Two Bridges - Crocken Tor - Muddilake - Crock of Gold - Two Bridges

Dave Pawley

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The walk commences with a climb uphill to visit Crockern Tor, to the north-east of Two Bridges car park. On 1:25000 OS maps it is marked as the site where the Stannary Parliament met many centuries ago. The parliament leader's granite 'chair' can still be seen at the tor, if you take the time to hunt for it. The route given up to Crockern Tor follows the right of way route by Crockern Farm to reach access land, since up until September 2005 most of the area between Two Bridges and Crockern Tor was not open to walkers, other than along the right of way. CROW changed that and it is now possible to walk directly up to the tor across new access land once you have passed the first dry-stone wall boundary to the right of the track leading to Crockern Farm. The choice is yours now, assuming temporary closures are not in place.

From Crockern Tor, the walk then loops right out round the Prince Hall Hotel across the West Dart River to bring you to an ancient track, the Ashburton to Tavistock pack-horse trail, marked on OS maps as the Dartmoor Way. As you walk along this old trail you come to a relatively modern hardcore-laid track which strangely ends in the middle of the moor. This is known as Conchies Road. Read the additional information section of the walk notes to find out why.

Dartmoor has many kistvaens, (Bronze Age graves) scattered around and almost all of them have been opened and robbed of valuables long ago. Whilst many remain unmarked, others have quite colourful names associated with them. The route along Conchies Road takes you right by the 'Crock of Gold' kistvaen, named as such on OS maps and well worth a minor diversion to visit and reflect on whether it really did contain a crock of gold.

When you leave the Dartmoor Way track, you swing back to cross first, the Blackbrook River and then the West Dart again at Two Bridges, where you can use the older of the two bridges to pass by the large hotel, which dominates the hamlet, before returning to the car park and the bus stop. The hotel I believe, is open to non-residents but Princetown has rather more tourist attractions for you to enjoy.

England - South West England - Devon - Dartmoor