Cheddar Gorge and the Mendip Hills
20 miles (32 km), 55 min, beginner
Photo: Mr Eugene Birchall, CC BY-SA 2.0, resizedMotorcycle ride in England
Dartmoor: from Merrivale to Haytor across the moor
26 miles (42 km), 1 hr 10 min, intermediate
Dartmoor National Park is one of the great walking areas of south-west England. Its open moorland is dotted with tors, the granite outcrops that walkers come to climb, such as Haytor Rocks above Bovey Tracey. From Tavistock, the B3357 climbs onto the moor via Merrivale, then the B3212 links Princetown, Two Bridges and Postbridge, where a medieval clapper bridge made of stone slabs crosses the East Dart. Small roads then drop down to the village of Widecombe-in-the-Moor before climbing back towards Haytor and plunging down to Bovey Tracey. The speed limit is 40 mph on these moor roads, often unfenced, where ponies, sheep and cattle cross without warning: in some years more than a hundred animals are killed there.
Stops along the way
- SStart: Tavistock
- 1Merrivale, after 4 miles (7 km)
- 2Princetown, after 8 miles (12 km)
- 3Two Bridges, after 9 miles (15 km)
- 4Postbridge, after 13 miles (21 km)
- 5Widecombe-in-the-Moor, after 19 miles (31 km)
- 6Haytor Rocks, after 22 miles (35 km)
- FFinish: Bovey Tracey, after 26 miles (42 km)
Download the GPXTrack and stops as a GPX file, for a sat nav or another app.
Photos along the route
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Roads change: passes close in winter, roadworks, rockfalls, local restrictions. Check the road before you set off. MotoLert does not replace road signs or the Highway Code.
Route planned by MotoLert with Valhalla on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL). Photos from Wikimedia Commons, with the author and licence under each image.