Although Mr BlogWalker had walked in Dartmoor before, this was the first proper Dartmoor adventure for me, and I was very excited. We were joined by our veteran BlogWalker who we had jouneyed down to Plymouth to see for Mothering Sunday (and for her brilliant potatoes).
So, we parked up at Shipley Bridge with most of Devon and set off up a stony path and onto the 'Moors'. We followed a wall for sometime before escaping onto the wilderness. The track took us up to Spurrell's Cross and onto the Tramway which had previously hauled men and materials in trucks to the Red Lake China clay works.
It was cold but bearable on the moors and, for me, it was brilliant to see so much history in such a wild and desolate place.
We followed the tramway alongside boundary stones which marked the line between the parishes of Ugborough and Harford. This led us up to Three Barrows, from where there were fantastic views, and then to the ruins of miners' houses and the disused pit of Leftlake Mires where we had a heartly lunch.
There was then a long stretch following the tramway before we headed off past many ruined buildings. We took a detour to Petre's Cross where we met a man looking concerned about some expected school children. Petre's Cross had lost its arms when peatcutters had taken them to use as a lintel for a fireplace in 1847.
Having admired the cross, we took a track onto a grass tramway which made for a beautiful and easy-going path back down to Shipley Bridge.
In all, a beautiful walk with a lot to see.
The walk was courtesy of Country Walking's Down Your Way series (March 2005: Follow That Tram!).
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