A Sunny Sunday afternoon on and around Gidleigh Common, 14th March 2010.
I had decided on a Dartmoor walk for quite some while, but due to work and other matters, I hadn’t got around to it until today, and due to lack of daylight hours, decided on just a short walk, out to Buttern Hill stone circle with whatever else fitted in.
The day was lovely and sunny but cold, with a chilly northern wind. The drive down to Dartmoor was uneventful, aiming for the little car parking area at Scorhill. The lanes around the edge of the moor were lovely, full of snowdrops in the hedgerows and wooded streambanks. I headed out onto the moor and over to Buttern Hill stone circle.
From there I walked south towards Scorhill, avoiding the bog as best as I can. The land in the bottom of the valley was very wet and boggy, and hard going, but once onto the western slopes of Buttern Hill, rather than the boggy ground, the going was very easy and direct – almost path like for much of the route.
When I first caught a glimpse of Scorhill Stone circle, approaching from the north, I thought it was a large congregation of people on the slopes of the moor. It was looking magnificent in the low sun, at times glistening in the patchy sunlight. As I arrived at the circle, two people on horses passed through, otherwise I was alone here for best part of half an hour.
I counted 39 stones, many of them like pointy topped teeth sticking out of the ground. It is a great pity so many of the stones have been broken and toppled. One of the remaining standers is much bigger than the others, I wonder why?. Perhaps several were once this size before being broken by stonecutters in the past. One or two stones lay flat to the ground showing the tell tale signs of the cutters, and one or two have been partially dragged away from the circle. Slightly uphill to the northeast, is a further stone standing – perhaps an outlier?
The circle is wonderful, and the views out onto the moor to the west vast. I wonder why I haven’t been here for so long – probably because I see it as an easy find! But being out here today, and this circle is up there with my favourites.
To the south and west of the circle, the Bradford leat partly encircles the circle a distance of between 50 and 100 metres distant. The leat is fairly big deep and fast flowing, and difficult to cross except in a few places. At one point southwest of the circle, the leat has in the past burst to the west, and been repaired using several of the large stones taken from the stone circle. Such a shame.
Although it was now getting quite late, and the sun low, I decided to head on south towards the Teign river, checked out a couple of cairns, crossing over the leat at the stone slab bridge, and headed down towards the Teign, in order to look for the Tolmen stone, which I found straight away! The hole is easily large enough for a man to pass through, but with the river flowing full, would almost certainly have meant getting wet in order to get below it, so I didn’t try.
I headed back to Scorhill circle and the sun has now set, so no time to delay, and took the direct route back to the car. The long journey home was harmless and uneventful. What a lovelyy day out.
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