The Dartmoor Tors with Zack, Nick, Lottie and Mel

This weekend we travelled down to stay with our very good friends in Devon. On Friday we made our way to Dartmoor to climb some of the Tors. We had hoped to manage 4 in one afternoon, but we didn't. We did, however, make it make the following day to climb the 4th! The weather was very mixed, and cold, but we all survived to tell the tale.

The first hill we managed to climb was:

Haytor Rocks with Zack

Haytor Rocks (457m) is a popular spot on Dartmoor, and there were plenty of people around. Zack chose this as his hill as it is one of his favourite places on the moors. After a short but steep climb up from the car park, you can scramble up the rocks which have steps cut into them. From the top you get great views across South Devon to the sea. You can even see along to the Dorset coast. This was the first of my 40 hills where we had a view of the sea, and after a number of hills done in a cloud, it was fantastic to be out on a clear day. From here we could see all the other Tors we planned to climb that day, none of which were too far away, which turned out to be a good thing! After climbing up onto the rocks and admiring the views, we took a compass bearing, and headed off to:

Howell Tor with Nick

To get to Howell Tor (402m) from Haytor, you have to cross the remains of a granite tramway. This forms the start of the Templer Way. In 1722 James Templer was born in Exeter. After spending his early childhood as an orphan, he ran away to sea, making his fortune in India. He returned to England and, with his son James II, built a canal (the Stover canal) to carry clay between Teigngrace and Newton Abbot. In 1820, James II's son, George built the tram way to carry granite quarried from Haytor down to the canal for export. During the 1850s the granite quarries became uneconomic, and the tramway fell into disuse. The 18mile Templer Way follows the route of the tramway and then the canal from Haytor to Teignmouth. You can still see sections of the granite tramway today. We enjoyed the walk over from Haytor to Howell Tor, and climbed up the rocks when we arrived.

We then turned south to head for:

Saddle Tor with Lottie

This was a slightly longer walk than the one from Haytor, and we also had to cross a stream and a few marshy patches. While my feet remained dry in my walking boots, Rach was only wearing canvas walking trainers, and Zack managed to step into a puddle that came up over his wellies. There were, consequently, wet feet all around. Where the ground was dry, we found ourselves having to walk through prickly gorse and heather. While I am always up for walking 'off-path' I think everyone else decided that all future walks would need to stick to the main paths...

When we arrived at Saddle Tor (428m) we climbed up to the top.

The views were, again, fantastic, but also meant we could see the large, black cloud approaching at high speed. We had just decided to stop and boil some water for a hot chocolate, and thought we might have enough time to do that before the heaven's opened. We were wrong. The gas canister decided to loose pressure, and the water took rather a long time to boil (in fact we ended up not waiting, and drinking 'luke-warm chocolate' ...yum...) the cloud arrived and deposited a blizzard of snow. We managed to huddle together in the shelter of the rocks. By this point we were all getting quite cold, especially those of us with wet feet (Nick, Rach and Zack). It seemed that the 4th Tor was probably not a good idea, and we made a bee-line back to the car. We'd somehow managed to enjoy all weathers, and Nick commented that we'd seen four seasons in one day!

That night we managed to (almost) dry out our footwear, and so on Saturday we braved Dartmoor again for:

Hameldown Tor with Mel

We parked the cars in a very small car park and first headed up Hookney Tor (497m). From the top you get a great view of the Bronze-Age settlement of Grimspound. If you are interested in archeology and history, then it's well worth following the above link, as there is a wealth of information about the settlement. Essentially, Grimspound consists of a collection of 24 huts (or the remains of them) surrounded by a wall, enclosing the village. No-one knows for sure why the wall is there, it may have been for defensive purposes, or more likely to contain the livestock. We walked down and through the enclosure, checking out the hut circles before heading on up to Hameldown Tor (529m). We were blessed with some great views. Looking North West we could see clouds gathering over the higher points of Dartmoor, and the land was covered with snow. To the South and East we could see across to Haytor (see above) and also out across towards Exeter (East) and the sea (South). The highest point on Hameldown Tor is actually Broad Barrow. This is the largest barrow in the area, and Mel and I trekked through the snow to it with Lottie, going via the Hameldown Cross (remains of) on the way. While on the top of Hameldown Tor, we were on the Two Moors Way , a long distance (102miles) footpath from Ivybridge in the South to Lynmouth in the north. This path links both Dartmoor and Exmoor, crossing both from South to North. We retraced our steps back to the trig point, and then down to Grimspound before making our way back to the car for a much needed cup of tea.


All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our few days in Devon, both for the company (excellent as always), the food (Mel, your cooking was up to it's usual high standard) and, of course, for the hills, which have been the most Southerly and Westerly ones done so far!

Thanks to you all for a great trip and for helping me with my 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th hills!

The Clywds with Lucy, James, Andrea and Thomas (yes, that's 4 hills!!)

On Sunday, we went to The Clywds. This is a great little mountain range on the border between Flintshire and Denbighshire, you'll want OS Explorer 265 if you want to go there. I'd already walked with Nick up Shining Tor, and this time we went with his whole family. The plan was to try and walk the ridge, taking in 4 hills, one for Andrea, his wife, and one for each of their 3 kids, Lucy, James and Thomas. And guess what - we did it!

Moel Famau with Lucy

We started from the car park and view point at Bwlch Penbarra (SJ161605) and followed Offa's Dyke Path north up to the summit. This was a bit of a climb, but over a mile and a half or so, and therefore never too steep. Moel Famau is a popular spot, and so there were plenty of people around for this part of the walk. When you get to the top, you find Jubilee Tower. This was built to commemorate the golden jubilee of George III in 1810. It was meant to be completed with an Egyptian style obelisk, but it was never fully finished and in 1862 it was blown down in a storm. The obelisk was removed to make it safe, and only the sturdy base remains. At least this was then able to give us some shelter from the wind at the top while eating our packed lunch. Considering we were feeding 8 people and a dog (including 2 growing teenagers) I think it was a remarkable feat just transporting the food to the top! Moel Famau summit was the highest point of our walk at 554m and Lucy was given the honour of claiming it as 'her hill'. She and Bethan did well managing this walk, as it was quite up and down, and they were both pretty wet after only a short time! Once we'd re-fuelled, we continues along Offa's Dyke path towards our next goal:

Moel Dywyll with James

King Offa ruled Mercia from 757 to 796 AD. The area that he governed effectively made him an early King of England. Offa's Dyke is an earthwork which kind of follows the Welsh/English boundary. It is not known whether it was a defensive structure, or just an established boundary agreed with the Princes of Powys. Work was allegedly started on the dyke in 785 AD. The Offa's Dyke National Trail runs for 177 miles from Sedbury Cliffs on the Severn Estuary in the South to Prestatyn in the North. Our walk was entirely along this trail, and while I couldn't convince myself of seeing a dyke, we did see hill forts. Moel Dywyll (475m) is the next hill along the trail gong north, and we immediately left most of the other day-trippers behind. It would seem that most people enjoy the trip up to Jubilee Tower, then head back to the car. We, however, were doing a linear walk, and were obviously much more hardy...It was a great trip along. It had started snowing at the top of Moel Famau, and we started off feeling a bit cold, but soon warmed up as we pressed on. The nice thing about ridge walking is that you get to go downhill for a bit after reaching a summit, so we made good progress until the slow climb up to Moel Dywyll. None of us could really pronounce it, so if there are any Welsh speakers out there who would like to tell us how to get our teeth around the word 'Dywyll', then let me know! After a quick photo stop at the cairn and a chat to a group in training for Ben Nevis, we resumed our trek this time to:

Meol Llys-y-coed with Andrea

Now, a word about the weather. The weather forecasting app that I use on my iTouch promised a bit of cloud, but otherwise sunny and dry. We started quite well, with some views into the valley, but the clouds soon came down. The snow we experienced at the top of the first hill soon eased, and we were left with a wet mist. We all ended up pretty wet. As the walk progressed the mist became worse and worse, so by the time we reached Moel Llys-y-coed (465m), we couldn't really see a thing. The summit for this hill is actually off the path. The photo of us pointing is of Andrea and I pointing to the summit somewhere in the mist. We clambered over the fence to find the summit, leaving the rest of the party behind. There are no photos to record that final ascent, but I will always remember it. There are some days when you just have to dig deep. As I said, we didn't get a good view of the hill because of the mist, but I think it looks a bit like the picture you can navigate to by following this link. After rejoining everyone else, we began the descent down to where we had cunningly left a car. This was where we found the snow. The steep, north facing slope had patches of deep ice and snow. This led to a great deal of impromptu sledging while sat on our waterproof trousers. The uploaded movie clip gives you an idea! The kids had a great time (and so did the adults and the dog...!)

Once back at the car, Rach and Andrea left with Bethan and Lucy to fetch the other car, while I climbed:

Moel Arthur with Thomas

Moel Arthur is a hill fort. It was built about 2,500 years ago, and has impressive ramparts to the north, not that we could see them very well today. From the car park, an obvious path (still Offa's Dyke trail) ascends to the right, and then shortly after reaching a fence, you follow a path left up to the summit. The 'gateway' through the earthworks into the fort is obvious and impressive. The top is marked by a cairn, and I'm sure there are great views from the 456m elevation. As it was, there wasn't a lot to see in the mist, so we jogged back down to the carpark to wait for the girls. There was just enough time to boil some water with the stove for a cup of hot chocolate before they arrived with the cars.

It was a great day and we all enjoyed it. Now we've discovered The Clywds, I'm sure we'll be back, hopefully on a clearer day!

Thanks to Lucy, James, Andrea and Thomas for great company and for helping me up my 11th, 12th, 13th AND 14th hills!!

Shutlingsloe with Peter (in the rain)

Peter and I have been trying to coordinate our diaries to climb Shutlingsloe for some time. We finally managed to arrange to go out today - probably the wettest day we've had for some time! Nevertheless, we stuck to our plan and took our dogs over to the Macclesfield Forest in order to wander around under and within a large cloud. Shutlingsloe is locally known as 'The Matterhorn of Cheshire' due to it's distinctive shape, which unfortunately we were unable to appreciate today. According to Wikipedia the name derives from old English 'Scyttel's hlaw' meaning 'Scyttel's (personal name) hill'.

We started our walk at the visitor centre near Trentabank Reservoir, and walked up through the trees following signs up to the hill. The rain was persistent throughout the walk, and we got drenched. It was particularly nasty at the top, with horizontal rain whipping into your face! Not really a day for photos...
Once we'd reached the summit, we continued East off the summit, and then worked our way round North back into the forest and some shelter. We enjoyed a great walk through the forest, and the dogs were very happy running around amongst the trees. We managed to work our way back to the road, then crossed over to explore more of the forest on the other side before finding a small road further north which we followed around back to the car. Thankfully the rain abated just enough for us to do a quick change in the car park, before heading off to the local pub.

A much needed drink and meal at Leathers Smithy allowed us to dry off a bit. It was a great little pub, and clearly a local favourite judging by the lack of space in the car-park! I enjoyed a vegetarian wellington washed down with a half of Robinson's Unicorn, both excellent.

So, that's a quarter of the hills done! Thanks Peter! I'm hoping for better weather for the next hills, although I guess I can't guarantee that in February and March in the UK...