A walk on Hameldown.

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We`ve spent a lot of time on the moor this summer, its one of our favourite places to be, and Saturday we headed up there again....on the way to our walk we saw these beautiful Highland cattle resting beside the road, and I had to get a photo of them.

The moor is beautiful at the moment with the heather like a purple carpet on the hillsides, and the gorse stunning gold.  We followed the winding granite path up to Grimspound the largest Bronze age walled village on the moor, covering four acres.

Inside the massive walled enclosure there are over twenty hut circles, some of them would have been for living in and others for storage.  The Bronze age people that lived here, would have kept sheep, goats, cattle and pigs, the women would have gathered nuts, berries and roots, and the men would have hunted.  The water supply for the village would have been the little stream the Grimslake  which runs through the enclosure. 

After looking around we left by the massive main entrance and walked up the side of Hameldown, with lovely views back across the moor and the purple topped hills.

 

There`s a lovely ancient heather fringed path called The Miner`s path that runs along Hameldown from the village of Manaton, down through the enclosure and across the road to the valley of Challacombe where the miner`s used to mine for tin.

 

 

It was lovely and peaceful walking amongst the heather and gorse with the grasses like blonde highlights, and the bee`s buzzing amongst the flowers.

 

 

We eventually found the memorial stone to the crew of a Shackleton bomber that crashed on the top of Hameldown in the last war, killing all the crew, who were on their way back to Lincolnshire.

 

 

It`s a fitting memorial to the bravery of those lovely young men who laid down their lives for their country, and who should always be remembered.

 

 

We decided to walk back to the top of Hameldown, where the views are stunning across the tors, to hamlets, woods and distant horizons...the Two Moors way runs the length of Hameldown and passes the many barrows strung along the top.  On the way we passed this strange looking post which is actually a Glider Post, placed with many others on Hameldown in the last war to deter German gliders from landing there, it seems ridiculous now to imagine that they thought these would have been of any use, but it shows how much they feared an attack.

 

 

This large Barrow and Trig are on the end of Hameldown, just over the edge from the climb up from Grimspound.

 

 

And if you look back down to Grimspound you realise just how huge the enclosure was, and certainly what a lovely spot it must have been to live at.

 

 

As always it was an inspired walk, and we really enjoyed every minute of it, we also saw this lovely little foal feeding with its mother on the ferny slopes, and I noticed that the bracken is starting to colour now that Autumn`s round the corner.