Heather on Haytor

I wanted to see the heather and gorse on Dartmoor.  According to a Dartmoor National Park leaflet there was a lot around Haytor so I looked for a walk in this vicinity.  Again the Park Authority obliged.  They have an audio walk that you can download from their website.  I printed out the instructions and map and we started walking from the Information Centre at the foot of Haytor.  It was very useful to have such clear instructions and interesting to be given background information on what we passed and saw.

To begin with the heather and gorse was a little disappointing, but as we walked further there was a better display.

As well as admiring the flora there were stunning views to various tors in Dartmoor.  It was very interesting walking around the pond in the Haytor Quarry, and it seemed so unusual to see water lilies growing there. We walked as far as Smallacombe Rocks, but then turned back as we did  not have time to do all the 6 miles of the audio walk.

Most of the way the path was good although we had to pick our way carefully through granite stones as we walked around the base of Haytor.  The view between the two main rocks  was spectacular - you could see all the way to the South Devon coast.

This was a very pleasant walk and I would like to do the second part of it another time.