On our most recent walk, WITC headed back out into familiar North West territory. Great Links Tor, Rattlebrook Hill and Bleak House were our primary objectives.
The weather itself seemed perfectly greyscale. The showers arrived late in the day, and brought a swift conclusion to proceedings. WITC's eternal, end-of-the-day mantra of' 'just one more box' was still repeated and duly ignored.
Our route passed South of Brat Tor and up to Rattlebrook Hill flagpole. WITC passed by here once before a long time ago en-route to a wild camp at Fur Tor.
Descending to the Rattle Brook and the ruins of Bleak House aka Dunnagoat Cottage, we were a bit surprised to see walls still standing! This after reading a few years back about significant collapses and 'days numbered' for Dartmoor's ruins.
The house was a home to the manager of the West of England Compressed Peat Company. A branch off the London and South West Railway from Bridestowe wound its way up here. It must have been an astonishing investment of labour and money, and for little reward. The industry was very short lived, and despite several attempts to restart operations, was doomed to fail. Only when the Rattlebrook tramline closed in 1931, and British Army destroyed the
dangerously unstable remains of the Works in the 1960s did Mother Nature firmly regain her grip.
It looked like our success was about to be cut short too. We had made it to Hunt Tor before the rains came, and we hastily retreated back to the car. A pleasing day though: 5 miles and 17 boxes found.
