Note that all maps on this site are only
indicative. You should never set out without the correct OS map.
One of the many Hound of the Baskervilles movies was aired again
on television but the more computer generated special effects the
filmmakers throw at it, the more they miss then point. The clever
graphics will never beat the real thing - and the real thing in
this case happens to be Dartmoor.
Basic hike: from lane
near Natsworthy Manor north east around Hameldown Tor to Grimspound,
returning via Hookney Tor and King's Barrow.
Recommended map and map reference for start point:
Ordnance Survey OL 28 SX 721 802
Distance and going: four miles, easy going.
In Conan Doyle's book Dr Watson observes: "Over
the green squares of the fields and the low curve of a wood there
rose in the distance a grey, melancholy hill, with a strange jagged
summit, dim and vague, like some fantastic landscape in a dream..."
This walk introduces you to the strange jagged summits and to
fantastic, dream-like landscapes
The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of my favourite yarns. It
was first published in The Strand Magazine in August 1901 - and,
from that day to this, the book has been elevating the wilds of
Dartmoor to a world-wide stage.
Even the Western Morning News gets a mention in what is reckoned
to be Sherlock Holmes's most thrilling adventure. Not that Holmes
hogs the limelight in the tale - he sends the indefatigable Dr Watson
down to the Westcountry to do much of the sleuthing, and only steps
in to steal the show.
One of central locations in the book is the frightful
Grimspound Mire which Conan Doyle paints as a sort of hell on earth
- full of bogs capable of swallowing a pony.
There is no Grimspound Mire on Dartmoor, but there is a Grimspound.
And it strikes me that Sir Arthur must have passed this lonely place
while on the trip that inspired him to write the story. He was staying
at the Duchy Hotel, Princetown, with his friend Fletcher Robinson
at the beginning of June 1901, and the pair went on long walks so
that Sir Arthur could soak up the atmosphere of the wide expanses.
"Robinson and I are exploring the Moor over our Sherlock Holmes
book," wrote Conan Doyle to his mother. "Holmes is at his very best,
and it is a highly dramatic idea - which I owe to Robinson. We did
14 miles over the Moor and we are now pleasantly weary."
In real life Grimspound is a lonesome but fantastically
well-preserved Bronze Age enclosure tucked in a shallow defile between
Hameldown and Hookney Tors. You can reach this enigmatic circle
by taking the small lane which runs from Challacombe Cross (on the
Moretonhampstead-Princetown road) due south toward Widecombe in
the Moor. All you have to do is stop at Firth Bridge and wander
a couple of hundred yards up the hill.
But you can make more of a hike of it if you approach from the
other side. This means finding the parallel lane which runs north
from the centre of Widecombe, past Natsworthy Manor to eventually
hit the Moreton road at Beetor Cross. Halfway along, not far from
Natsworthy Manor, just under Heatree Down, there's a kink in the
road and just room for a car or two to park.
From here we head north west up along the tiny East
Webburn River around the big wide spur of Hameldown Tor. The bridleway
enters the low pass between this tor and Hookney Tor just to the
north, and we are ushered 'twixt the two until we come across Grimspound.
Conan Doyle must have been taken by the bleak sounding name. And
he may have known that the word 'Grim' used to have a link with
the Devil.
But there's nothing devilish there now - indeed, Grimspound is
a pleasant place on a fine spring day. The hut circles are in a
superb state of preservation - given their age - and you can see
how they were designed with a little bent porch that faces east
rather then west, so that the prevailing wind can be kept out of
doors.
The folk back then must have been awfully small. A couple of six-footers
lying down would more than fill one of these humble abodes. There
would, however, have been to stand up - the metre or so high walls
we see today would once have supported quite a tall structure centred
upon a single post. This would in turn have supported a roof of
woven wood covered in turf, heather and bracken.
After admiring this once busy, but now empty place,
we turned north, hopped over the tiny stream and climbed to the
peak of Hookney Tor. This is well worth doing because the views
from the top are tremendous. You can see for miles into the great
vastness of central Dartmoor to the west and further still out over
Hookney Down and into lowland Devon to the north.
Now we meandered over to King Tor to take a look at the King's
Barrow. Which king was buried here - and just how much of a monarch
he was - no one knows. The tomb has been torn asunder and presumably
the remains of its lordly occupant have long gone.
Thoughts of grave-robbers may send a chill down your spine as
you walk around the hill to Heathercombe Brake. Here you can either
follow the path into the woods or make you way along the edge of
the moor. The woodland way takes down past the farm at Heathercombe
and then along the footpath south through the trees to the place
where you parked.
But we kept to the hill and talked of Squire Baskerville and the
dreadful hound and, looking at the atmospheric scenery about us,
wondered just how the makers of the recent films could miss the
point by so much.
Dartmoor
& South West Devon
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