Our June Walk of the Month finds writer and journalist Christopher Somerville bombing across Dartmoor…
Whatever the Tradesman’s Arms put in their beef jalfrezi on curry night, it revved me right up for a brilliant walk the following day. The hamlet of Scorriton, sitting tight under the eastern rim of Dartmoor, almost lost its pub a few years back, and the shock of that threat galvanised the Tradesman’s Arms into a whole sparky new life. The food’s good, the beer’s excellent, and the social life that revolves around the little inn, from poetry nights to quizzes and singsongs to story-telling, is just amazing. If only all rural communities could respond like tiny Scorriton to the gradual sapping of their resources!
I strode up the stony lane to Chalk Ford like a man on a mission. Misty weather was forecast for later in the day, and though I had my trusty Satmap GPS device in my pack, I didn’t particularly want to find myself in a Dartmoor pea-souper. Once across the rushing River Mardle and up on the moor proper, I found the old track to Huntingdon Warren and hurried along it. When the broad slope of the warren hove in view beyond the curve of the moor, the ancient settlements, the rabbit warrener’s mounds and the bumpy burial monuments of many millennia stood out unmistakeably.
I got over the lower wall and climbed the hill past the pillow mounds where the farmer/ warrener fed and nurtured the rabbits he culled for market. From the crest of the hill I looked down on the ruins of Red Lake china clay works and the huge green and black cone of waste left by the workers. They plagued the merry hell out of the warrener with their poaching raids, undeterred by the security men he posted around his domain.
Back down by the Western Wella Brook I found the little stone-lined hollow of Mattins Corner, with the cross-inscribed stone that Keble Martin set up as a devout young lad in 1909. The future naturalist, painter and author of The Concise British Flora often camped here with his brothers, gaining inspiration from this exceptionally lonely, bleak and beautiful hollow in the moor.
Beyond Mattins Corner stood Huntingdon Cross, carved in granite who knows how many hundreds of years before the Martin brothers created their rough chapel. A gauze of rainy mist came trailing down along the wind. I patted the harsh, weather-smoothed cross for good luck, and then made over Hickaton Hill for Scorriton by luck, GPS, compass and the pricking of my thumbs.
Route map
~Due to licensing restrictions in place on Ordnance Survey mapping the mapping extract must be removed prior to printing, or all printing must be limited to 10 paper copies or less and used for personal use only.~
Start & finish
Tradesman’s Arms, Scorriton, Devon, TQ11 0JB (OS ref SX 704685)
Getting there
A38 to Buckfastleigh; signs to Buckfast, then Scorriton.
Walk
4 miles, easy, OS Explorer OL28
From village square, pass The Barn B&B and on up lane for 1¼ miles to Chalk Ford (685681). Cross River Mardle; left along lower field edge for ½ mile to Lud Gate (683673). Left down Strole Lane for ¼ mile, left (689673) through Scae Wood to Higher Coombe (700681), Combe and Scorriton.
5½ miles, excluding exploration of Huntingdon Warren, moderate
From Chalk Ford, diagonally left (SW) up slope for nearly ¾ mile to meet track from Lud Gate at 679678. Bear right and follow track for ¾ mile to Huntingdon Warren wall (667670). Return to Lud Gate; as above to Scorriton.
6½ miles, hard, as above
At Huntingdon Warren wall, left past Mattins Corner (666665) to Huntingdon Cross (665662). Bear left diagonally up slope of Hickaton Hill, keeping left of large circular enclosure, and follow faint track ENE, then NE for nearly 1 mile to meet Lud Gate track (676671). Right to Lud Gate, as above to Scorriton.
NB: Moderate and hard walks – faintly marked paths, rough open moorland, hard to follow in mist. For walkers competent with map, compass and/or GPS.
Lunch: Short walk – Tradesman’s Arms, Scorriton (01364 631206; www.thetradesmansarms.co.uk); longer walks, take picnic.
Accommodation: The Barn, Scorriton (01364 631567; www.thebarndartmoor.com) – excellent, welcoming place; £60 dbl B&B.
More info: Buckfastleigh Tourist Information Centre (01364 644522; www.visitdevon.co.uk).
See books by Christopher Somerville.
More walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk. Author: Christopher Somerville