The Two Moors Way – Day 3
By: snowgood
Tags: ceremonial processions, grimspound, stone circles
Category: Travel
| Aperture: | f/8 |
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| Focal Length: | 4.3mm |
| ISO: | 200 |
| Shutter: | 1/0 sec |
| Camera: | Canon IXUS 220HS |
Rather than pitch a tent at Bennett’s Cross on Monday Roz kindly ran out and brought Tom and I back to chez moi.
Mr.Organised set his alarm for seven, and on Tuesday morning we set off from this remote spot several miles west of Moretonhampstead.
What a glorious day. The weather couldn’t have been better.
If you want an overview of our intended route click here.
Our first few miles were a gently (though boggy) tramp down a gentle incline, taking in a fascinating avenue of standing stones, as we headed in the general direction of Chagford.
Are you amazed at the staggering beauty of the landscape? The recent heavy rainfall has left Dartmoor a brilliant green, and in many places the views are uninterrupted by any sign of civilisation. So you’d probably guess the scenery is “as old as the hills”.
Except it isn’t. The landscape is actually a “green wasteland” entirely of man’s making. Five hundreds years ago Dartmoor was a vast forest, now in parts there’s barely a tree to be seen.
So the archaeological site at Grimspound (which we passed on Day 2) is all the more fascinating. These tiny villages were protected from wild animals by a stone circles, and feature primitive circular granite dwellings which originally had thatched conical roofs.
The Bronze Age man may have known little about engineering, but cleverly located the entrances away from the prevailing wind.
About a mile north of this village Tom and I walked along a grand standing stone avenue. I haven’t a clue why it was built, but one could imagine it as the site of ceremonial processions in the England of 1300 B.C..
The duo tone theme doesn’t allow more than one picture to a page, so look out for follow up pictures on later posts.
Snowgood's Blog 
We went through Dartmoor on our “Best of Britain” tour with Trafalgar. Thinking of the old stories of no one ever trying to escape from Dartmoor because they couldn’t survive the barrenness, we couldn’t help but thinking of Outback Oz and wondering why they would call this place barren. As you say, things have changed since then.
On my visits to England, I never saw such blue skies! Even in summer, the skies were grey and the sun seemed soooooooo far away.
Grey skies in England? Are you sure? watch this space….