A Dartmoor Challenge

2007

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For anyone who likes a Dartmoor related challenge here is one, all you will need to complete it is this website, an Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 map, a ruler and possibly a pencil and the Google site search facility, oh and a nice glass of your favourite tipple. Below are some clues that when solved will direct you to certain web pages on this site. The first seven clues will lead you to seven pages that will contain the image below. When you think you know where the place in the clue refers to visit that particular web page on this site, there in the left-hand column you will find the image with its letter.

Collect the seven letters and arrange them to spell a place name. The next set of clues will lead you to three pages with the same image but numbers on them, when re-arranged they will give you a spot height and to complete the challenge you need the Dartmoor place where the spot height is located. I am pretty sure that there is only one place with this particular spot height but if not it's the one with a cairn below it.

1) Find the brook whose source can be found in 'No Man's Land' and follow it down until you come to the third confluence, from here follow that water source up and pay a visit to a tor whose nickname may suggest you might find Elizabeth, Anne, or Mary who will give you your first letter.

2) Now walk a short distance to what some people regard as a 'Mecca' and find a letterbox stamp where the first word of the title suggests the haunt of a suicide. Go here to collect your second letter.

3) Once here follow the obvious stream down to meet a river and then follow that river westwards to an 'encounter' where you can pick up a road, follow this eastwards until you reach a funereal relic which will give you your third letter.

4) Near to the relic is a spot height of 368m, from the height travel due north to a place that suggests a ground Rana temporaria, from here go westwards until you reach a river whose contents in reversal sounds like a question that has initially lost a royal. Follow the river southwards to its next confluence and from here go due east to stream which is very near a farm that could be Dover. Follow this stream in a south westerly direction until it meets a river, then follow the river west until you arrive at a bridge. This bridge will give you your fourth letter.

5) From the bridge head due south until you encounter an ancient cross, from the cross follow the road westwards until reaching a road junction that sounds as if it could be the head of ant. From the junction follow the main road westwards until you come to a slab of granite that was intended to be used to make a duck pond. The source of the slab will give you the fifth letter.

6) From the slab's source head due north until your path comes very close to a stone circle, from the centre of the stone circle head off in a westerly direction to meet a 540m contour line. Just below this line is the source of a river, follow the river to what was once an Anglo Saxon burgh. Find the church and head due east to meet up with a brook that sounds as if it were a serpents warning. Trundle southwards down the brook until a river is met and then follow the river westwards until you reach the cleof of the Saxons, here you can collect your sixth letter,

7) Just eastwards of here is a 469m spot height, from this head due south to a breezy place to park your car. Having found this place head westwards along the nearby road until coming to the second cattle grid, head up the lane until coming to a brook that sounds very canine. Follow the brook westwards to a nearby tor where a monk once met the Devil. This place will give you your seventh and final letter.

8) Now rearrange the letters to give you a Dartmoor place and go there. From the spot height just under the place name go due west to an expanse of water where you might have found a bell rope. Here you will find a six figure grid reference that will then take you to a place of worship with an evil connection.

9) To the south-west of the place of worship is a mire whose name relates to an animal. This animal can also be found at a famous tourist spot where there is a tea rooms once owned by a man who rebuilt a monument. Having got there find the end of the telephone line go due south until you reach a cavity that belongs in Wales. From here go due west to place where the piskies once lived. Having left a pin go to the nearby church and then travel due north until reaching a, "first rate" source of granite can be found. From the nearby 383m spot height go due east to a military body of water. Here you will find a number, keep it for future use.

10) From the body of water head due north until reaching an ancient trackway, this will give you a second number.

11) From the nearby 505 spot height travel due west until reached a deceased body of water, follow this south to its confluence and the follow the main water down until reaching a well known bridge, here is the third number.

12) Arrange the numerals to form a three numbered spot height, find the spot and nearby is your goal and the final destination of the quest. If anybody would like to forward the name of the place the seven letters spell and the final place where the spot height is I will enter their name on the champions table which will appear below. Ooops, it seems as if there are a couple of possibilities that have the same spot height so I will accept either places.

Answers to - dartmoorlander@aol.com