Moorland Ramblings

It’s finally happened. It’s the 13^th May and finally, for the first time in 2024, I have had to put some sunscreen on before heading out for a walk. The temperature hasn’t quite reached the dizzying heights where shorts could be a sensible choice, but nonetheless, it finally feels like summer is on her way.

I have chosen this walk today for x3 reasons – firstly, it is out of Princetown and I’ve been looking to go to the visitor centre for a while, to buy a really cool poster. Secondly, it is a gentle walk mostly along a path and when walking with someone suffering the trials of being in the first trimester, the easier the walk the better. Finally, there a couple of folklore tails attached to our destination and I do love a folklore tale.

So we set out, having parked in the Princetown carpark, and followed the main road Northwest out of Princetown, past the fox tor café. About 200m past the café, on the right is a relative obscure little gate, in between a couple of houses, which leads onto a grassy path. Following this path takes you past a little copse of trees and in between some field. Eventually, it opens out onto field overlooking the moors (or do the moors overlook the fields – I don’t know), the vista broken only by tufts of grass and grazing sheep.

The walk basically stays on this path. About 750m in, the path slopes steeply down a hill. It takes you over the Devonport leat and then offers two options, left or right. Take the right hand path and again, stick to it. Not long after this turn, the path will take you alongside a lovely little cottage and through a gate opening out onto the open moorland. Once again, at this point it offer two options, a left or right fork. Take the left this time and head up the gentle hill. Just as the path start to head downwards again, about 700 meters after the fork, you will have reach your destination – the Crock of Gold. Now, the actual feature isn’t all that easy to find. If you look on OS maps, it is the circular feature located just underneath the C of the first “Cairn”. Being slightly more technical then that, it’s about 10-15m south of the path. Being more precise still, the exact grid reference is SX61096 73077. The Crock of Gold is a fine example of a Dartmoor cairn and cist. The cairn is 4-5 meters in diameter and centred by the cist. Often, on Dartmoor the cist is non-existent but with the Crock of Gold, that couldn’t be further from the truth.  The cist is a clear rectangular structure, dug out to a good depth, about 1 x 0.5m in size. It really is one of the best examples to be found on the moor.

This walk is a “there and back” and so simply retrace your steps to get back to the start/end point, and make sure to stop in Princetown for a bite to eat and pint of beer, there are a couple of fantastic cafes and pubs and of course, the National Park Visitor Centre is well worth a visit.

The walk itself is great, but the stories associated with the Crock of Gold are better to my mind so be sure to see the post “The Gold in the Grave”.