The whole geography of this route span on its axis two hundred or so years ago, reflecting the changing importance of places and the changing standard of the roads.
A Walk in English Weather Posts
Water-laden westerlies
Orographic clouds
Precipitation falls
Mizzle mists and ceaseless showers
Gauzes of frost
An occasional shield of snow
Long ago this track was once a main road between Tavistock and the harbours of Plymouth, connecting up Tavistock and Buckland abbeys. But for some reason its significance has fallen out of memory along with its use.
Packhorse tracks were the medieval equivalent of motorways, moving goods overland between important commercial centres. The route over Roborough Down on superficial inspection looks relatively featureless but there is a lot more going on than first meets the eye.
The Quarryman’s Path is an example of one of a number of routes that would have been used in this portion of the moor; criss-crossed in the early morning, and at the end of the day, by men toiling to and from their place of work.
The story of British glaciation is devoid of nuance. It states that everything north of the ice sheet limit was glaciated, and everything south of it was not glaciated. But maybe Dartmoor was glaciated after all?
Shilstone – a modest place of not-so-very-much on first appearance. Yet, by looking closer, it is an intriguing location – a microcosm of Dartmoor history.
Reflecting back on a year of walking to all the tors on Dartmoor, I realised my knowledge, approach and attitude is not the same as when I started. Here are the main things I learnt.
Today, Dartmoor is a protected landscape and the DNP Authority have it within their mission to conserve its wildlife, heritage and beauty. But our ideas about what is beautiful, important and how best to manage land and landscapes have long been contested and fluid.
At the start of 2020, most unlike me, I set myself the goal of walking to all the tors on Dartmoor in one calendar year.
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