Historic Hidden Haytor, Dartmoor

With your back to the Information Centre, cross the road, turn right and walk along the grassy verge, passing the Moorland Hotel (A) on your right. Then turn right by the phone box on the road to Haytor Vale. Go over cattle grid and immediately turn left and walk down the hill. Just before the road bends to the right past a row of cottages (B) on the left, turn left along the end of the first cottage down onto public bridleway.When it meets a footpath, turn right along the footpath (signed Smallacombe). Continue down through woods following the stream first on one side and then the other and passing a small quarry (C) on the right. (A) The Moorland Hotel inspired Agatha Christie to write her first book “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” whilst staying there.(B) The row of cottages were built in 1825 for workers in the nearby Haytor quarries (which we will be seeing later). The Rock Inn was a hostel for single workers.(C) What looks like a small quarry on the right is in fact an adit entrance to an iron mine that was worked on and off from the 1820’s to about 1918.

Shortly after the mine the path forks. Take the left fork following the footpath signed to the road. Follow the tarmac lane (D). Just before reaching a cattle grid, bear left through a gate (signed bridleway). Cross the road with care to meet a broad grassy track which is the “Templer Way” (E).If you turn right for approx 150 metres you will find the tramway 6 mile stone marker slightly hidden on the right. This marked 6 miles to the terminus of the canal.The main route turns left following line of the old tramway with the road is on your left hand side. (D) There are splendid views along this lane across the Bovey valley as far as Newton Abbot and Teignmouth. On a clear day the sea can be seen.(E) The Templer Way was created by George Templer around 1820, when he won a contract to supply granite to London where it was used for flagstones, paving slabs and most notably in the construction of London Bridge - the one now in Arizona!The tramway is unique in that the rails for the horse drawn wagons are made of flanged granite blocks. Granite being famed for its ability to withstand pressure. It runs 10 miles and drops 1300 ft from Haytor Down to the Stover Canal. The loaded trucks descended by gravity to the terminus of the Stover Canal where the stone was transhipped to Teignmouth. The flat bottomed carts were on rollers and pulled back up by horses, stabled on the Moor.

Continue following line of the tramway and ignore any paths on your right and cross over a lane (F).Keep straight on, ignoring a turning on the left by a prominent large stone. (F) Just before the lane crossing can be seen a set of points on the granite tramway, probably for a passing loop. There is a similar set of points shortly after the crossing.

Where the tramway forks (G), go left towards Haytor. Follow the tramway round to the left, keeping the spoil heaps on the right.At the path junction, turn right and go through a gate in the fence to visit the quarry. Then return and keep straight on past the path junction and then after 100 metres bear left down a grassy path to the Information Centre. (G) Here you start to see sidings going off in different directions as there were actually several different quarries being worked on the side of Hay Tor. The tramway goes over an embankment crossing a stream just beyond the junction. Haytor was once the largest granite quarry on Dartmoor. The area is littered with rubble tips and there is even evidence of quarrying at the base of the tor itself. Extensive removal of smaller stones has taken place over the years. Granite was worked firstly by blasting with gunpowder, then brute force by men with picks.(H) Hound Tor, visible in the distance to the north west, is so named because its outline is said to resemble a pack of hounds turned to stone for hunting on a Sunday. This may well have stirred Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write his story of the “Hound of the Baskervilles”.(I) Surrounding the three big trees you will be able to make out the outline of a former collection of cottages which were the homes of quarry workers. (J) You can enter the flooded quarry through the gate in the fence. This is an eerie place now full of wildlife but the remains of some old machinery are still visible.