An ancient pre-historic complex including the largest standing stone on the moor, a beautiful waterfall, a peaceful river and Deadman’s Bottom. Now all you need is the sun for a gorgeous day out.
DISTANCE: 5.5 miles (medium difficulty with a few adventurous river and stream crossings. This one is probably best for drier weather due to this as the water won’t be so fast and high.)
REFRESHMENTS: The Royal Oak at Meavy (excellent food), or to a cafe or pub at Princetown or Yelverton.
FACILITIES: Nearest ones are at Burrator Dam, but Yelverton or Princetown are better.
CAR PARKING: There is some of off-road parking at the end of the road, near the scout hut. It does get busy here though so arrive early to bag a good spot.
I love to look at waterfalls. It's a marvelous de-stress from a busy week and after seeing a photograph of a one on Shavercombe brook I thought it worth investigating as part of a walk.
After parking near the scout hut (SX 579673) I headed up past the Scout Hut following the main track. Once you are about halfway up the hill, if you look to your right you can see a little valley which sits to the left of a tor - this is the valley of the waterfall, sitting under Hen Tor, and where you will eventually be going.
Continue up the main track and when you start to see boundary stones on your left you’ll know your turning is coming up and at the one right next to the path take the path which leads right. If the hill starts getting very steep or you end up at Eylesbarrow tin mine then you’ve gone too far.
This right hand path links onto another and you’ll end up walking past some ruined buildings which were once part of the mine, following the dip between two hills down to Ditsworthy Warren. As the name suggest this was once an area that had a large commercial rabbit warren, one of many on the moor which flourished until rabbit farming was banned in the 1950s.
Remember not to go too far down this path or you’ll end up on the opposite side of the stream to the Drizzlecombe complex. So cross over where you can and you see the remains of an old stream bed which you can follow around the contour of the hill. By now you should also have spotted a standing stone, and the tallest one (SX 592 670) will soon come into view, so head towards that.
The Drizzlecombe complex includes many megalithic remains including a group of small stone circles around cairns, stone rows, standing stones, cists, cairns, hut circles and pounds. There is also the moors tallest standing stone, at 4.5m (15ft) and the impressive Giant's Basin cairn next to it.
It’s a lovely piece of history to explore and when you are ready to move on orientate yourself back at the tallest standing stone. Keeping it and the stone row behind you, walk back towards the stream bed which you used before. There are various small paths here so just follow one up and to the right until you find it, then follow the contour of the hill around and up the valley so you’ll end up walking parallel with and above the river.
You should see two paths on the opposite side of the river and you’ll be coming back down on the top one later.
When you get to a larger track, go right and straight to ford at Plym Steps (SX 602 672). Now a ford on Dartmoor doesn’t necessarily mean an an easy crossing place, but they are less difficult than other places.
Once you’ve cross here keep going up and over the brow of the hill (rather than the lower path). Behind you will be a lovely view of Higher Hartor Tor. It can be quite marshy on this bit so stick to the lower path if the weather has been wet.
Not too far along this path is a cist (SX 604 671) - an ancient burial chamber - which has a tilted capstone. The next part of this walk is a little detour as I checked the map and found I was not far from Deadmans Bottom, so with curiosity piqued I carried along the path which took me around to it so I could have a look.
The term ‘bottom’ has been used describe a small valley and the area also has death associated with it as there are many burial cists close by, so that could be a possible clue to the unusual name.
The view up Deadman’s Bottom was an anti-climax so after a cup of tea I followed a path next to Langacombe brook back down towards Plym Steps.
At the mouth of this little valley are some ruins which were part of an old tin mine. I went across these to find a crossing point over Langacombe brook and then joined a path/stream bed which took me around and back down the valley, alongside the River Plym.
This path is on Giant’s Hill and as you get further along it you’ll be rewarded with a beautiful view of the Drizzlecombe complex. As the path starts taking you down keep as left as possible as you aim for the the stream which is Shavercombe Brook. The path which leads up this valley is on the right hand side of the brook so you can cut a little bit of this corner off. I tried too hard and discovered the left hand area is one huge marsh so sticking to the path is the best option here.
Once over the brook, follow it up and you’ll find a path up to the waterfall. I thought it was a lovely hidden gem and very peaceful too. I even saw a buzzard on the way back down.
From here I didn’t retrace my steps completely, but followed the path past some large stones and around to the left and into the remains of old pillow mounds where the rabbits used to live as part of the warren.
After a short while there was a path which cut to the right, towards a row of stones, so follow this down. It eventually cuts to the left and you are aiming towards Ditsworthy Warren House.
Eventually you will get down to the River Plym and a weir where it will break off into two with a smaller stream closest to you. Follow the hill around and cross this stream. There is path on its right and continue around until you reach a small stone bridge and track.
Go right and you’ll come to a ford (SX 582 661) just below and to the left of Ditsworthy Warren House. The house was built in the 16th century for the keeper of the warren.
I found this difficult to cross so went left, and halfway down to a wooden fence found another place to cross. This would not be an easy crossing is the river is high or fast flowing.
With the last river behind me I got onto the main man-made path which took me around the bottom of Gutter Tor, until I reached a closed gate, then cut back to the car from here.
Click here to view a Google map of the walk
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