You are rewarded with a beautiful view over Burrator Reservoir after a long and rocky hill up from Norsworthy Bridge - Dartmoor National Park at its best! Then you leave the main path and walk across moorland for the restored cross, again with great views, and Crazywell Pool. Then following Devonport Leat (with one steep downhill bit to the aqueduct) you briefly pop up to Black Tor, then back to the leat and an easy path into Stanlake Plantation and back to Norsworthy Bridge.
DISTANCE: 5.5 miles (medium difficulty with a couple of hard bits)
ROUTE IN BRIEF: Norsworthy Bridge, Crazywell Cross, Crazywell Pool, Devonport leat and aqueduct, Black Tor, Stanlake Plantation; Norsworthy Bridge
REFRESHMENTS: There is often an ice cream van at the dam, otherwise you can pop down to the Royal Oak at Meavy (excellent food), or to a cafe or pub at Princetown or Yelverton.
FACILITIES: Toilets at the dam, but these aren’t very nice. The ones at Yelverton or Princetown are better.
CAR PARKING: There is plenty of off-road parking at Norsworthy Bridge.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT: There is a 48 Burrator bus from Plymouth city centre on Sundays. This service is operated by First.
The waterproofs were all packed on this overcast day as I headed off to Norsworthy Bridge (SX 569693) at Burrator Reservoir with two friends. There are so many walks around this area it’s difficult to choose one but some beautiful views and a bit of history persuaded me onto this route.
The hill up from Norsworthy Bridge is not one of my favourites as it’s quite rocky and seems to go one for a long time (about a mile) - but it’s soon over and view is definitely worth it!
Once we left the trees behind us it wasn’t long before we saw the cross, so after following the main path for a bit, we went left, up over moorland to the cross (SX 584704) and enjoyed some more of those lovely views back towards Burrator Reservoir.
The cross is believed to have been one of many on Dartmoor which marked the Monk’s Path - an ancient trackway that linked Buckfast Abbey to those at Tavistock and Buckland.
Not far from the cross is Crazywell Pool (if you get to the leat before the pool, you’ve gone too far!). There are many legends about the pool including that it’s bottomless and it’s height rose and fell with the tides at sea. However the reality is that it was most likely an excavation by tin miners - either a flooded shaft or a reservoir.
Then we carried on to Devonpont Leat which once supplied water to Devonport Dockyard. Built in the 1790s it now stops at the reservoir. There is a steep and rocky bit down to the aqueduct (SX 574714) which also gives the leat a nice waterfall effect. From here we popped up to Black Tor (SX 578714). If you don’t wish to view Black Tor up close the walk will be about half a mile less.
There are many remains of tin workings around Black Tor, if you wish to take some time to explore, including a blowing house and a logan stone, however it was at this point that the overcast sky let rip and we all got a little wet so it was a short visit! Luckily the rain stopped once we got back to the leat.
We followed the leat along and into Stanlake Plantation. The path was easy from here and it’s very pretty among the trees. Shortly after we came out of the gate at the other end of the plantation there was a signpost to Norsworthy Bridge which took us down and back to the car.
View Crazywell Pool and Devonport Leat map
© Gillian Adams 2010
For information on where to stay, eat and visit on Dartmoor, please see www.visitdartmoor.co.uk
To view my Dartmoor walks ebook click here, and my Dartmoor colouring book click here
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