Page 44 - 2018 AMA Winter

CLIMBINGMEETS
AMA DARTMOOR
MEET
to go ahead. Having wrestled with last minute drop outs and low instructor avail- ability, cancellation was almost inevitable but saved at the eleventh hour.
As the welcoming rumble of the cattle grid announced Princetown in the heart of Dartmoor, our small group arrived at the Plume of Feathers Inn at the height of the continuing summer heat wave. Dating back to 1785, the inn is the oldest building in Princetown retaining many of its original features and has plenty to offer the would-be traveller from campsite, bunkhouse and B&B accommodation to fine food and great ale. The famous Jail Ale is brewed locally in Princetown by Dartmoor Brewery and comes highly recommend as does the equally fine tipples of Dartmoor Legend, Best and IPA. As can be expected, Saturday dawned clear and hot. Enough to dry the rock to perfection but insufficient to lessen the moist conditions under foot. The infamous Dartmoor bogs are not so
4-5 AUGUST 2018
By Mark Gregory
‘A journey of old and new’
‘Dartmoor is the largest expanse of open moorland in southern Britain and, because of exceptional conditions of preservation, it is also one of the most complete examples of an upland relict landscape in the whole country. The great wealth and diversity of archaeological remains provide direct evidence for human exploitation of the Moor from the early prehistoric period onwards. The well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites, major land boundaries, trackways, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later industrial remains, gives significant insights into successive changes in the pattern of land use through
time’ (www.historicengland.org.uk)
I have previously written of my time on Dartmoor with the AMA in the summer editions of 2007 and 2017. For those who remember these articles or, like me, have stowed them in a box in some random household cupboard, you will
understand my life-long fascination. It is the area where I ‘earned my boots’ as an Army Cadet and Tens Tors expeditioner, and where I spent many memorable days as a child exploring Bellever Forest and paddling the East Dart River. The latter location is also one that I have failed to visit since those simple days. Yet Dartmoor
‘I have seen a lot of what Dartmoor offers but know that there are still many undiscovered oddities’
is all too familiar to me and many miles and many pairs of boots have traversed its expanses. I have seen a lot of what Dartmoor offers but know that there are still many undiscovered oddities. It was this spark that provided the locus for my most recent AMA venture. I wanted to re-live those worry-free childhood days whilst experiencing new and unexplored Dartmoor. Of course, the meet was lucky
Beardown Tors
44 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER