Travel 51
ALAMY; JACK BOSKETTAll aboard the
newly opened
Dartmoor Line
The Exeter to
Okehampton line
is back today, taking
passengers into the
heart of Dartmoor.
By Helen Ochyra
W
hen a train line is
closed, it may van-
ish from the rail
map, but it does
not disappear.
Disused lines of-
ten live on as
cycleways or walking paths. Where rails
once ran, trees continue to stand, forming
leafy tunnels that whisper of trains long
passed. Brick walls, tunnels and bridges
stand, rails rust in the ground, signage lives
on. Memories remain.
The Exeter to Okehampton line was
shut down by the infamous Dr Beeching in
1972, but it too has left its mark. Local
people have long campaigned to bring it
back. Today, they get their wish, as the first
passenger services between Exeter and
Okehampton in almost 50 years run on
the rebranded Dartmoor Line.
Eleven miles of new track have been laid
through the trees, their branches seeming
to strain out to reach the train from both
sides, and only allowing the briefest
snatches of Dartmoor to reach those with-
in. No matter, you’re only on board for
about 40 minutes and then you’re disem-
barking at Okehampton and all you can
really think about is why your local station
doesn’t look this handsome. Even while no
trains served Okehampton station, people
visited to gawp at its 1930s-style architec-
ture, which is now gleaming — the ivy-
green paintwork, the Caramac-coloured
picket fences, the vintage-style posters. I
can’t imagine why anyone would want to
arrive on Dartmoor any other way.
It’s a significant start to the govern-
ment’s Restoring Your Railway initiative,
but better still it makes Dartmoor far eas-
ier to reach by public transport. Previously
a bus — running irregularly and pretty
much never when you wanted it to be —
was the only option, besides a pricey taxi,
for getting here from Exeter. Now London
to Okehampton, for example, will be poss-
ible in three hours or so and a shade over
£60 return.
I arrived in Okehampton on a preview
journey on the new line, one of my
mother’s guidebooks in hand. Dartmoor
was her favourite place, and her first choice
for our family holidays. We went every
year and when she died five years ago, she
left me a library of books to aid exploration.
Okehampton station stands high
above the town and just off one of
the loftiest parts of the moor. Here
the moor pokes its way into town, flash-
ing its autumn colours between the
buildings and flaunting its curves along
the horizon. It begs you to get outthere on two feet, or perhaps two wheels.
Adventure Okehampton has bikes for
hire from Okehampton station, this also
being the start of the Granite Way. This is
the continuation of the former railway line
to Lydford, repurposed as a cycleway and
walking path along the fringes of the
national park.
Setting out on its wide, well-made track
I realised immediately that I would be able
to make short work of the Granite Way’s 11
miles. And I can’t even remember when I
last rode a bike. The one I’d hired this time
was electric and every push of the pedals
felt turbocharged. I forgot all my bike-
based fears before the town even dis-
appeared behind me, and as the ground
rushed away to my right in rumpled ridges
of emerald and violet, vaulting downwards
from the moor, it yanked my attention out-
wards, across a sweep of rural Devon.
This is a superb way to get to Lydford
and the highlight is Meldon Viaduct,
two miles or so along the track fromOkehampton. Today the viaduct is an
iron skeleton, its back too weak to carry a
train but its bones still standing firm, al-
lowing cyclists to soar above woodland
and once busy mineral mines.
It’s hard to imagine this still, near-silent
place as a centre of industry, and at the end
of the route in Lydford, it’s equally hard to
imagine such a tranquil village as a centre
of Victorian tourism. Yet this was a place
where three railway lines converged, their
trains disgorging well-to-do Victorians
seeking to take the air and experience the
picturesque.
No railway line brings visitors here to-
day, but the Granite Way brings cyclists
and the gorge brings just about everybody
else. Now owned by the National Trust,
Lydford Gorge is the deepest river gorge in
England’s southwest, and even in the win-
ter, when the main trail is closed, it’s a
dramatic place for a walk.
I set out along the waterfall trail, a
mile-long route that takes me into an-
cient oak woodland and along another
disused railway line. An arched bridge
remains, as well as old track repurposed
as a signpost and trees that grow as if
they must stay parted for a train that will
never come.
It hadn’t rained all morning but the
sound of water was omnipresent, gush-
ing softly through carpets of moss that
clung to the rock and streaming along a
riverbed that must be just out of sight. I
paused to listen, and to watch the ebony
shell of a beetle slowly making its way
across the path. My pace had slowed
from train to bike to foot and I felt ready
to slow still further, for lunch at Lyd-
ford’s best pub.
This, I had been told, was the Dartmoor
Inn, and the blazing fire and menu featur-
ing local produce were a promising start. I
ordered wood pigeon to begin and Bride-
stowe red venison from up the road to fol-
low and it was all so wonderful, warming
and welcoming that I forgot to stick to one
glass of wine. No matter, there was affoga-
to to reboot my energy levels, and the elec-
tric bike and the flat, wide path empty of all
other traffic meant I was back in Oke-
hampton in little more than an hour.
On my final day here I was straight back
onto the moor, this time accompanied by
Emma Cunis, the founder of Dartmoor’s
Daughter, which offers local guided walks
and nature experiences. Like me, she spent
much of her childhood exploring the
national park with her mother.
I had picked a walk from one of my
mum’s old books, a four-mile loop along
the Dartmoor Way and Tarka Trail, and
we set out together into the woodland to
follow it.
Emma’s walks and nature-connection
experiences often begin with a short medi-
tation. “People sometimes arrive stressed
from their journey and are straight out on
the walk without stopping to notice where
they are or the special qualities of what’s
around them,” she tells me. “A short medi-
tation helps them connect to their bodies
and the landscape.”
We stood just above the East Okement
River and closed our eyes. As Emma guid-
ed me to my senses, I heard the water, bur-
bling over the rocks and dripping from the
tree canopy. I noticed the wind lifting my
hair and tickling my cheek, and I felt the
warmth of memories, of time spent on
Dartmoor with someone now gone, but
never forgotten.d m c d r ath
ns
in
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r
p
s
a
fr
t
fo
ThI can’t imagine why
anyone would want to
arrive here any other way
East Okement RiverHelen Ochyra was a
guest of Network Rail,
GWR and Sykes Cottages.
Return tickets from
Exeter St David’s to
Okehampton on the
Dartmoor Line cost £8
(gwr.com); three nights’
self-catering for two at
Heather Cottage from
£348 (sykescottages.
co.uk). Adventure
Okehampton has electric
bikes for hire from £16
(adventureokehampton.
com); Emma Cunis offers
bespoke guided walks
on Dartmoor from £150
for a half-day
(dartmoorsdaughter.com)Need to
know
Great Staple TorThe Dartmoor Line
at Okehampton