Black Rock Falls

Black Rock Falls is a small waterfall and dark pool on the River Lyd, below High Down and Brat Tor, where the river runs over the rocks beside the Black Rock. Locals call it the Witches Pool.

• Where: On the River Lyd, between Lydford and Widgery Cross on Brat Tor (about SX 533 853)
• Also called: The Witches Pool, the name locals use. Some walking accounts call the pool Black Pool or Hunter's Pool
• Beside it: The Black Rock, with the Captain Hunter Memorial plaque
• River: The River Lyd, which rises high on the moor and runs down past Brat Tor to Lydford

The falls, the pool and the rock

Walkers' accounts describe the Lyd here running down over a series of small falls beside the Black Rock, thundering after rain and trickling when it is dry, with the black rocks on the west bank and a place to cross with care. The pool lies below them.

On the Black Rock is the plaque to Captain Nigel Hunter, killed in 1918; see the Captain Hunter Memorial. The poem on the plaque describes a moorland stream that runs on over a fall into a dark still pool. Brat Tor and its cross are close by, and the walk from Lydford passes The Dartmoor Inn at Lydford.

This is open moorland beside a river: the rocks can be slippery and the water fast after rain, and parts of this moor are used by the army, so check the firing times before you walk.