Ancient Trackways of Dartmoor

A member of The Ramblers’ Association (now known simply as The Ramblers) and reporter Sally Jones follow a route on the map of Sundry Ancient Trackways on Dartmoor starting near Gidleigh Parish Church in West Devon on the Mariners’ Way. Trackways or green ways may date to prehistoric times and started as paths formed by people or animals. In bog areas impressions or fossilised imprints attest to the pathways having been in use for thousands of years.

Ancient Trackways develop over time. The Mariners’ Way is believed to run from the coastal settlements of Bideford and Great Torrington across the moors to Dartmouth. This includes a section still in use around Gidleigh. Some paths in Saxon times were used as Herepaths or Herewags, military roads to keep out the Viking invader. The Ridgeway runs from the Dorset coast to the Wash in Norfolk, a section of which is now a national trail taking in the North Wessex Downs or Chalkenwolds in Wiltshire and the Chilterns in Buckinghamshire and is regarded as Britain’s oldest road. A similar trackway is the Saints’ Way from Padstow to Fowey in Cornwall thought to have served as a Christian pilgrimage route to Europe.