Dartmoor Ramblings

So our trip to Cornwall actually included a day on Dartmoor ( which is Devon of course). Our flying visit to Bodmin had whetted our appetite to spend more time on the moor and now was the time. First stop was completely unplanned but a perusal of the map showed something called Spinsters Rock. It sounded interesting enough to take a short detour to have a look.


And well worth the detour it was too. A nice little quoit, easily found with an interesting name. Spinsters in this case apparently refers to spinners rather than unmarried women.

They erected this before breakfast one morning. I'm sure the sheep in the field appreciated their efforts as it shows signs of being well used as a shelter against the infamous Dartmoor weather.

So on to our intended stop for lunch  - Fingle Bridge.

 You have no idea how long I had to wait for this shot. It was a bit busy...

John Lloyd Warden described it as "... the ancient bridge, so narrow that only one cart at a time can pass over it, and the wayfarer caught thereby must retire into one of the triangular recesses, the continuation upwards of the sharp buttresses that divide the hurrying waters. A sweet spot, though somewhat sad toward eventide, when the 'cry' of the river sound mournful on the darkening atmosphere".

This however was still not our final destination and after lunch at the pub we drove on to Fernworthy reservoir and our intended walk for the day.

The first car parks were packed ( summer and school holiday season but once we'd driven to the furthermost car park we had it pretty much to ourselves.

This is a pretty little circle surrounded by confer woods so the original setting would have been very different. It's not on it's own though....

An avenue of stones leads off between the trees. The grass is a bit long but you can see some of them here.

Looking back along the avenue towards the circle. There are plenty of rocks around outside the obvious features so it's hard to tell at this time of year which ( if any) are significant.