Fairly Easy (Birthday) Walks on Dartmoor - Scorhill & Shovel Down.

Last month Carolyn and I were up in west London visiting our friend Alex for a very significant birthday celebration which meant that I finally got to visit Silchester on our way back to Devon, a visit I posted about here on the blog, see link below:

JJ's Wargames - Calleva Atrebatum, Roman Silchester

For Alex's birthday present we got her a Champagne Devon Cream Tea and an invite to come down and stay, which she did this week and so we were able to take us all to indulge ourselves at the Mill End Hotel at Chagford on the east of Dartmoor, combining our trip with a pre-tea walk to nearby Scorhill and Shovel Down courtesy of Robert Hesketh and one of his walks listed in Fairly Easy Walks on Dartmoor.

I have to admit Carolyn and I have not walked a great deal on this side of the moor so we were keen to see what is was like and have plans to revisit with a trip to Fingle Bridge later this year.

The area map below with the coloured route squiggle indicates where we were headed, just north of Fernworthy Reservoir, and a short drive out of Chagford via the road out to Gidleigh; which being a mix of typically narrow Devon lanes makes driving interesting, with plenty of preparation for reversing ones route when meeting someone coming the other way.

For our walk, I had planned in the route on the very handy app Footpath, that saves the plan from my Ipad to my phone and shows the route in terms of a path via key landmarks and the mileage with, in this case a 'there-and-back' calculation, together with a gradient plan as illustrated in the lower left corner so you can gauge how hilly sections of the walk are likely to be along the route.

The screen shot below shows the route zoomed out on an Ordnance Survey walking map that when running can be orientated to the route being followed together with an easy to see display that helps keep you on track.

 

I now have lots of different routes planned in and ready to go so, as in this case, we can simply choose an appropriate walk as and when the fancy takes us with all the preparation done before hand.

This walk starts at the end of a dead-end lane that leads out of Gidleigh to the edge of the moor and has some very handy parking nearby which allowed us to park up and change into walking boots while enjoying the shade of the trees on what proved to be a day that showed off Devon and Dartmoor at its best.

The only down side to the glorious weather was that the warm sunshine had encouraged a lot of horseflies to be on the prowl, particularly close to water and the nearby brook, accompanied by the sound of a lot of buzzing alerted us to the need to keep an eye on exposed legs and arms for any unwanted visitors.

The walk is described by Hesketh thus:

. . . a 'there-and-back walk' but of great interest visiting some of the finest Dartmoor antiquities. You can choose between a very short stroll, and a longer one.'

which given temperatures in the mid 20's degree C and not a cloud in the sky seemed a good recommendation to allow us to decide when we had done enough, although as it turned out we enjoyed the walk so much that we did the whole thing out to the Shovel Down stone row and back.

The walk up to the top of Scorhill in the picture above is a moderate climb but the views out over south Devon, seen below, on a day like the one we had were more than worth the effort and of course encouraged a drink stop whilst we indulged ourselves with plenty of pictures of the view.

Ahead, as we crested the top, lay acres of open moorland and a magnificently refreshing breeze that encouraged another stop just to enjoy God's own country in all its splendour, as well as trying to spot the remains of the ancient circular bronze age huts that mark the last indications of the original locals for this area.

Kes Tor dominates the view towards Chagford Common

Coming over the top of Scorhill, the vista opened up still further to give us an amazing view of the Scorhill Stone Circle, one of many similar ancient monuments to be found up here on Dartmoor and built by the very first inhabitants of Britain.

Scorhill Stone Circle

After walking around the stone circle and letting our imaginations run as to who were the people that built this monument and what its significance might have been, which must have been important enough to warrant the effort of moving these very heavy limestone rocks into position in a time where all heavy lift work was manual, we looked down into the valley for our next landmark, the limestone slab clapper bridge across North Teign River.

As you can see there are two of these remarkable constructions and whilst some are indeed very old, many others on Dartmoor date from medieval times, which in some parts of the world is still incredibly old, but so-so here in Blighty.

The water looked invitingly welcoming for a quick paddle, given the heat of the day and as with all water on Dartmoor very clear, but with that tannin-brown shade imparted by the peaty soil up here on the moor.

After crossing the river, our path turned to the left, as we made our way up the lower slopes of the Kes Tor ridge, and soon our next major landmark came into view, namely the stunning 3,500 year old Shovel Down stone row and its central stone circle, still looking impressive despite many of its stones having been robbed out over the intervening centuries.

The view down the hill along the avenue of double stones, revealed our path back to the car, but taking a slight detour to the right this time to make our way along the forestry plantation as we headed back to the river.

With not a cloud in the sky our day was made perfect with the beauty of this ancient natural landscape complete with the sound of the babbling brook and the various piping songs of warblers, skylarks and grey wagtails, to complete the full on Dartmoor experience.

Dartmoor at its glorious best, and why we love coming back here again and again.

Needles to say we had had a fantastic walk and were now fully primed with a suitable appetite to enjoy our Champagne Devon Cream Tea, something for which the girls needed no encouragement for.

Our venue couldn't have been more perfect, the Mill End Hotel, Chagford, with a perfect English garden on a day to match and with a gorgeous egg and red onion tartlet, smoke salmon and cream cheese, cucumber, ham and English mustard and egg and chives sandwich selection, a selection of Bakewell, chocolate and carrot cake with fondants on top to die for, followed of course with a cream on first, Devon style scone, clotted cream and jam combination with a pot of tea and other appropriate beverages for a hot sunny afternoon.

Mill End Hotel, Dartmoor

Happy birthday Alex and a perfect way to end a perfect day.

More anon 

JJ

All at Sea - Battle of Cape Ortegal or Strachan's Action, Devon Wargames Group

Sir Richard Strachan's 80-gun Caesar, flying his Commodore's pennant from the mainmast in pursuit of the French off Cape Ortegal 4th November 1805 - Francis Sartorius (RMG) 

This weekend I was at club running a new scenario that I wrote up for Kiss Me Hardy recreating the Battle of Cape Ortegal or Strachan's Action following the Battle of Trafalgar and fought on the 4th November 1805.

Battle of Cape Ortegal, 4th November 1805

This was the first opportunity I had to playtest things and the game seemed to play very well in a scenario where the cards are stacked against Rear-Admiral Dumonoir, as historically they were, but still allowing a really interesting game to develop during which the winter Biscay weather played its role in frustrating both sides plans of battle.

Not only that but in a game dominated by each sides line up of four third rates, each with a powerful 80-gunner leading each line, the frigates got to play a very important role, again just as they did in the historical fight.

The scenario uses many of the ideas I have incorporated into my write up of one-hundred single ship and squadron sized actions I covered in my previous post looking at the Capture of HMS Alexander, also play tested at the DWG, and I will look to make them both available nearer the time I get to finish this project with scenario number seventy eight completed this week.

If you would like to see how this particular game played out then just follow the link to the DWG club blog, below, where I have posted a full AAR of the game together with much of my thinking around its setup.

Devon Wargames Group - Battle of Cape Ortegal

More anon

JJ

All at Sea - Bob's French Third Rates of Renown & Jack's British Third Rates of Renown

The naval arms race within the Devon Wargames Group continues apace as both Bob's French and Jack's British fleets are joined by three third rates of renown that floated out of the riggers yards this week, whilst the dockyard is geared up for several new projects to fill some gaps in my own line-ups as I get to grips with some of Warlord Games' newer creations that were purchased at the end of 2022; together with a dive into the dark arts of 3D printing and what it has to offer courtesy of my mate Jason, the Welsh Wargamer in Devon, see list of linked blogs in the right hand column, who kindly printed some new additions for some planned future games.

It was back in January 2022 that I set out to build collections for Bob and Jack, and if you haven't see these models coming together then I've linked the posts covering the build of these two collections below;

JJ's Wargames - All at Sea, Bob's British Squadron, Feb 2022

JJ's Wargames - All at Sea, Bob's French Squadron, April 2022

JJ's Wargames - All at Sea, Jack's British Squadron, July 2022

JJ's Wargames -All at Sea, Jack's French Squadron, Sept 2022

With a slight four month pause whilst I was away on my travels, work recommenced on my return in February this year with Bob's British Third-Rates of Renown and Jack's three generic third-rates done in British French and Spanish colours, link below;

JJ's Wargames - All at Sea, Bob's British Third-Rates of Renown & Jack's Generic Third-Rates

Now another batch of six third rates join the respective fleets with Bob's French Third-Rates of Renown and Jack's British ones, seen below.

Formidable 80-guns

Argonaute 74-guns

Indomptable 80-guns

Jack’s collection are also joined by three very famous British third-rates.

Bellerophon 74-guns

Revenge 74-guns

Tonnant 80-guns

Finally I still have the Spanish box set to complete for Jack, but have decided to work on that in between a few models needed to complete my own collection and to provide a bit of novelty in my work with some of the more recent models released by Warlord, most of which I purchased just before I went away last year.

So below from left to right we have three of the 50-gun 4th-rate models, two of which will be British and one to join my Dutch Camperdown fleet.

In the centre front we have the British Ardent Class 64-gun Razee which will become my new HMS Indefatigable and a more suitable model for Sir Edward Pellew to do battle with in several new scenarios I plan to play test.

Behind Indefatigable is the 74-gun razee which will be an interpretation of HMS Majestic that fought as a 74-gun ship at the Battle of the Nile but in 1813 in response to the American super-frigate threat was razeed into a fast sailing 58-gun 4th-rate frigate with a gundeck of 28 x 32-pdrs and an upper-gundeck of 28 x 42-pdr carronades which should be a more than a fair-fight for Cousin Jonathan.

Finally at the back, and with an upcoming Battle of Trafalgar game not far off, I wanted to have ready to include Warlord's new model of Nelson's favourite ship, Agamemnon 64-guns.

On the extreme right and below I also have another model being worked up with my Trafalgar game in mind and brought vividly to life in Carlos Parilla Penegos' painting, namely the Spanish first-rate Santa Anna, seen here ready for priming and with a test-fit of the mast following a bit of work with the mini-drill.

The Santa-Anna was a peculiar first rate and I know the Spanish first-rate I built originally didn't really capture the look of this particular ship, but this new model will look much better and I am really looking forward to the build and paint.

The Warlord Santa Anna kit takes shape prior to getting her prime and paint job.

The three illustrations below capture the look of my razees and Agamemnon and provide much inspiration for these three important British ships to be added to the collection.

HMS Indefatigable, Sir Edward Pellew's famous ship - Derek Gardner

HMS Agamemnon 64-guns, Nelson's favourite - Geoff Hunt

A model of the 74-gun razee, Majestic 56-guns, with her formidable array of 32-pdr long guns and 42-pdr carronades.

The Agamemnon was a very easy build and with her plastic mast set will look fab when painted and rigged.

Equally the two razees will look great when finished with their plastic masts but require a bit more work constructing with obtrusive gaps, particularly around the metal bows that do need filling.

Close up of the razees and Agamemnon at the back

The HMS Romney and Dutch ship Delft provide the inspiration to get working on my three 4th-rates, which make an important addition to the Warlord's Black Seas range of models and fills a gap for another group of scenarios and my planned Camperdown game.

H.M.S. Romney 50-guns, capturing the French 44-gun Sybille and three merchantmen in the roads off Mykonos, Greece, 17th June, 1794

The Dutch 56-gun 4th-rate Delft, seen here battling away with HMS Monmouth will feature as one of my models

These models come with three different figureheads that again need filler to finish them off but are altogether very nice kits which will be complete with the plastic mast and card sail set from the plastic generic frigate.

Finally I have other gaps in my collection that I have a feeling only 3D printing is likely to be able to fill and so last week I met up with my pal Jason who kindly printed out some gunboats and other assorted small craft, plus some Danish, Copenhagen style floating gun-batteries whilst also introducing me to his printer and the dark arts of making these models.

The Gunboat War is a conflict I'm interested in playing with Danish gunboats attacking becalmed British escorts and their merchantmen in the approaches to the Baltic.

Likewise I reckon Nelson's other major battle success alongside the Nile and Trafalgar is Copenhagen which requires some careful thought to bring to the table successfully and the batteries below are part of that plan.

So without an end of year review to oversee the planning and work this year, I had to do a bit of preparation to structure my work for this year on the flight back from down-under this February, and there is quite a bit of stuff that I intend to get on with before now and the end of this year, with a bit of a hint here as to what you might see in future months here on JJ's as the fun continues.

Postscript.

Carolyn and I spent a very enjoyable evening out having dinner with a friend, down from London, the other evening and on our walk home happened to look up and see this chap looking down from above.

A Tawney Owl is quite a rare bird to see in the wild, being a nocturnal creature, and, despite hearing them often at night, have never seen one until now, with the summer evenings being longer and more daylight to be able to catch a glimpse of this beautiful creature.

With all the exotic birds pictured here on the blog on our recent trip down under it's nice to have the 'home-team' represented with such an unusual spot.

As I usually say - more anon

JJ