North Dartmoor

For some time now (about 4 years on and off) I’ve been working on my grand mapping project, to survey and map the whole of the Northern part of Dartmoor for use for orienteering. Whilst this project continues (it’s a huge area, and time, until my recent retirement, was limited to odd weekend trips) there is now a sufficient area mapped with enough detail to hold a long O type event there. Some of the older readers will remember, fondly hopefully, the formative years that we hosted and ran many long distance events on Dartmoor, Exmoor and the Quantocks- these annual events eventually dwindled into obscurity amidst concerns of huge workloads for planner etc. setting out and collecting equipment over huge tracts of moorland, competitor safety, under manning for emergency cover and other H&S concerns rather than due to competitor indifference- many of our regulars claimed it was ‘the’ event they looked forward to all year in their orienteering calendars.

The advent of GPS orienteering technology has now enabled us to run virtual events with minimal, if any at all, equipment requirements in the field. This makes this type of event much easier to put on for the planner/organiser (me!) I therefore intend to use the maprun app we use successfully for similar virtual events to hold a long event over part of the mapped area

The map we’ll use will be a near standard orienteering format at 1:10000 scale using a two-sided A3 paper size. It will be a 2, 3 or 4 hour score event all using the same map and controls- you simply choose, in advance, how long you want to give yourself out there. Controls have differing values (all clearly shown) depending on technicality and distance/climb. Penalties for lateness will be harsh so don’t overdo it. For reference, to get all the controls, the nominal straight-line distance would be about 30-32km with quite a few metres of ascent.

The terrain is classic Dartmoor with lots of contours (!), with run-ability varying from solid tracks, perfect sheep-cropped grass through to slowing rocks/clitter and tussocks (although these cannot compare to the classic man-eating tussocks many will ‘fondly’ remember from our event over the Chains Valley on Exmoor many years ago). Thanks to His Majesty’s finest, who have assigned areas for firing ranges over part of the area, and the Okehampton Camp base close by, there is a wealth of military roads, good tracks and paths throughout. Their somewhat inability to accurately hit a target has also left a legacy of widespread perfect shell-hole depressions for our delectation.

Now to the practicalities:

This is very high and exposed open moorland with no cover whatsoever throughout. (High Willhays, the highest point in the SW at over 2000ft, is in the mapped area). This is not a Quantock Orienteers organised and supported event- it is effectively a permanent orienteering course you do at your leisure on a day of your choosing during a period when the course is available. In practice, due to access restrictions imposed on us by the Dartmoor NPA we can really only make it available during August and into September. You are responsible for your own safety, there will be no backup available from the club. Pick a day with a good forecast and I’ll guarantee you’ll have a great outing- the scenery is sublime- pick a bad day and you take your chances. Please ensure you are competent and fit enough to cope with your chosen course and duration and take correct clothing, food and drink for the conditions and time you’ll be out. Let someone know your plans in advance. You must also take into account that army live firing some days totally eliminates access- there is a firing schedule web-site which details these days – follow the link below to ensure you don’t waste a journey there. You will be stopped at the gatehouse by the camp on your way to the start parking if you do try to access it on a firing day.

All controls are off paths but on good well defined features. There is obviously no traffic away from the military and other access roads so juniors will be fine although should be accompanied by a competent adult unless very experienced and confident.

The map is on two sides of a single A3 sheet with an overlap on each side. Control numbers, descriptions and values for each are clearly shown. You will need to pre-download your course on the maprun app before you arrive at the start area as there is no internet connectivity there. (Thanks to the army’s use of the area, there is however reasonable phone signal in places, especially on the hill tops)

I will arrange to print maps on waterproof paper and make these available in late July (details on how to get these to follow) and suggest a £1.00 fee per map to cover printing costs

There will be no official ‘results’ as such as this is an activity rather than an event under BOF descriptions thereof- maprun will of course show your on the day results (which can then be compared with those of others)

So I can estimate printing requirements, I’d appreciate that if you would like to have a go at this activity, you email me in advance at andyr.qo@gmail.com. I’ll get printing done then find a way to get maps to you (If you have access to an A3 printer I could of course send the PDFs instead)

Many thanks

Andy Rimes

The Dartmoor live firing calendar can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dartmoor-firing-programme

Firing is not usually carried out at weekends, and is mostly at the Willsworthy range, off the map rather than the Okehampton range which covers most of the mapped area.