Bellever Tor Circular Walk

The second part of our day in Dartmoor, we decided to try and do a Torr walk, as we were limited to time we thought we would embark on a shorter Torr walk and decided to do Bellever Torr.
There is a car park just before you get into Postbridge (driving from the West), this is a free car park which is always a bonus.

The trail heads south through the coniferous woodland on a main track. The start of the trail is an ascending gradient, enough to get the heart pumping and the legs tingling, a great warm up for the rest of the walk.

The Start of the walk through beautiful forest.

The walk continued through the forest, keep to the right hand side of the track. After about twenty minutes you will come to a small path on the right hand side. This leads to an ancient burial site which is very easy to miss but a good detour to make.

Burial site

The whole area of Lakehead Hill is littered with ancient historic sites, this one being the most visually pleasing though. Once you pass the site turn left onto a marshy trail, this leads you to commanding views of Bellever Torr.

Bellever Torr

 The path here is relatively easy and flat, the clouds at this point were looking a bit ominous but there was no turning back for us so we strove on until we met up with the main path again at the base of the Torr. Here there was an really old wall and stone gate post.

Ancient Farm workings

The path, from this point, was straight an up to the Torr, again nothing too strenuous, just enough to get you heart pumping.

Legend says that the God Baal lived on Bellever Torr, he was the most popular God so being at the centre of Dartmoor, it was the most appropriate place for him to dwell.

My dad's handy camera handywork.

 After a quick break at the top of the Torr,, the granite rocks then point the way to the next stage of the walk across the moor towards Laughter Torr.

The rocks point the way.

 From the vantage point of Bellever Torr we had the worrying sight of dark clouds brewing in the horizon, we hoped and prayed it would not rain but gained our pace and yomped across the moor which was boggy in places, have the good old British summer to thank for that!!

The worrysome sky of the clouds brewing

 When you meet an intersection of walls it was unclear which direction to head, with the trusty map in hand we headed towards Laughter Torr, not sure why it is called this but it looks quite unforgiving and bleak in a cloudy sky. We decided to skirt around the Torr then found a hidden gem, a huge ancient obelisk, one that could have been laid down in asterisk's time, the mood of the clouds made for a mystical photo opportunity.

Standing Stone by Laughter torr

 

After a short while the small path we were on was intercepted by a main path, here take a left onto the main path which leads you to Bellever Forest, a great contrast to the bleakness of the moors.

The path behind

We came across an old farmstead which looked as though it had not been working for many years, it was called Laughter Hole Farm, a wondrous place and the trees we literally hanging with lichens, the air must be unbelievably clean here.

The Lichen Tree

Laughter Hole Farm

 This place was awash with wildlife, I have never seen so many Goldfinches, a flock of over a hundred flew over us and landed on the most lichen covered tree I have ever seen, not even sure if there was room for leaves

Goldfinch Heaven

 I have never seen a tree like this one, absolutely amazing! looks like someone has thrown a tonne of wet tissue over it, really unusual to see and proven that the air quality in Dartmoor is second to none compared to the highly polluted city of Oxford. The NHS should send people here to get better!

The path continued into the forest again,, a pleasant walk. This then led us to the edge of the forest where there was a picnic area where the East Dart River skirted the forest. This is a beautiful spot with wild ponies and (which excited my father) brown trout swimming in the river.

East Dart River

Dartmoor Ponies?

After a quick bite to eat here and a welcome rest we crossed the Bellever and then walk along the track adjacent to the road, a spiders paradise, for about a mile which took us back to the car.

This was lovely walk, legs were a bit tired at the end, probably due to doing two walks in a day, but this is not that strenuous but you will need a map as the path on the moors disappears a few times. This was a great introduction to Dartmoor and it's history and would recommend it to anyone. Again we were lucky with the weather. Home and a nice pint awaited us in Chulmleigh, a great end to a fantastic day....Dad thanks again.