Four Day Prehistoric Dartmoor Trek

Hostel and Camp Event icon - Jewel Created with Sketch.
Wild Camping
Jun 20
2025

6 people attending

2 places left

Your price
£0.00
Register now to book
Event booking closes on Jun 19 at 12:00:00
Event difficulty background shape EventDifficulty
Easy Moderate Very Hard
80 km (50 miles), 2070 m (6790 ft) of ascent over 4 days, some pathless ground, river crossings, bogs

PLEASE READ ALL SECTIONS, INCLUDING WHAT TO BRING AND FOOD & DRINK

You can find out more about wild camping on this page: My first wild camping event. You need to have mountain walking experience, good equipment and a good level of fitness to carry your food, sleeping bag, sleeping mat and small tent or bivvy bag for around 80 km (50 miles). We’ll walk about 20km (12.5 miles) each day. Sometimes it will be easy walking, other times we’ll be crossing parts of Dartmoor where there are no paths, rivers with no easy crossing points and rough boggy ground. The route will be partially determined by the water levels on the moor; we may need to change the route or walk late into the evenings if water levels increase. We may need to camp on exposed, wet, uneven ground.

Dartmoor has the best preserved prehistoric landscape in north western Europe. There are remains of over 5000 roundhouses, over 1500 cairns, and a remarkable set of ceremonial monuments dating from the late Neolithic to early Bronze age, including over 20 stone circles and over 75 stone rows. This trek visits the most impressive of these monuments. The four day linear route crosses Dartmoor from north to south, from Okehampton to Ivybridge. Participants will need to make their own transport arrangements to the start and from the end. Trains run from Exeter St David's to Okehampton and Ivybridge. If coming by car, leaving the car in Exeter looks to be the best option (see the Location section below for details).

On the first day we'll visit Nine Maiden's Stone Circle, Cosdon Stone Rows (the most impressive prehistoric triple stone row in Britain), White Moor Stone Circle, Buttern Hill Stone Circle, Scorhill Stone Circle (Devon's finest stone circle) and Shovel Down Stone Rows. 

On the second day we'll visit Fernworthy Stone Circle, Assycombe Stone Row, The Grey Wethers Stone Circles, Postbridge (shop and visitor centre), Lakehead Hill Stone Row & Cist, and Wistman's Wood (one the highest oakwoods and last remaining temperate rainforests in Britain). Depending on progress we might stop at the pub in Merrivale at the end of the day.

On the third day we'll visit the Merrivale Stone Rows & Stone Circle, Hart Tor Stone Rows, Down Tor Stone Row, Yellowmead Concentric Stone Circle, Ringmoor Stone Row and Brisworthy Stone Circle. On the last day we'll visit Drizzle Combe Stone Rows, Grim's Grave Cairn Circle, Erme Valley Stone Row (3.4 km long, the longest prehistoric stone row in the world) and Stalldown Stone Row.

Image / photo credits: 

Photos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 19 © Patrick Revell, used with permission.

All other photos cc-by-sa/2.0:

IMPORTANT! - Participation Statement

You MUST complete a Participation Statement, in addition to booking your event space before attending an OutdoorLads event. You only need to complete this Participation Statement once, not for each event you attend.

What to bring

See the kit list from this page for ideas: https://www.outdoorlads.com/my-first-wild-camping-event

Essential on this walk are previously used good hiking boots, waterproof jacket and trousers (if rain is forecast), a small discrete (i.e. not bright red) tent or bivvy bag, a head torch with adequate battery life, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, personal hygiene materials, any medication, sun protection, adequate warm clothing, rucksack, cooking equipment and enough food & drink. Walking poles are useful for balance e.g. when crossing rivers (fording or stepping stones), for testing boggy ground, and for taking the weight off the knees, particularly if you're not used to carrying a heavy rucksack. A change a clothing is useful, particularly spare socks if your feet get wet.

Try to pack as light as possible and bring only what is essential, it will be more enjoyable with a lighter rucksack. Your full rucksack (including water) should weigh less than 16 kg and less than ¼ of your body weight. Tents or cooking equipment can potentially with other members of the group to share the weight. If you have any questions about what to bring, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

Food & drink

Bring enough food to cover your needs for the duration of the event, i.e. three breakfasts, three evening meals, four lunches, plus snacks. There is a small shop in Postbridge where we'll stop on the second day.

We'll encounter streams quite often, so it will be possible to top up water from time to time, YOU NEED TO MAKE APPROPRIATE ARRANGEMENTS TO RENDER THE WATER FIT FOR YOUR CONSUMPTION, for example purification tablets, filters and/or boiling. Suggest bringing two (or three in hot weather) 1 litre water bottles, one to drink from and the other with a purification tablet at work.

Meeting & times

Jun 20 - am