Fingle Bridge

The first time I saw Fingle Bridge must have been in about 1979. We had bought the AA book No Through Road – a compendium of hundreds of walks throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain; our introduction to moderately long walks which fired an enthusiasm that lasts to this day.  At 4 miles, the Fingle Bridge walk was well within the capabilities of our children, then aged 5 and 7.

Fingle Bridge is on the River Teign – yes, the same River Teign that I crossed on my Watern Tor walk, a few days before.  Here it's grown a lot from its Dartmoor origins as it flows through the steep-sided and thickly wooded Teign Gorge.

As in 1979, we started the walk on Hunter's Path, high above the gorge.

That's Castle Drogo, peeping between the trees above the path. Last time we came this way we visited, but I wasn't overly impressed. It's not a real castle and a bit too modern for me, so on we walked to Sharp Tor and Hunter's Tor.

 Yes, it was rather windy on Hunter's Tor. I apologise for not smiling.

Descending to the river, we saw this sign, pointing to the hydro turbine that generates electricity for Castle Drogo.

It was locked closed, but I was able to take this photo through the window – a couple of small generators, coupled (I presume) to turbines on the other side of the wall.

A couple of views or the River Teign, taken as we returned along the valley to Fingle Bridge.

And here is Fingle Bridge, viewed this time from upstream.  At this point most people end the walk with a visit to the Fingle Bridge Inn.  That's what we did back in 1979.  This time, though, we decided to extend the walk a further 1½ miles (and 1½ miles back again) to look at the Iron Age hill fort of Wooston Castle.

To my inexpert eye Wooston Castle looks like many other Iron Age forts – a large expanse of flattish ground surrounded by a defensive ditch. It was a nice walk up through the woods, though, and an even nicer walk down to the Teign and back to Fingle Bridge.

8 miles