The NE corner of t'Moor, that is.
The 'bit between Cosdon and the countryside' is one of the few bits of Dartmoor I've not really wandered all over. Well, until Saturday, when I did just that.
The sun shone, the wind blew [where have I heard this before..?]. Yeah, so said wind was a sort of NW one, which is different, and cold too. The sun was as hot as befitted May Eve, and out of the wind it was almost toasty.
I looped from Scorhill up to the White Moor Circle,
The White Moor Circle, and aligned White Moor Stone
Then hung a right and bounced up Cosdon itself. It being a sunny weekend day, the summit was far too full of bods, but I knew a nice spot a way on and had a very relaxed lunch enjoying the insane panorama while in the sun and out of the wind.. :)
Just a teeny section;
Looking towards Castle Drogo and Lustleigh
Only Buzzards and Ravens flew by, so eventually I set back off and followed the highway of a path down the east side to my main target; the 'Cosdon circle'. Which as it turns out is less about what's left of the circle, and more about one of the nicest triple rows around;
Looking east
All the rows end in terminals
Though they have suffered a bit,
most notably from a cart track
Ok, ok enough stones!
I then started to head back towards Scorhill, hoping to take in a couple of interesting spots and a couple more sites en route.
The first spot was the Blackaton Brook, which turned out to have a wonderful and well-hidden secret;
Blackaton Steps - one of many
A chute feeds a pool deep enough to jump in...
This is a wonderful spot, but not easy to get to - the slope you see on the left of that second pic is typical!
I headed on down to Shilstone Tor, past some nice settlements, and meeting some nice birds, including this little beauty;
Itsa blur Whinchat!
Shilstone is a very easy tor - right by a little car park and practically made of sheltered picnic alcoves - so I stayed put and finished off my coffee while watching the coutryside for whatever felt like passing.
And yes, I finally got my flyby raptor - Hobby! It powered overhead and zoomed on east. This got my spirits up and I started to idly wonder about Red Kites and the like, but the only other flyby was a [admittedly very smart full b/p] Grey Heron.
Time to toddle on, so after a small detour due to a valley mire, I was soon climbing towards Butterdon Hill and a couple of monuments.
Or not, as the case may be, as while there's a 'cairn circle' marked on the map, there was none I could find. One lone standing stone, and maybe a few in about 1⁄3 of a circle - in the wrong place and with nothing else. Oh well.
The chambered cairn - possibly even a small robbed-out chambered tomb - was exactly where it was supposed to be, however;
Looking in the entrance?
Back to birds, as while Cuckoos had been about since I left Blackaton, I finally caught one sat down close enough to get a shot off;
Cuckoo
Brown morph female
Honest.
My attempts to find the Lost Circle Of Invisibility did have one unexpected benefit, though.. As I was traversing an area of swaling, I was sort-of-delighted* to flush a Grey Partridge! There was lush new growth grass amongst the charcoaled gorse, so I guess that explains the bird's presence [and it was pretty close to the Moor's edge].
Another stop atop Butterdon Hill itself gave great views of scenery but no passing scarcities, and as the sun westered it was time to go.
One last thing. This amused, bemused, and generally had me shaking my head in sad despair;
In case you can't make it out,
the shiny TT sign is next to the great big 'Please Shut The Gate'...
On both sides, too.
Right then, there you go. Ten miles of fun, somewhat delayed.
Not at all delayed is my report from the Nose this morning;
Surprise at actually seeing a Garden Warbler in the South Side, then hearing a Lesser Whitethroat sing.. Less surprise at the large numbers of seemingly fresh-in Blackcaps. Whitethroat numbers building slowly. Buggere alle else to report.
[[*Because I never like flushing anything]]
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