Bodmin Moor, Cornwall

From the car park (SX138819), follow the track down to and across the stream and continue along it, up the grass slopes on the other side for a short distance. Then bear away a little to the left to make straight for the outcrop of Showery Tor, visible on the skyline ahead. Cattle, sheep and horses graze the slopes here. The sculpted rocks of Showery Tor are just the first of many such extraordinary, impressive and photogenic rocks.

From Showery Tor, turn right and head south-southwest along the ridge via Little Rough Tor to Rough Tor (Rough pronounced row, like now). There’s a memorial here to the 43rd Wessex Division. This is a fascinating summit, crowned by its collection of sculpted tors. There are extensive views, too. If you know your Cornish coast, you should be able to make out the Rumps Point headland over to the west and – well up the coast to the north – the satellite dishes beyond Bude. Nearer to hand are the china clay pits at Stannon Works and Crowdy Reservoir.

Descend the bouldery slopes in an east-southeast direction to reach a wall on your right and continue down to cross the De Lank River. You now follow the permissive waymarked path that leads you up to the summit of Brown Willy, whose rather unfortunate name is said to be a corruption of the Cornish Bronn Wennili, meaning hill of swallows.

From the trig pillar, head on south along the ridge and along the waymarked permissive path down to a track. Cross the footbridge on the far side and then go over a stile, carrying on beside the fence on your right. When you reach the end of the fence, continue in the same direction. The path leads you down to the valley, across two footbridges and up the slope to Garrow, passing near two farm buildings. Bear left along a track (public footpath), which leads to some woodland. Beyond it, you continue alongside a wall on your right, maintaining direction at the end of the wall across the featureless, pathless terrain to pass a rectangular enclosure, known as King Arthur’s Hall. It is thought to be a late Neolithic or early Bronze Age ceremonial site, but its origin and use are unknown and its dates are only speculative.

When you reach the next wall/fence, bear right and head north-northwest to a cairn (a grassy mound) and another wall/fence. Follow this north-northeast (skirting round a marshy area) and maintain roughly the same direction over the pathless moorland back towards Rough Tor, crossing a track en route. Head north around the lower slopes of Rough Tor, then northwest back down to the car park. The monument nearby is to Charlotte Dymond, the victim of a murder here in April 1844.