Ride from sea to moor in this stunning South Devon cycling route, starting at Plymouth’s historic Royal William Yard and climbing all the way up to the wild beauty of Dartmoor National Park. This 35-mile loop features over 2,500 feet of elevation gain, passing through Sparkwell, Cornwood, and the iconic Burrator Reservoir — a favorite for cyclists and runners alike. You’ll tackle the locally infamous Dragon Hill, visit Dartmoor Zoo (made famous by We Bought a Zoo), and stop off at some of the area’s best foodie spots like The Larder in Yelverton. If you’re looking for scenic climbs, quiet moorland roads, and a route that captures the essence of Devon cycling, this is it. Full route available via Strava in the description!
Ride the route yourself: https://www.strava.com/routes/3373254543314100446
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Today’s ride is going to be um a C2 Moore affair. So starting down here in Plymouth at Royal William Yard, an old Victorian victoring yard these days owned by Urban Splash and bit of a focus for some nice wine bars and a few restaurants. We’re going to head out from here. Total loops about 35 36 miles maybe two and a half thousand feet of climbing. We’ll go through uh Sparkwell Cornwood up onto Dartmore over Sheep’s Tour and we’ll arrive at a place called Burator Reservoir which is a man-made but very beautiful lake up on the the southern part of the moore and we’ll have a little bit of look around when we get up there and uh show you some of the sites. So once you’re through Sparkwell, you do arrive here at the Dartmore Zoo, which is made famous by the Matt Damon film. We bought a zoo. There’s actually been a wildlife park here as long as I can remember, and I’m 48 years old. Used to come here when I was a kid. Back then it was just a old eccentric guy’s house and he had a lot of exotic animals up to uh Cornwood next and then it’s quite a big climb right up onto the moore. So, I’m at the foot of the uh the climb which takes us to the higher part of Dartmore. Essentially, this whole ride is a climb to the midpoint because we started at the sea and we’re heading to Dartmore. This climb here though is the first sort of real climb. It’s quite long, 6% average. It’s known locally as Dragon Hill. That’s the Straa segment name, Dragon. But I think actually someone forgot to press the space bar. I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be drag on hill cuz it drags on. All right, see you at the top. So, it’s a hard ride around here because it’s just so lumpy. Probably only beaten by Cornwall in that respect. But when you get to the top, these things always give you something magnificent in return. So this is this is Barat Reservoir. So have a look and you can ride the full perimeter of this lake. It’s about 4.85 miles. You get a lot of cyclists, a lot of runners up here cuz it’s a perfect circuit really and you catch it at the right time of the day. It’s very peaceful. Yeah, Wrapping up today’s ride at the Delicatessan in Yelton called the Lauder. It’s another hot spot on this route. I’d say it’s probably the best place to stop and get some food. Today I’ve limited it myself to a sausage roll and a couple of canoli, but as a deli they do some really awesome stuff. So hopefully you’ve enjoyed today’s route. Plenty of nice stuff to look at. You can uh find the route on my Stravo in the link in the description. If you like it, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe. See you on the next one.
2 Comments
Nice 👍🏻
48 my arse Adrian. You’re at least 60 🤣