Dartmoor Way Circular Walk 2 - North Bovey to Neadon (4 miles)

If you enjoy Geocaching, this triangular walk is definitely for you. There are at least ten caches on the route itself, and you could easily increase that number if you wanted to take the odd detour. We only found a handful but would happily go back and do the rest. 

North Bovey offers plenty of parking*, both around the green and a few metres down the lane in a little car park. From there you start off on familiar ground, down the lane to the stepping stones again. 

Thanks to the profusion of purple badges, the route is pretty straightforward. There is a fair bit of road walking but hardly any traffic, so it’s not a bad walk if you have small people. 

The first side of the triangle is pretty flat. If you want to stop for a picnic, do it along here, as there aren’t many places for the rest of the way. The other two sides are very steep (up and down; this is Devon, after all!), and don’t offer much shade on a sunny day, but you get great views of Hunter’s Tor from Longland. Looking for Geocaches is a good way of breaking this up, although we had got into our stride by this point and decided not to bother. 

Hunter’s Tor in the background

The final stretch from Aller Mill is really beautiful, and there are nice picnic spots by the river just after Ridgnor, about five minutes before you get back to the car. If you’re feeling flush, you could also pop into the Ring Of Bells Inn before going home. 

*Assessment of parking is based on weekdays during term time. It may well be packed in grockle season!