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Devon TRF Group Open Forum -> General Discussion Board -> Met all the cows today
Post Info TOPIC: Met all the cows today
Pete


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Met all the cows today
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Met all the cows in Fernworthy forest and the farmer leading them down the bridleway laughed when he saw me pedalling toward the herd making their way downhill.

Behind his land rover followed quite a crowd with a huge grey bull, three dozen cows, three dozen calves and a quad nipping at their heels.

I rode through the herd managing not to spook any, gambling that they wouldn't turn back uphill, and merely suffered complaining bellows in passing.

Funny creatures, I'm not scared of cows but glad I don't meet the whole herd every time out

There are several warnings at entry points onto nearby commons advising people how to avoid bovine confrontations most of which involve dogs.

 

The rest of the ride out through Grey Wethers to see the huge but underwhelming Sittaford stone circle with all of the stones laying flat sunken below ground level and the return via Teignhead farm ruin was quite uneventful give or take the u-turns because of ways blocked by fallen trees. Two more places I won't ever go again now I know what is there, but glad I went anyway, although the ladder stile was a pain.



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Mike Wright


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Looks fun although the Bull is fair old size! I will need to get my ebike out now and get out riding after watching that


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youaintseenme


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Hey Pete
That looks like the left turn to the Grey Wethers stone circles after passing the Fernworthy stone circle ?

More direct than the bridleway towards a Teign head farm but not as interesting riding through the monoculture pine forest .

And thanks for your take on Sittaford stone circle, I was considering a similar jaunt at some point .

Are we going to do a megalithic loop one day ?

This mapping is good with many ancient sites and gives access to up to date os mapping and allows you to scale out and to scale right in to far greater detail than the os25k

www.megalithic.co.uk/le_megalith_map_os.html

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Pete


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youaintseenme wrote:

Hey Pete
That looks like the left turn to the Grey Wethers stone circles after passing the Fernworthy stone circle ? Yes, had to wait for the traffic tho'. Quite a trek but simple enough. The shortest way would be going north from Postbridge but it is not easy going.

More direct than the bridleway towards a Teign head farm but not as interesting riding through the monoculture pine forest . Most of the forest has been harvested apparently because the price of wood is high. I came back via Teignhead farm. Wanted to go around Tom's hill but too many fallen trees across the track so ended up going all the way back down to the bottom. Also wanted to ride down the spine of Assycombe hill but was again thwarted by fallen trees but did enjoy the long gravel descent on the way back.

And thanks for your take on Sittaford stone circle, I was considering a similar jaunt at some point . I passed the stones without seeing any, backtracked to a solitary small standing stone, decided to stand on a nearby stone to see if a little more elevation let me see anything, and was surprised to find I was standing on one of the circle stones. From any one stone you may be able to see a couple on either side but only from the air is the whole visible. All of the stone are large and the circle would be the most impressive on Dartmoor if restored but the boggy ground would be very challenging. Scorhill circle a couple of miles north is well worth a visit.

Are we going to do a megalithic loop one day ? The Princetown - Burrator loop could include Merrivales rows/stones/circle, Down tor row/circle, Drizzlecombe rows, Yellowmead's four concentric circles and possibly the Brisworthy circle on the far side of Ringmoor Down which I have yet to visit. Lots of history everywhere and almost any route could be tweaked to include points of interest.  I have a stepping stones x7 loop waiting for a prolonged dry spell. Wanted to do a logan stone loop but only the one in Bellever is worth visiting and some that once rocked no longer do so.

This mapping is good with many ancient sites and gives access to up to date os mapping and allows you to scale out and to scale right in to far greater detail than the os25k

www.megalithic.co.uk/le_megalith_map_os.html

Nice, not seen this before

 



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