RIVER DART

A medieval stone, or clapper, bridge over the Dart on Dartmoor. The more recent road bridge is in the background.

Dartmoor's most famous river, the Dart, rises on the southern flanks of England's largest moorland of granite. The West Dart flows south to Two Bridges before flowing east to Dartmeet, while the other headwater, the East Dart, flows more directly south east to arrive at Dartmeet via Postbridge.

Both headwaters are crossed by ancient stone-slabbed Clapper Bridges (Clapper is the Saxon word for a large stone, although the bridges date from the 13th century, well after the time of the Saxons.) The clapper bridges were just wide enough for a pack horse to cross and the route over the moors that used these bridges was difficult and dangerous.

Beyond the high land of the desolate moors, the Dart reaches Buckfastleigh with its famous Saxon Abbey (founded by King Canute in 1018) before flowing on to Dartington and Totnes. From here it turns south and reaches the sea at Dartmouth.

The estuary of the Dart is an excellent example of a ria, a river valley that was cut down during the Ice Age to a sea that was much lower than it is today. Then, when the ice melted and sea levels rose again, the lower end of the Dart Valley was flooded.

The value of this geographical accident has been immense, for it has allowed people to find a sheltered harbour with deep water right opposite the French coast. At the same time, it also made the Dart estuary very vulnerable to attack, and so the estuary has more castles than almost any other part of Britain (Dartmouth, Kingswear, Bearscove and Gallants Bower).

Some places on the Dart

Dartmouth

Dartmouth has a long history, but the town came to prominence during the Middle Ages when the harbour was used as a gathering point for pilgrims going to Jerusalem and for knights and soldiers embarking on the Crusades.

Later, as an important military port, Dartmouth sent ships to help fight the Armada and also in the numerous attacks on France. As recently as the Second World War the Dart estuary was used to gather part of the fleet needed for the D-Day landings on Normandy.

With such an illustrious military history, it is not surprising that Dartmouth is the home of the Royal Naval College, the British navy's home for training officers.

But Dartmouth was not just a naval port. For many years it also had an important connection with the North American colonies and engaged in the tobacco trade.

Totnes

Totnes was developed where the Dart cuts a high bluff and provides an excellent site for the building of a castle, whose job was to dominate the route around the southern margin of Dartmoor.