Bellever

Bellever lies on the East Dart just south of Postbridge, a small cluster of buildings almost surrounded by the conifers of Bellever Forest, planted by the Forestry Commission in the twentieth century on ground that had been open moor. A clapper bridge crosses the river here, its central span long gone, beside the ford and the later road bridge. The old farm buildings have served as a youth hostel for generations of walkers, and the hamlet has an air of being somewhere on the way to somewhere wilder.

The forest makes this one of the few places on Dartmoor with genuine shelter, which is useful when the moor is at its worst, and the tracks through it are easy walking. Bellever Tor rises out of the trees with a fine view across the central moor. The ground here is unusually rich in prehistory: cairns, hut circles and the reaves that divided the land in the Bronze Age all lie within a short walk, and Grey Wethers and Sittaford Tor are within reach for anyone wanting a longer day.