Dartmoor walk and fungi

[adampembs]

My photography will never match Mike's but hopefully you can get an idea of what this walk is like, done in early September.
The walk starts at a car park by Bennett's Cross, a medieval stone cross. Grid ref. SX679815 and then proceeds slightly downhill past some old rectangular stone plots to some disused 18th-early 20th century tin mines. The flora here is quite diverse with growth of rowan, hawthorne and other shrubs rather than bare grass or heather as you often see. There are stream and ponds, with damselflies and butterflies.
Eventually you reach a farm that is dedicated to sustainable methods. The meat is all grass- reared and it is low intensity grazing to allow natural regeneration. There is a ruined medival hamlet at the farm. Not much to see there. Then head up to the impressive bronze age settlement of Grimspound with the remains of 24 stone huts and a perimeter wall with gateway in really good shape. The best idea of the scale of it is from above. From there we walked up to the top of Hookney Tor and then back to the car park.

Map

Highland cows refusing to move

Bennett''s Cross

Route to Grimspound past old tin mines and ponds

Agaricus arvensis (lots of them)

Macrolepiota procera

Challacombe Farm and medieval hamlet

One of the bronze age huts. They must have been small people.

Grimspound from above

Top of Hookney Tor

Looking down on Grimspound from Hookney Tor

[Lancashire Lad]

Nice one Adam.

Dartmoor is an area that I've never personally visited. - Good to see some fungi too!

On my recent Lake District walk over Selside Pike etc., the fells seemed quite bare of fungi for the time of year. I saw just a few tiny Galerina's

Regards,
Mike.

[adampembs]

I saw some LBJs too, but had to stop somewhere - no waxcaps at all ,but it was a bit early for them.
Some lovely woodlands in Dartmoor too. We stumbled on a Woodland Trust one by accident and it was lovely. I'm thinking of joining for a year mainly to get their list of woods!