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WALK 2
Yelverton to Buckland Monachorum, circular walk returning via The Garden House and Crapstone
Time: approx. two hours
Start at the Car Park at Leg O' Mutton Yelverton.
Outdoor Leisure map No. 28 Map ref: 518679
If you are walking with a dog please do keep it under close control preferably on a lead. Older large dogs may have difficulty with some of the stiles on this walk.
Toilets are signposted from the car park.
From the car park turn right at the corner shop and walk past the Leg O Mutton pub. Just after the garage there is a stile in the fence on the left. Cross over the stile and walk to the centre of the grass area and a path will be apparent going away to the right. Follow this path. There are many small paths but keep to the wider one. After a while the houses on the outskirts of Horrabridge will be on our right. Continue down a track at the rear of these houses and onto the road by the Cattle Grid next to the tollhouse.
Cross the road and keeping the fence on the right, continue along the road and then first right towards the old Railway Station, which is on the boundary of the two Parishes of Buckland Monachorum and Horrabridge.
Shortly after passing two fairly new houses on our right we turn left up a few steps and commence walking uphill onto open common. We pass a recently erected bench seat. Keeping on uphill we come to another seat where it may be worth resting after the climb. From the seat the panorama is magnificent. Brent Tor Church in the west is easily found and Penn Beacon in the east concludes a view covering some 16 miles. It is possible to find Sampford Spiney Church and Walkhampton Church amongst the countryside on a clear day.
Having rested it is time to continue the walk. On looking around we see paths going in every direction. The path we need is directly behind the seat and continues uphill. It is well defined although it narrows as we walk through tall gorse bushes.
After a little while we emerge at the corner of a football pitch. Walking on, we cross a road and then enter onto an area of common that is bounded by three walls. If we strike out to the far right hand corner of this open land we find a stile and a footpath that takes us between two fields.
We have now left the Dartmoor National Park . The view ahead is totally different from that which we have just left. We can look across farmland to the distant hills in Cornwall with glimpses of the rivers Tamar and Tavy. The path is well marked with markers at gates and stiles. At one point we come out of a gate into a lane. Walk downhill for a short distance and enter another field and continue our walk. An old barn is passed and we continue downhill passing the cemetery on our right.
The cemetery is well kept and people from all five villages within the Parish have been buried here. There are also a few military graves within the cemetery. Cross a stone stile and enter Buckland Monachorum near the Church
The village is a conservation area and some of the old cottages have granite door posts with small, granite framed windows. The shop is now closed but you will find the Drake Manor Inn and St Andrews Church
In order to rejoin our path it is necessary to retrace our steps and take the path back past the Church and over the stone stile and then turn right passing the Buckland Memorial Meadow on your left until you reach a small stream which we cross via the footbridge. On entering the next field turn left. Keeping the stream on our left we walk parallel to it and later enter through a gate into the grounds of The Garden House. It is important that the Public Footpath is used and that walkers do not stray from the path whilst walking though Garden House grounds
On entering the Garden House grounds we see ahead the remains of an avenue of large mature beech trees. At one time the Garden House was the Vicarage for the local Church. Each time the Vicar and his wife were blessed with the birth of a new baby he planted a tree in commemoration of the happy event. At the end of the path go through the gate by the entrance kiosk walk up through the car park where we soon come onto the Crapstone to Buckland Monachorum road. Cross the road through the kissing gate and into a field keeping the hedge on our left.
The path turns left over a stile and takes us past a house and out onto the road at Crapstone. Turn right and after about 200yds take the first left turn into The Crescent with its mixture of old and new houses. At the end of the Crescent, cross the road and enter the open moor through a gate near the cattle grid. Head back across the Common towards Yelverton keeping the road in sight on your right. This part of the walk crosses the wartime airfield then known as R.A.F. Station Harrowbeer. You will see the bomb bays, building foundations and other relics of that time. As we continue the houses and shops of Leg O' Mutton come into view. Go through the gate by the cattle grid and walk towards the Car Park.
On the right of the road is a granite memorial stone erected in 1981 to those who served during the 1941—1949 period when the airfield was in use. We return to the Car Park where we started our walk.
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