Darting round on Dartmoor

What sort of dogs were around 3000 years ago?

Skip's resting here at the top end of the old stone row on the eastern slopes of Cosden Hill. We'd run up there from the village of South Zeal and were on our way to the top of what is one of the highest peaks on Dartmoor. The stone row is a bit of a mystery and there are many theories as to the function of the many Bronze Age stone rows scattered all over Dartmoor. This row does seem to point towards the summit of Cosden but tracing an exact line towards the peak shows that it misses the top by some distance. Heading in a southerly direction on an old track marked as a bridleway on the OS map we made dismal progress through the bog. We saw no sign of this route being used by any horse riders and the Dartmoor ponies didn't seem interested in wading through the wet ground. And the local council have obviously not done anything about maintaining drainage for this ancient byway - very remiss of them I'd say! The track headed up and round the southern end of the ridge south of Cosden and suddenly, having not seen a soul since we set off, we spotted a couple of runners travelling rapidly along the skyline. A few minutes more of our painstaking progress led us to a clear wide north-south track - what a relief! We plodded up with renewed vigour and close to the peak we bumped into Tim L, whom I recognised from several races I'd done in the past, he was happy to stop and have a chat and we were happy for the opportunity of a breather.

Dartmoor is full of unexpected surprises, for a start what looks like a clear path marked on the OS map may not be found anymore (at least not where they're meant to be), and elsewhere broad tracks exist which are not indicated on the map. You have to have an open mind about route-finding and it's a good idea to avoid a misty day. Following one such broad track recently on Trendlebere Down I decided that I should be heading right down towards the river which could be heard gushing in the distance - I followed what looked like a path but soon found myself (with Skip) scrambling down a steep gully having to look very carefully at where my feet were landing. And what did I nearly tread on - an Amethyst Deceiver (laccaria amethystina) a vivid purple mushroom! What a spot! And a few days before we found a very fine specimen of amanita muscaria which is also known as the Fly Agaric. This is the classic toadstool of children's fairytales and it has a multitude of uses. Not only has it long been known as a hallucinogenic but it's also used to catch flies, hence the name. There are many agarics and the genus agaric encompasses toadstool and mushrooms with gills. Fly Agaric is thus a gilled mushroom as opposed to a grilled mushroom - you can eat them though provided they are parboiled twice before cooking! Here's our photo followed by another one of the Amethyst Deceiver (also edible) which I nearly stood on!

Fancy a bite?

Eat me for a Purple Haze!