Whether the weather be grey?

Walking on from Fernworthy circle...

The path dropped through a damp dank moss encrusted piece of woodland before opening out on to the open moor ( Dartmoor itself in fact!)

Very Lord of the Rings somehow.




Our objective now was the Grey Wethers, a very well known pair of circles. Some debate ensued as to the proper direction ( up hill of course!)

 And a nice pair of circles they turned out to be.
 Grey Wethers is the subject of local folklore which explains the origin of the name ('wether' is an old English word for sheep) 

The tale goes that a  farmer who had recently moved to Dartmoor  criticised  the sheep on sale at a local market. . He stopped for a drink at an Inn  and helped by several pints of  cider the locals persuaded him that there was an excellent flock of high quality sheep nearby which he would be welcome to buy. They walked off in search of them, and through the mist the farmer saw what he took to be a fine flock. He agreed to the sale, and returned to the site the following morning to find that what he had taken to be sheep were actually the stones of Grey Wethers.

Nothing so exciting for us. Just a chance encounter with a Czech chef who was also visiting the circles at the same time. It was threatening to rain now so we beat a hasty retreat back past Fernworthy circle to the car.


One last Dartmoor location then before we head on to Cornwall where we were actually headed for the week.

Hound Tor has a spooky reputation so it was a "must see". I admit I was rather disappointed.

 
We chose to visit in the early evening when it was likely to be quiet but unfortunately it wasn't as deserted as I'd hoped.

A gaggle of shrieking children and some rock climbers didn't do a lot for the atmosphere and I was quite disappointed

It is quite an extensive site and in places the yells of the children were muted by the rock. Then it was possible to get a hint if how it got its reputation. "Picnic at Hanging Rock" went through my mind more than once.