A Southern Railway Dartmoor Walk

Distance: 7 miles
Difficulty: Easy/Moderate
Start/End point: Sampford Courtenay/Okehampton

Everyone is familiar with the scenic railway line between Exeter and Plymouth. This is the old Great Western Railway route, pioneered by Brunel, which skirts the southern side of Dartmoor. Less well known is the fact that there used to be an alternative main line route to Plymouth around the northern edge of Dartmoor.

This was built as part of the London and South Western Railway during the latter half of the 19th century. Passing through Crediton, Okehampton and Tavistock, it also served as access to the North Cornwall lines to Padstow and Bude which left the main line near Okehampton.

The London and South Western became part of the Southern Railway in the 1920s, and until the 1960s the Southern line to Plymouth offered as good a service as the GWR line. However, the Beeching reviews concluded that it was no longer needed and the line was demolished beyond Okehampton in 1968. Passenger services continued from Exeter to Okehampton until 1972, but after that the line was only retained for stone trains from Meldon Quarry, just west of Okehampton.

In the second half of the 1990s a new company was set up, Dartmoor Railway, to investigate further use of the railway to Okehampton. A partnership of the private and public sectors has now established a passenger service between Exeter and Okehampton on summer Sundays. In addition, weekend services are run throughout the year, together with most weekdays in July, August and September, between Okehampton and Meldon. In 2004 Dartmoor Railway started services to the newly renovated Sampford Courtenay station, the next station east of Okehampton.

Our walk makes use of this new opportunity of taking the train from Okehampton to Sampford Courtenay, following an extended route back to Okehampton over the edge of Dartmoor. It follows for a short way the line of the new Devonshire Heartland Way long-distance walk linking the Exe Valley and Okehampton. Around the edge of Dartmoor it uses the line of the Tarka Trail, the long figure-of-eight walk linking Okehampton with North Devon.

Relevant maps/guides: Explorer [1:25,000 scale] no. 113 Okehampton; Landranger [1:50,000 scale] no. 191 Okehampton and North Dartmoor

Facilities along route: Okehampton has all facilities; there are toilets and a café at Okehampton Station; Belstone has a pub.

Theme: Moorland
Special Interest: Nature, Wildlife
Area: Dartmoor National Park