A ride through Dartmoor’s industrial past
When a drive back from Cornwall took us past the start of the Granite Way in Okehampton, we stopped off for a ride with a unique perspective on Dartmoor.
Nowhere is that perspective as striking as on the Meldon Viaduct, a few miles along the trail from Okehampton towards Lydford. The viaduct rises over 40m above the valley below, offering panoramic views back up to Meldon Dam and the high granite massif of the moor, as well as across the lower-lying land to Exmoor 20 miles to the north-east. But the history that lay beneath us as we paused to take in the scene was just as striking, if not as obvious.