog upwards.
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| Slope, with the tor just behind the false summit |
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| Sheeps Tor |
Once at the base of the tor I could have climbed up and enjoyed the view; but I had another plan. I wanted to find Pixies or Piskies House (a small cave in the rocks that I’d read about online). I skirted around the base of the tor until I found a rock with a very distinctive split in it at approximately SX 56625 68057. I then squeezed myself into the tiny opening, or at least attempted to. I got half way in and then at that moment seemed to remember that I’m not to good with enclosed spaces. I bottled it and hauled myself back out. I quickly loaded up the blog post where I had originally heard about the cave and checked their pictures, I was definitely the same size or smaller than the couple that had gone before me, so it reassured me to know that I’d probably be able to get back out if I did make it in. I gave it another go and managed to squish myself through the tiny opening. Once inside I discovered that it was fairly spacious. Ok, maybe not the most spacious but I could almost stand up in it, and it was probably 7 feet long and 3-4 feet wide. The cave has a few geocache Tupperware boxes, and a creepy doll inside. I wouldn't have been able to find the cave without reading this other blog
HERE, and their description of how to find it is much better than I can manage.
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| Split rock where cave entrance is |
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| Inside Piskies Cave |
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| Light coming through small opening |
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| Nightmare fuel doll in cave |
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| View from mouth of cave |
From the cave I then clambered my way up the rocks to find a path to the top of the tor. I passed a group of rock climbers on my way up and it looks like they are there fairly often as everything looked almost semi-permanent.
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| Climbers on Sheeps Tor |
After a quick stop on top of the tor to recover from my caving adventure I headed in a roughly NE direction towards Roughtor Plantation. I picked up a public bridleway at SX 577 682 and followed it through the wooded area, across a tiny footbridge, until I came to an old abandoned set of buildings at SX 579 688. To the right of an old moss covered building I could see a small spring bubbling away and I guess that's what originally supplied the buildings here. I couldn't resist stopping here for lunch, it was just so peaceful with the sound of the spring trickling away.
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| Path up to abandoned building and spring |
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| Lunch and a brew |
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| Old building and natural spring |
Refuelled I pressed on, passing on the right hand side of the spring and headed north up the hill towards Down Tor. There's a lot of old stone field boundaries here, and I saw a lot of sheep just milling around doing sheep things; I left them to it. Once on top of Down Tor you get a good view back across at Sheeps Tor as well as some interesting bits of granite to clamber over if that's what you are into... it's what I like doing when I'm up tors.
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| View back to Sheeps Tor |
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| Down Tor granite |
Now from Down Tor I headed East. There wasn't a defined path here, but I headed in the direction of the stone row seen on an OS Map at SX 587 692. I was not disappointed by the stone circle and row. I think it might be one of my favourite stone rows/circles on the whole of Dartmoor.
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| Stone circle |
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| Circle and row |
After exploring the stone circle for a while I headed along the stone row. At the end of the row I picked up a bit of a path that took me past an old settlement and enclosure. I really wanted to investigate this, but it it appeared to be populated with pregnant ponies and new born foals so I let them be and pressed on in the direction of Nun's Cross Farm. Now I had planned on getting to Nun's Cross Farm and meet up with the path there. However, as I approached the path I saw two things off to my left that I wanted to investigate, a small hut and a cross. I took a sharp left off the path and lept across a leat/stream to investigate a cross that I had spotted. I later found out that it was Hutchinson's Cross and had been erected in the 1960s. I then abandoned my plan to see Nun's cross (one cross was enough for today) and instead followed the leat (Devonport Leat) downstream to the small hut I had spotted. This building was clearly something to do with the management of the leat as there appeared to be a sensor pointing at the water (or maybe its just a light, I'm no expert), and also a water level measuring gauge. I continued to follow the leat downstream until I came across a path and a bridge which put me back on my planned route. I turned left which took me across the bridge and headed off down the path in a westerly direction.
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| Hutchinson's Cross |
I followed the path all the way down hill and off of the moor. Eventually I had a wooded area to my right, and farmland to my left. Once I came to a major junction (SX 573 699) I took a right turn, and then an immediate left which put me on a path off into some woodland. I followed the path which ran over Leather Tor Bridge, and skirted the bottom of the impressive tor above.
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| View from Leather Tor bridge |
From the bridge I continued to follow the path up the hill. At SX 563 695 I passed a small carpark and a fenced off burial cairn. Just after this cairn I came across another parking area (SX 561 695) and at this point there was a small gate on the right which gave me access to the wooded area of Crofts Plantation. I followed the path through the woods (it was marked with route markers) that ran parallel to the road. Eventually I came upon a clearing which appeared to be an old field system, or maybe a settlement. Crossing this clearing I could see more route markers indication that the path continued over a stile and back into the woods. I stuck to the path until I came to a point where the route left the woods, went through a grate and crossed the road. On the other side of the road the path continued, now following along Devonport Leat once again.
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| Woodland Path |
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| Looking across to Sheeps Tor with the leat in the foreground |
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| Looking from the leat across Burrator reservoir |
Eventually the leat disappeared under a main road (SX 550 688). At this point I crossed the road and walked up the hill on the other side as I could see a path over there. Once I got to the path I turned left and followed it south. This route took me through the Yelverton Reservoir works, and also passed a large EE mast. Just after the Yelverton Reservoir building I could hear a waterfall down below me to the left, but I couldn't work out a safe route down to investigate. From here it was just a case of following this path all the way to the end where it eventually branched into 3, the branch to the left was the car park where it had all begun.
This was by far one of my favourite Dartmoor adventures, and definitely one that I would do again.
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