Yennadon Down

Information

Distance: 3 miles, walked by Keith Ryan and transcribed by Simon Avery
Grade: Gentle
A GPX route of this walk is available: Download GPX
Directions to Car Park
What Three Words fattening.events.toward

Map

Map of Route - Crown Copyright - Ordnance Survey Licence number 100047373

Lowery Cross

Although not directly on our walk, if you came from the main road which is 300 meters to the Northeast of the suggested parking, then you likely drove past Lowery Cross and it’s worthy of mention.

The back face of Lowery Cross facing the road. You can see a faint incised cross on the main shaft, starting to get swallowed by the moss

The front face of the same cross

The 1823 tithe map showing the crossroads which then included a horse-drawn tramway running diagonally North-South across the modern day crossroads

There is a PCWW 1917 (Plymouth Corporation Water Works) catchment boundary pillar built into the wall between the two car park entrances at Lowery Cross, at SX 54773 69243. Pew Tor can be seen towards the right edge

Once parked at the Lowery Cross car part, head off due West along a path.

The track after walking downhill towards Yennadon (Welltown) Cross and bearing left towards Dousland

An example of walling where the local slate is used. This is very different to many Dartmoor walls that are built of granite

Dousland Reservoir

The dome covering Dousland Reservoir at SX 54307 69121, fed by a pipe from Devonport Leat. This is not “Yelverton Reservoir” that is mapped up behind Burrator Lodge

1823 Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway

Field gate at SX 54235 69018

This gateway marks where Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt’s 1823 Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway (horse-drawn) left the Down on its way North to Princetown and its quarries.

White X on the 1823 tithe map is this same location

At SX 54232 68799 - about a dozen granite setts remain from the horse drawn tramway

Granite sett with holes for fixing the rails

Yennadon Quarry

Looking into Yennadon Stone - the modern (hornfelsed) slate quarry

Hornfelsed means the Tavy slate was altered by heat from the adjacent intrusion of molten granite that formed the bulk of Dartmoor. The bedrock was laid down as sedimant in open seas about 359 to 383 million years ago.

Yennadon Stone is the last active stone quarry still working on moorland Dartmoor, out of scores that once existed.

This photograph is taken from the old tramway / road that runs from the field gate shown above to an area of railway that will be seen below. It shows one end of the gully / gert of the old Meavy Iron Mine

Looking down the main part of Iron Mine Lane that joins the Dousland / Meavy road

House name of the property on the right of the photo above

Iron Mine

The rough track running upslope beside the iron mine workings, on the left

“In 1836 Ralph Lopes leased the area to George Stone Baron to ‘dig work mine and search for Iron, Iron Ore, Iron Stone and all other Ores’ on what was then called Great Yennadon Common, the rent being 1s 8d in the on the gross value according to the price on the day of all such ores metals and minerals which shall be … digged raised and gotten out of from or in the said premises”

There was no lease following this, so it must be concluded the venture was unsuccessful. In 1846, another license was issued to other adventurers!

Part of a mine gully

The gully ends in a pit, of sorts

This is looking down into a deep pit upslope in which tall trees are almost hidden from view. There is an area further up on the Down at SX 54507 68263 where there are two pools and perhaps capped shafts from later trials

WW2 Searchlight Battery

The site of Second World War searchlight battery no. EXD, at Dousland

This searchlight was operational from 9 Feb. 1944. It would help protect Plymouth, Burrator Reservoir and RAF Harrowbeer at Yelverton.

All that remains now are the outlines of a row of four huts, of which only one has anything obvious.

The hut base, looking in the other direction

Clapper Bridge

Clapper bridge with eight imposts at SX 54264 68001, over the “dry” Devonport Leat

The gate at SX 54257 67930 where the 1823 horse-drawn tramway (Old Plymouth website) left this area of the Down to run north to Iron Mine Lane and past the Yennadon Quarry out through the field gate seen earlier

Steam Railway

The gate at SX 54195 67909 where both railways entered Yennadown Common

The first railway, the 1823 horse-drawn PDR of Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt has already been mentioned.

The second railway was the 1883 [Princetown Railway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princetown_Railway0 (using steam locomotives) that replaced it, runnning from Yelverton to Princetown.

This one connected with the 1859 South Devon and Tavistock Railway Company (SD&TR) Plymouth-Tavistock line. It was adopted by the GWR from 1st January 1922 and closed March 3rd, 1956.

Looking east, at the famous “Yennadon loop”

The horse-drawn tramway consisted of short wagons that could be pulled in quite a tight turn. The line enters this image at the far right, from the gateway seen above, swings around a hairpin bend (kindly marked by the sheep) and doubles back towards the camera at the left, from where it goes through the first gate above up to Iron Mine Lane and on to Princetown via the west side of the Down.

The steam railway could not turn a tight bend like this and was built running into this image at the bottom left and on into the distance towards the reservoir where it ran around the flank of the Down above the dam to Burrator & Sheepstor Halt and then on to Princetown, travelling up the east side of the Down.

These are the trees where the steam railway ran from left (beside the trees) to right towards Princetown after the horse tramway ran from left to right but then looped back left again to run up past the quarry to Princetown

Following the old steam railway route east towards the reservoir, we approach a cattle creep

Cattle Creep

At the cattle creep, which would have been bridged in wood

These “creeps” (simply small tunnels) were installed at intervals along the railway to enable livestock to cross underneath the railway which would have been fenced along its route to keep livestock from entering the tracks.

Original railway fence post and stone facing detail of the creep

A cow or pony’s eye view of the creep under, at SX 54600 67800, much larger than a sheep creep

PCWW 1917 pillar at SX 54870 67751, the railway is just to the right of the pillar. This is about 90 metres from the road. At this point, the walk left the railway track and climbed up the slope onto the Down

Bronze Age Hut Circle

A solitary Bronze Age hut circle at SX 54905 67815. Some 95 metres from the quarry car park with Sheeps Tor behind

View with Peak Hill (left), Sharpitor (left of centre, with North Hessary Tor mast behind) and Leather Tor (right)

Bench with a view

Memorial bench at SX 54916 68258 with an impressive view

Inscription

Sheeps Tor with Narrator on its left flank

One of the boundary stones of the iron mine “sett” (permitted working area)

“One of the boundary stones which marked the sett has in fact survived, the existence of which had been overlooked by previous Dartmoor explorers and writers until I discovered it some years ago. A rough-hewn short pillar standing against the eastern enclosure wall 20 yards north of the wall corner, in exactly the position in which the last stone on the northern boundary was indicated on the 1836 map (see above)”

– Mike Brown (2001) Guide to Dartmoor, CD-ROM, Dartmoor Press, Grid Square 5489 6833

Looking back at SX 55035 68676, at the wood located behind the iron mine sett boundary stone. Down the slope from here, the route of the 1883 steam railway could be seen, now a cycle track

Having descended slightly, the walk rejoined the old Princetown Railway (later GWR) railway route / cycle route. Ahead is a modern bridge over the small road from Lowery Cross down to Burrator Discovery Centre

The Lowery Cross trees, the car park is at the righthand end of them

Crossing Keeper’s Cottage

Approaching the site of Lowery Crossing, the crossing keeper’s cottage was on the open green area, the signal box was behind the lefthand fence

Link to OS map showing the keeper’s cottage, from 1892-1914

Looking at the crossing keeper’s cottage area, along the steam railway route, across the road that runs from Lowery Cross (right) to Cross Gate (left)

Lowery Cross “Godcake”

Unusual ‘grave shaped’ grass triangle at Lowery Cross

This grass triangle is no burial place - it is a triangular piece of land that was left so that a horse and cart could negotiate a fork in the road where three lanes meet; or maybe it built up from these cart and wagon turnings over the centuries: this is called a godcake.

The so-called “Coventry Godcakes” take their name from these triangle shapes and are not particular to any one county or city as they are found everywhere.

This walk was reached from the B3212 road from Dousland to Princetown by turning right at the first road encountered after leaving Dousland. This is a crossroads where the left turn goes downhill to Welltown. Parking is at the yellow cross and the P symbol indicated on the map