Buckfastleigh

View archive gallery

Local Sponsors

More information

Many thanks to The Media Workshop for facilitating this camera's location and to The Westcountry Rivers Trust for capitally funding its installation. The river begins as two separate branches (the East Dart and West Dart), which join at Dartmeet. The paths along these rivers offer very attractive walking, and there are several small waterfalls. The rivers are crossed by a number of clapper bridges, notably at the hamlet of Postbridge. After leaving the moor, the Dart flows southwards past Buckfast Abbey and through the towns of Buckfastleigh, Dartington and Totnes. At Totnes, where there is a seventeenth century weir (rebuilt in the 1960s), it becomes tidal, and there are no bridges below the town. The River Dart is the source of much folklore on Dartmoor, where it is traditionally respected and feared - the waters have a tendency to rise without notice following heavy rainfall on the moors above, adding to the dangers of its rapids and powerful currents. This gave rise to the couplet:'River of Dart,Oh River of Dart! Every year thou claimest a heart.'