Aish and Mel Tor – Dartmoor Walks
June 16, 2020
Aish and Mel Tor on Dartmoor sees us make a bit of a change from our beautiful coastal walks.
 A few small facts about Dartmoor:
- Dartmoor is 368 square miles; 20 miles from north to south and 20 miles from east to west.
- The highest point is Willhays tor at 621 meters above sea level.
- There are over 160 tors on Dartmoor. Â A tor is where the granite has pushed up through the ground and shows on top of the moorland.
Poundsgate to Mel Tor
Dartmoor isn’t all about moorland and “Hound of the Baskerville’s” dramatic landscapes. Â There are pretty villages and hamlets, rivers and forests. Â We started our walk in the village of Poundsgate, following country lanes to Ponsworthy before heading up to Mel Tor (we even managed to get an ice-cream in a car park at Mel tor corner – result). Â One of the great things about Dartmoor is the peace and quiet. Â Listen….
We lunched at Mel Tor and while there Clark spotted a letterbox. Â For those not in the know, here’s a little history of letterboxing (courtesy of the official Dartmoor website)
Letterboxing
Letterboxing originated on Dartmoor in 1854 at Cranmore Pool, when a cairn (pile of rocks) was set up and a glass jar was placed there so that visitors who had made it to the cairn could leave their visiting card. Â
From this walkers on Dartmoor started to leave boxes with a letter or postcard inside – hence the term letterboxing. Â The next person to discover the site would then post the card or letter.
Nowadays, the letterboxers leave a message and sometimes a rubber stamp and ask other people who discover it to leave a note in their visitor book.  There’s an official letterbox catalogue with clues and grid references to help the serious collector find the letterboxes.  We stumbled across this one at Mel Tor….we were not alone.
Mel Tor to Aish Tor and The River Dart
Our walk from Mel Tor was along a section of the Two Moors Way, past Aish Tor and down to Newbridge and the River Dart. Â We couldn’t resist a stop to cool our feet off in the river, while watching Wagtails and Dippers darting up and down the river.
We followed the river path and were surprised to find an area jam-packed with people; sunbathing, picnicking, playing music, swimming and barbecuing. Â Somewhat like a beach scene and completely the opposite to what we were expecting on Dartmoor. Â This would explain the problem we had with parking…obviously a well-known spot. Â To escape and once again find tranquility we headed uphill and onto the moors once more before hitting country lanes to take us back to our start point.
Mel and Aish Tor Dartmoor walk discoveries
- Mel Tor – a great place to stop for lunch with natural seating spots in abundance.
- Walking through Ponsworthy at ‘The Splash’ (a road where drivers have to go through a small stream), look for Forder Bridge – an old clapper bridge.  I know, what’s a clapper bridge? – a bridge constructed of one or more large pieces of flat granite or stone, resting directly on the river banks on either side or on dry stone piers. We have definitely come across other clapper bridges on previous Dartmoor walks.
- Although parts of the river at Newbridge were popular, we managed to find a beautiful quiet spot to enjoy nothing but the sounds of the river Dart (and a scone).
- Dartmoor ponies – the very definition of wild. Â There are traditional Dartmoor ponies, a pedigree breed, and then hill ponies, which can be a mixture of Shetland, Arab, Welsh and Spotted pony breeds. Â This explains the different sizes and colours of ponies we’ve seen on our walks. Â Of course, all of them are beautiful.
A lovely post
Your uncle Donald has a few hidden letter boxes that he created while he was alive , wonder if they are still about