Bellever is 100% in my top 3 spots on Dartmoor, however I’ll be honest, I haven’t thought of the other 2 yet. It just has everything you could want for a Dartmoor adventure.

Obviously Bellever has to have a Tor, it makes it a little easier that the Tor here is called Bellever Tor. This granite Tor sits almost centrally in the National Park and provides 360 panoramic views typical grassy moorland heading south and of the forestry plantation to the north. The forest was planted her nearly 100 years ago in 1921 by the Dutchy of Cornwall and is now managed by Forestry England, there is amble parking and multiple walking routes through and around the forest leading to Bellever Tor and another great attraction here, the East Dart River. The East Dart River is one of two main tributaries of the famous River Dart which runs 75km to Dartmouth where it meets the ocean. The East Dart river runs just over 16km from its source to Dartmeet where it joins forces with the West Dart River to form the River Dart. This free flowing river runs up the east side of Bellever forest as its bends and winds around the outskirts of the forest. There is also toilets here which is rarity on Dartmoor.

All of this said, we chose a sunny Sunday morning not long after lockdown restrictions had been lifted to head to the forest in the hope of lazing in the hammock amongst the trees with the sound of the river drifting by as we read, picnicked and basked in the sunshine. We arrived pretty early to make the most of the day and parked up noticing a few more cars than usual. We headed to the edge of the forest close to the East Dart River and and lay down the blankets and erected the hammock but as we began to relax and read we constantly noticed more and more families arriving to find a similar spot by the river and the sounds of the river and birds in the trees were replaced with kids splashing in the river and parents reminding them not to drown.

It turns out we were not alone in our love of Bellever and that perhaps a sunny day just after lockdown was not the best day to visit our beloved Bellever so with the numbers of visitors increasing after just an hour we packed up a headed back to our own little woods closer to home. I’m pleased to say our woods was almost empty aside from a few wild horses and grazing sheep.

Bellever remains in my top 3 spots on Dartmoor and we will be back to explore more.