DayCycle – The Dart Valley Cycleway

The Dart Valley Cycleway roughly follows the course of the river that gave Dartmoor its name. This stunning route showcases some of what makes cycling in Devon so wonderful, and in places, so challenging.
While this video can be useful on its own, it’s meant to compliment my highly-detailed traffic-free cycle route guide for the Dart Valley Cycleway. Go have a look at that route guide here: https://www.willcycle.com/2024/03/19/dart-valley-cycleway/
Like my other DayCycle route guides, it rates the route for the surface, what barriers exist, availability of refreshments and toilets, social safety, plus much more. It also offers an up-to-date weather forecast, and an interactive map, from where you can download the GPX for this route.

[Music] Hi there. Today we’ll be exploring the Dart Valley Cycle Way. As you’d guess from the roots name, we’ll more or less be following the course of the river Dart, which flows right through the delightful Southampton town of Totteness. The river also gives its name to Dartmore. This is a there and back route with some great sections, some less great sections, and some challenging sections. I started right by Steiner School, and from the outset, the route runs along a shared pavement right to an often busy fast B- road. Especially if cycling with kids, consider simply starting from Shenna’s Bridge instead. The route will rapidly remind you that Devon isn’t flat, but you will soon face climbs of around 12% gradient. From Shennis Bridge into Tottness, the route is mostly flat. Though, if you wanted to get nearby train, the route skirts the very edge of Tottness train station. In Totteness itself, there’s a section that’s on road and it can get fairly busy. If I had to cycle that section with kids, we’d all be on the pavement, cycling slowly, ready to yield to pedestrians. As you leave Tobleskin, the route goes uphill. It’s not a very steep hill, though, and then becomes mildly undulating. When the path ends eventually, and the route becomes gravel, the story changes significantly, and the route heads steeply uphill. In places it’s a 17% gradient. That’s tough enough on tar, but with road tires on my bike, I couldn’t ride up there. So, I had to get off and push. The annoying thing is that on the return leg, you’ll still need to go slow and be very careful or risk crashing due to the diagonal erosion control beams that are across the path. Despite that, it’s well worth the trip to the Durant arms pub at the end. As you’ll see along the sharpener estate, livestock can wander freely across the path. So do be careful. While this video can be used alone, it’s meant to complement my highly detailed traffic-free route guide over on woolcycle.com. Do go have a look. The link is in the description. My traffic-free route guides contain a lot of detail and great routes for the surface, barriers, availability of refreshments and toilets for child friendliness, social safety, and more. They even include an up-to-date weather forecast and an interactive map from where you can download the GPX for the route. Also, if you enjoyed this video, please click like and also subscribe to my channel. Hope you’ll join me for my next ride, too. My older winds only ever beat pale winds. Have a great ride. [Music] Oh. [Music] Oh, [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Right here we are at the top. Behind me is the entrance to the Sharper Estate. Now the path we just cycled on actually belongs to the Sharp Estate and they’ve opened up as a permissive path. It’s also part of National Cycle Network route 2. And for those of you who love to slag off Sustrans, let me rush to Sustrance defense here. Yes, that’s an NCN route that came up that particular um rather steep hill with a poor surface. Nobody’s saying it’s perfect. Nobody’s pretending it’s perfect. However, if you’re familiar with the area, to get where we’re going, to get there by road any other way involves bigger hills than that on roads that are busy a roads, 60 mph traffic, and there are lries and buses and vans and lots of cars. So, trust me, that is the better option that we’ve just come. And besides, if you have a look at the view, it’s just stunning along here, right? But we have a pub waiting. So, let’s get cracking. [Music] [Music]