it's worth walking up here whenever you have a chance to visit Belstone
(Lunch in the Tors Inn gives a pretty good excuse).
This shot is half-way up and a mile from the village. Walk on further and the landscape opens up
into the broad and almost flat bowl of Taw Marsh itself. It's quite an unusual landform and
one idea of its origin holds that in the late ice-age the valley became dammed by
glacial morraine which allowed a big lake to form into which silt became deposited.
(The theory may be true as I think I can detect a couple of levels of
lake shoreline and misplaced boulders which are probably erratics.)
People have long been associated with Taw Marsh with activities ranging from mining
to many attempts at water extraction to help supply surrounding villages and even Exeter.
A plan was mooted to build a dam to flood the marsh, but public opposition saw it off.
There were complaints when the boreholes began to reduce the water table
(you can't extract millions of gallons without environmental damage.)
Then there were worries about Radon gas leading to structures being built to take it out
of the water, but the final straw in the water extraction saga came more recently when
they found there was too much Aluminium in the water for it to be considered safe.
Anyway... as you get near the Marsh today there is a wonderful long and level stretch of
rock-cleared river which can be about a meter deep. Children love it in the summer,
dogs love it at any time of the year!