Walking On Dartmoor
Walking On Dartmoor
Price
£10.00
34. Cullever Steps, Oke Tor, Knack Mine, Steeperton Tor, Steeperton Gorge,
Taw Marsh, Belstone, Nine Stones, Belstone Tor
Long, 12.5km (7.75 miles), Hard
START Just above Cullever Steps, Map Ref 600920. You can visit the small and beautiful moorland hamlet of Belstone on this walk. There is a post office, stores, hotels and also a pub, so once again the timing of your walk will have to be carefully worked out! Otherwise you drive through Okehampton to the start, which is out on the military road past Okehampton Camp. Drive through the gate to the east of the camp, over the ford and then continue up the hill. At the top take the left-hand fork and after about 400m you will see a track running off down to your left. Park here off the road and track. This walk is easy to shorten.
Set off down the stony track to the valley below. The little stream beside you is the Black-a-ven Brook and it runs over a series of small waterfalls and pools to reach the East Okehampton River.
This is Cullever Steps and is an old fording place, but the present bridge is modern for military use. You will also see that the fording place is paved with granite slabs but here to make the crossing easier for the horse-drawn gun carriages, from the early days of the ranges. Do not take the track on your right along the valley but zigzag up east for a while and then follow the track south by Winter Tor. Keep on climbing up the ridge; the track almost peters out, but the direction is easy to see and follow. The ground falls steeply away to your left and soon you will come to Oke Tor with fine views.
Beyond the tor the track is more obvious and, after climbing a little, it starts to drop down to the steep-sided valley of the upper Taw. In the valley you will find the remains of Knack Mine which closed in the nineteenth century. It is also known as Knock Mine. Whether this name comes from the Celtic cnoc meaning a hill, I am not sure, but there is another explanation of the name that I like. When a mine was abandoned the miners often spoke of it as being ‘knacked’. So this was the knacked mine which became Knack Mine. I suppose the expression feeling ‘knackered’ might come from this derivation too! There used to be a clapperbridge here but it was badly damaged by floods in 1890 and nothing much remains.
Cross the young Taw and climb steeply up north-east to Steeperton Tor. The views from here are extremely fine as you are now a long way into the heart of the moor, spoilt only by obvious signs of the military buildings around you.
This is the turning point now, and you drop down very steeply north-north-west to Steeperton Gorge where the river rushes down in a deep ravine. You can make your way north along the gorge, beside the river, on the true right bank, but I leave it to you; it is quite awkward terrain. Soon you will emerge out of the valley after crossing Steeperton Brook and enter the wide Taw Marsh which could have been a lake in very early times. After the gorge there is a feeling of space and the sides of the hills, Cosdon Hill and Belstone Tor, fall back.
You will see a great many mounds and gullies made by the ancient tin miners here. There are also quite a few modern buildings, hatches and concrete constructions that are all to do with extraction of water from Taw Marsh. I remember that I was called in during the 1960s, as an aqualung diver, to dive 12m (40ft) or so into the pitch black peaty water at the bottom of one of the concrete pipes here, to see if I could fit a clamp onto a high pressure pump that had become completely jammed on the bottom. After five dives, working in total, murky darkness, I had to give up. Each time they tried to pull it up with a crane, the clamp that I had attempted to fix round the narrow neck of the pump, all that was sticking out of the gravel, came away. It is odd to have such memories of this lonely spot!
You should soon find a track on the right bank of the Taw which, after crossing Small Brook, will take you to a ford and stepping-stones at Horseshoe Bend where the river takes an enormous curve. If the river is in flood you may have to cross earlier. It is here that you could shorten the walk by climbing up west to Higher Tor and then exploring the ridge of Belstone Tor and the Irishman’s Wall before dropping down west again, by the wall, back to Cullever Steps and up to the car.
As you walk north you will see some hatches; these lead into an underground pumping station. At least this is hidden.
Keep following the track north past the end of Irishman’s Wall. The story goes that an Irishman set about enclosing part of the moor in the early 1800s and to do this he brought over a large number of his countrymen, Irish labourers, who surprised everyone by working on the building of this wall bare-footed. The work went on and the commoners of Belstone and Okehampton said nothing and did nothing but clearly they were not happy about the possibility of being prevented from using such huge areas of their grazing land south of Belstone Tors. They let the Irishmen almost finish their task and then they struck. They gathered in large numbers and set off to the wall which they then demolished in several places. The Irishmen disappeared and no attempts were made to close the breaches and so the cattle continued to graze on the commons. There is another modern building here, not underground, that is also part of the Taw Marsh water extraction.
Aim now at the corner of the enclosures where you will see the Sheepfold and dip with the river cascading by in an area known as Holloway’s Fields. Walk along with the wall on your right on a rough track and if you wish to visit Belstone village then go through a gate near a house called Birchy Lake and onto the road that runs north. Down on your right you will see the rocky and beautiful granite gorge of the Taw, called Belstone Cleave. There is a crossing place below too that would lead you on to Cosdon Hill, sometimes called Cawsands Beacon, if you wanted to go that way for another walk.
If you do go into Belstone there is a way back onto the open moor called the Higher Birchy Lake Gate which you can use rather than the other one which is the Lower Birchy Lake Gate, or you can come through the moor-gate near Watchet Hill Cottage, which is quicker still.
If you decide against a visit to the village then skirt round the edge of Belstone Common until you are near Resugga and then strike up south-west to the Nine Stones. Nine Stones they may be called but there were, in fact, 17. Only 12 remain now. How nine comes into it I do not know! They are also known as the Nine Maidens, maidens being a corruption of the Celtic maen a stone! I have also heard them called the Seventeen Brothers. In any case, these wicked girls or men (whichever you prefer) were turned into stone for dancing on a Sunday and as punishment they are forced to dance and change positions every day at noon. If you have visited the pub in Belstone you might well be able to see this happen! They are, of course, all that remains of a Bronze Age burial site. From here you can either go further west to find a track that will contour round and then lead you gently back to Cullever Steps or, if you are feeling strong, go on up to the summit of Belstone Tor. It is worth the climb as the views are tremendous. Standing as it does on the north edge of the moor, you can see to Exmoor. All around the views into the moor, where you have been walking, are fine and also down onto Taw Marsh and across to Cosdon Hill. You can look down onto the wooded gorges of the East Okement and also Belstone Cleave; yes it is worth the climb. If you do go to the top then follow the Irishman’s Wall west to Cullever Steps or find any easy way down you wish.
The climb up the track to the car might be exhausting. I am sorry to finish the walk with an uphill stretch!
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