Princetown - Hart Tor - Ingra Tor - N Hessary Tor

Dave Pawley

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This great walk out of Princetown encompasses all that is so wonderful about walking Dartmoor. Firstly the quite magnificent tors all around, many of which can be climbed without too much difficult. On this walk you visit nine such tors and even get the opportunity to walk inside at least two of them, since during the 19th Century they were extensively mined for the granite.

A second feature of true moorland walking are the Dartmoor ponies and in some sections, a complete absence of footpaths as we know them. There is nothing quite like walking across open and rough moorland on a compass bearing to give you the feeling of remoteness and space around you. The wide open vistas are all around you - the horizons on a clear day go on for ever.

The day the waypoint photos were taken, 41 of us, yes 41 ramblers from the West Country and Hampshire came together for this walk. The visibility was almost perfect and from some of the high tors, Cornish headlands forty miles away were clearly visible, as was the Eddystone lighthouse and ten miles beyond that to the horizon.

In addition to the magnificent challenge of the tors on their high points providing wonderful exercise, there is also plenty more to interest you. The walk passes by old tin workings, a lovely waterfall and up a beautiful sheltered valley through which flows Yes Tor Brook. Old artifacts are there in abundance if you can find them: large granite corbels hand-carved for the London Bridge, remain where they were left as surplus to requirements over 100 years ago.

Before the start and at the end of the walk the well-known village of Princetown and its famous Dartmoor prison has lots to offer. The prison museum, the high moorland visitors centre operated by Dartmoor National Park staff, at least three public houses and tea rooms. Yes, this is much more than a walk, it is a day to savour and to enjoy to the full. If you don't do this walk, you are missing a real opportunity.

England - South West England - Devon - Dartmoor