Walking From Two Bridges to Beardown Man via Wistman's Wood and Crow Tor

Parking is at the small quarry car park opposite the Two Bridges hotel, then through the gate and follow the sign to Wistman's Wood.

Follow the graveled road for about 600m...

...that ends at an isolated house. The footpath continues to the left of the trees, the way clearly marked.

The footpath soon emerges onto the high moor, passing groves of fragrant gorse, with the West Dart river meandering to the left. The first of the three stands of oak that comprise Wistman's Wood is about a 1km distant overlooked by the tors of Longaford and Littaford.

Wistman's Wood, one of the relics of prehistoric Dartmoor. The trees growing here today are around 400-500 years-old but the wood itself probably dates to c.7000 BC.

The trees grow within an almost impenetrable field of moss-covered boulders that have certainly helped protect them from people and other animals. According to local legend, Wistman's Wood functioned as the kennel for the Devil's hell-hounds.

The most northerly section of Wistman's Wood with Crow Tor visible on the horizon right of centre. The wood extends for around 700m along the eastern bank of the West Dart river. It is also the site of several Bronze Age settlements and the remains of numerous hut circles.

About 500m beyond the last stand of oaks is the headweir for the West Dart branch of the Devonport Leat, shown here looking south, Wistman's Wood visible in the distance. The masonry dates to the leat's construction in the 1790s. The leat itself is behind the sluice gate to the right. 

The Devonport Leat, right, as seen from the headweir.  The tors of Littaford and Longaford are on the left.

Crow Tor, shown on the horizon to the right, is about 900m from the headweir on the other side of the Longaford newtake stone wall.

To reach the tor involves crossing the West Dart river at a suitable point. Fortunately the river is strewn with large boulders making it relatively easy to ford unless it's in full spate. Using one of the stiles set in the Longaford newtake wall, a short ascent brings the walker to the compact mass of Crow Tor.

Fine views from Crow Tor south towards the West Dart valley and Two Bridges.

Crow Tor, looking south.

Devil's Tor, just visible on the horizon to the right of the ranging pole, lies within the Merrivale Firing Range. Firing times are available online. 

Devil's Tor is about 1.2km from Crow's Tor. The walk involves crossing a shallow valley down which runs the Methern Brook. The remains of former tin-works are in the area...

...but the terrain is tussocky and wet. 

A short climb leads to Devil's Tor, one of the smallest tors on the moor.

And just to the north of Devil's Tor is the great Bronze Age menhir of Beardown Man c.1750 BC. It stands almost alone on the edge of the great peat bog that covers so much of the northern moor.

Beardown Man from Devil's Tor, looking east, with Great Mis Tor in the distance.

A Walk Around... Foggintor Quarry

The granite quarry at Foggintor, formerly known as the 'Royal Oak' and located on the western side of the high moor, was opened around 1820. Granite from the area however had been taken since the end of the 18th century, some of which was used in the construction of buildings in and around Princetown, including the prison. Quarrying at Foggintor stopped at the beginning of the 20th century when focus moved to the more productive quarry at nearby Swell Tor. Granite from Foggintor quarry was used in numerous buildings throughout Britain, including Nelson's Column, although almost nothing now remains of the original outcrops of Foggin Tor or Swell Tor.

These two quarries are interesting historical additions to the National Park, and both have numerous visual remains of their industrial pasts, but I find them forbidding places. There's a latent violence within the vast man-made tumble of shattered stone that litters the ground, emphasised perhaps by the still quietness in which both quarries now lie.

Access: easy from Princetown, about 2km along the disused railway. Swelltor quarry is slightly further west but both enjoy spectacular views across the tors to the north and into Cornwall to the west. Dangerous for everyone, especially pets and children [although it's not uncommon to see ponies and sheep grazing on the very lip of the quarry walls!].

Looking north over part of the quarry towards King Tor and Merrivale, with sheep and two people for scale

Eastern face of the quarry wall with some remarkable purple/red discoloration to the rock

Straight down the sheer sides of the quarry wall, with sheep to far right!

The eastern wall of Foggintor quarry

The blue/black lake now occupying the northern end of the quarry with views stretching far into Cornwall

Looking into the quarry from its northern end

Looking north from inside the quarry

The sheer eastern walls of Foggintor quarry

Huge blocks of granite, a by-product of the quarrying process, lie at the feet of the cliff

The narrow footpath threading its way across the quarry floor

The view from outside the quarry itself, over the huge spoil heaps towards King Tor and Merrivale

Ruins of a quarry building

The northern edge of the quarry looking towards King Tor, Merrivale and the great sequence of tors north of the Princetown/Tavistock road

The isolated Yellowmeade Farm with Great Mis Tor beyond as seen from the periphery of the quarry site

Source: 'Industrial Archaeology of Dartmoor', Helen Harris, 1986

Crossing Fox Tor Mire

The view looking north from near Goldsmith's Cross on the southern border of Fox Tor Mire. What is presumably the bridleway marked on the Explorer OS map is the dark path in the centre of the image. Unfortunately I lost the path about half way across

The path initially consisted of some slightly firmer ground mixed in with bog and tussocks. The houses at the former mine at Whiteworks are just visible in the distance. The bulk of Fox Tor Mire extends away to the right

As well as the tussocks and featherbeds, the mire is threaded with numerous deep streams and rivulets, such as the one in the image above. In trying to find somewhere to cross this stream I lost the increasingly indistinct path I'd been following from Goldsmith's Cross

The ground here consisted almost entirely of one vast featherbed blocked off to the right by another deep stream

The view south from firmer ground back towards Goldsmith's Cross about half a kilometre away

The last of the mire and the climb up towards the houses at Whiteworks

The full extent of Fox Tor Mire from the Whiteworks/Princetown lane with, left, the Devonport Leat