After recently visiting the enchanting Wistman’s Wood we were keen to see more ancient woodland. That’s when we heard about Black-a-Tor Copse.
It’s another wonderful patch of fairytale like forest, with gnarled trees and huge boulders dripping in moss. Although the walk is still easy, it’s almost twice the distance of Wistman’s Wood and there’s a small amount of climbing to do. Your reward is this ancient beauty, which you’ll likely have all to yourself.
Here’s everything you need to know about visiting Black-a-Tor Copse.
The walk to Black-a-Tor Copse
The stats
Distance: 4.5 miles (7.2km) return, plus 0.75 miles (1.2km) return if you want to see the quarry
Elevation gain: 170m
Difficulty: Easy, but not flat
The walk to Black-a-Tor Copse is on a well maintained trail up until the last 500m. There are some short uphill sections, but the majority of the walk is flat and easy. The final 500m involve a bit of rock hopping and negotiating some boggy terrain. For this reason, visiting after a dry spell is best if you can.
Once inside the wood there is no path. In order to protect the fragile moss, you can only walk on the patches of dirt between the boulders. It’s not the easiest place to explore, but even viewing the wood from the path at the edge is more than worth it.
There is no signposting for the walk, but there’s really only a couple of places you could go wrong, and we have detailed directions below.
The possible routes
There are several options for reaching and exploring the area around Black-a-Tor Copse. We took the easy route from Meldon Reservoir, but you can also start from Sourton village.
Once at the wood you can climb up to Black Tor, which is a short detour from the wood. You could then make a circuit visiting Yes Tor and the High Wilhays.
We happened to walk during a white out, so didn’t visit the tors unfortunately. Whichever route you decide on I am sure Black-a-Tor Copse will be the highlight!
Starting the trail at Meldon Reservoir
The walk begins at Meldon Reservoir and you have the option to either start or end with a quick side trail to visit Meldon Quarry. It’s just under a 600m detour each way and well worth it if you have the time to spare.
To visit the quarry you exit the car park via the stairs behind the toilet block. Head immediately left through the gate and follow the wide stony path downhill.
After 300m you’ll reach an impressive row of mossy beech trees, which for tree lovers is worth the side trip alone!
You’ll continue heading downhill past the trees and the path will flatten 80m later.
It’s a pretty stretch of track passing a tiny cave on the left, and stream with cascades on the right. You’ll then arrive at a signpost stating that the quarry is private property 220m later (roughly 600m into the walk).
A public footpath skirts the edge of the quarry and it’s perfectly fine to visit. Just walk a minute further up the track and you’ll come to a great viewing area.
Arriving at Meldon Quarry
The quarry used to be a popular wild swimming spot and it’s easy to see why. The water is a gorgeous shade of green and the surrounding trees and cliff wall gives it an atmospheric feel.
Unfortunately, swimming at the quarry is now off limits, although many people do still go in. The signs indicate the water can be dangerous.
Despite this, it’s worth going simply to have a look and sit beside the water and enjoy the views.
Once you’re ready to leave the quarry and carry on to Black-a-Tor Copse, you retrace your steps back to the gate. It’s predominantly uphill on the way back, but it doesn’t take long and there are plenty of Dartmoor ponies to keep you company.
Walking to Black-a-Tor Copse
From the gate the walk heads left, down the road and reaches the reservoir 100m later.
The forecast for good weather didn’t hold true for us, and as we crossed over the reservoir you’d be forgiven for thinking we were looking out at rough seas!
After 200m you’ll reach the end of the reservoir and head right, along the gravel path. Just under 300m later you’ll see a gate on the right.
This leads to a lovely little picnic spot, with benches surrounded by bracken and views out to the water. Unfortunately for us it was blowing a gale, but it would be a great picnic spot in better weather!
The trail to the wood continues past the gate, following the right fork. The next part of the walk is all along a well maintained, almost flat path and takes you through some really pretty moorland.
We were lucky that the heather had begun springing up on the hillside and the combination of that and the bright yellow gorse made it especially lovely.
Through the moors
At the 1km mark you’ll reach a small wooden bridge over the stream and cross it, heading uphill to the right directly after. It’s the briefest of climbs before the path flattens and begins heading alongside the reservoir.
The next 900m are flat and very leisurely. The views of the water are great, especially if you happen to walk on a nicer day than we did!
After this flat section, the path heads steeply downhill, but only for 100m and it wasn’t slippery.
You’ll see a footbridge at the end of the descent, which you shouldn’t cross unless you want to have a quick look at the old stone bridge on the other side.
To reach the wood you need to continue straight. The path looks like it briefly disappears as you walk along the grass, but you’ll quickly reach the stony track again and it’s very easy to follow.
After 300m, the track begins to climb and this is the only real ascent of the walk, unless you are extending it to visit the tors.
The trail flattens again after 550m and as you climb, you’ll get some good views down into forest, with peeks through to various cascades.
The waterfall swimming spot
Once at the top of the modest climb, you’ll see a slightly more open patch of forest on the right and you can see down to the cascades.
There are some beautiful stunted mossy trees and boulders, and you’ll see a slightly trodden down grassy path which gets you close to one of the main cascades.
There’s a small plunge pool here and it only requires climbing down three small rocks to access. I had my swimsuit ready to go, and I never normally like to miss the chance to swim in such an idyllic spot, but unfortunately we’d been rained on continuously since leaving the car.
Knowing I didn’t have anything dry to put on after, I had to skip it, but if you love a wild dip, and you have decent weather, do not forget your swimmers!
As always, please keep it wild and take any rubbish with you (we hate to preach when most people would never dream of littering, but a tiny minority of people mean we always like to mention it).
Continuing to Black-a-Tor Copse
The next 500m of track between the cascades and the wood are very different than the trail up to this point. In fact there isn’t really a path at all.
You’ll pass by the locked gate and head left on to a section of rocks. You can rock hop your way along, avoiding any mud, until you reach a wider bit of water.
We saw footprints to indicate that lots of people jump this, but it was so muddy and boggy the other side that it wasn’t for me. Instead I veered left and walked carefully through boggy grass until I found a drier route.
For us there were some dryish sections around the bog which avoided totally submerging our boots, but I can imagine in wetter times it could be worse.
It only took a few minutes before we could navigate back to the rocky area and begin following the trodden ground again.
It was muddy in patches, but not awful, and lots could be avoided using the rocks as stepping stones.
You’ll then enter a drier, but still damp stretch of grassy terrain, which will take you most of the way to the wood before it gets a little rocky again.
It’s totally worth it when you reach the wood, which is instantly recognisable, but also marked by a signpost.
The upside to this tricky section of the walk is the views. You’ll see the mysterious dense wood ahead of you and the looming rocks of Black Tor above.
Whilst we didn’t have the weather to get any views from the tor, it was pretty cool to see it shrouded in mist.
Exploring Black-a-Tor Copse
Black-a-Tor Copse is a dense patch of rare and ancient woodland. Even if you didn’t know this, you can feel that it’s special.
The gnarled trees are dripping in old man’s beard, and other rare lichens, which give the wood a unique atmosphere. It’s like you’ve entered another world, or maybe the pages of a novel.
It’s a beautiful and dense wood, which is quite difficult to explore. Due to the fragility of the lichen which only grows 1mm a year, you must be extra careful not to damage any.
That means not touching, or treading on the moss.
There is very little dirt ‘track’ between the boulders, so you can’t go very far into the wood, but even going a few steps in is enough to soak up the mysterious feel of Black-a-Tor Copse.
You can continue from the main wood along the ‘path’ to the right and into another small patch of forest, but the area between the two is extremely boggy.
We’re talking suck your boots right off your feet territory and we were visiting after several weeks of scorching heat and little rain! You might prefer to stick solely to the main wood.
Finishing the walk
From the wood you can see Black Tor just above you. It’s really not far at all, but as mentioned we didn’t go up to see it as originally planned.
If you do want to go, it’s approximately 100m back on the trail you took to get to the copse (with a trodden path on the northern side/right of the trail).
You can then either retrace your steps all the way back to the reservoir, or make a circuit.
We retraced our steps, just wanting to get out the incessant rain as soon as we could! Despite the weather, this was a wonderful walk and we’d highly recommend it, especially if you love Wistman’s Wood.
Parking for Black-a-Tor Copse
To follow the easy route we took, you need to park at Meldon Reservoir, postcode: EX20 4LU. The car park is £2 per day and has quite a bit of space. There were also clean toilets which was a welcome novelty!
The reservoir is located less than a 10 minute drive from Okehampton, 50 minutes from Ashburton and 50 minutes from Widecombe in the Moor.
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