Whiteworks - Mine Workings - R Swincombe - Fairy Bridge

Dave Pawley

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This is a challenging walk, no doubt about that and not one to be undertaken if you are lacking the ability to use a map and compass or don't like crossing rivers and brooks and boggy areas, since these you cannot avoid on this walk. The views from the top of Fox Tor, looking across the fen of Foxtor Mire and the rolling moorland landscape are superb and the feeling of remoteness has to be experienced. Enjoy it, but remember to make sure you can navigate. If there is a likelihood of fog or bad weather or there has been recent heavy rain then don't go on the walk. Leave it for better conditions, when you can enjoy it rather than it becoming a survival exercise. What most Dartmoor walkers so enjoy about walking in this lovely National Park is the feeling of openness, where you can see for miles and very often walk for miles without seeing another person; no cars, just open moorland and a feeling of complete freedom. This walk offers just this, with a walk around the huge moorland bowl of Foxtor Mire, surrounded as it is by hills. Dartmoor is of course the source of many rivers flowing to the north and south coasts of Devon; and the Whiteworks and Foxtor area of Dartmoor has a network of brooks and rivers feeding into one of the largest of them, the River Dart. Although you don't see the Dart on this walk, you do get very close indeed to many of the feeder rivers and brooks which flow into it. Virtually every depression in the ground will have a brook or river flowing through it and you will certainly meet a few of these en route. There will also be soft boggy areas associated with the brooks. Don't expect bridges and you won't be disappointed. Having said that, there are a couple of bridges in a wooden footbridge across the Swincombe and a couple of granite clapper bridges over leats. Equally, there are quite a few brooks and small rivers that you cross using your own ingenuity and some strategically located boulders. Choose the right day and it is a lovely walk; if conditions are bad, don't even think about going out on the moors!

England - South West England - Devon - Dartmoor