Beware of the road to Scorhill stone circle Dartmoor

Thanks for the information. Sounds as though you were able to squeak through that bridge. I am interested to know what country you were traveling in?

Hope the rest of your trip was less nerve wracking!

Traveler Girl

Dartmoor is in southwestern England. Rick goes to this stone circle in his program on that area. I wanted to warn travelers driving around England that this road was not fun to drive.

Thank you for the geography lesson. I have never been outside Gatwick or Heathrow airports. Yet!

Traveler Girl

Yeah, I ran into another bridge like that in Cornwall. They're a bit scary.

I'm less than impressed with Rick Steves for not doing more to warn tourists of the conditions of the roads here. It's one thing if you're being driven by a guide, another if youre driving yourself. Locals will speed through country lanes and it can be dangerous if you don't know the twists and turns as well as they do; there is no shortage of small bridges with little clearance and broken paving on the lanes like what you've described;
Drive responsibly as you did and you will be okay. Better yet, use public transport to find one of the hundreds of other stone circles or relics smattered across Dartmoor.

I cut up my guidebook for this trip and don't have it anymore so I can't check if there is a warning about this road or not. There should be.

We did this last summer. It was quite the adventure but then I wasn’t driving, my son in law was and he thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. I thought the walk thru the moors down to the stone circle and then further along the trail to old stone bridges over the small creeks more than made up for the road getting there. It was a beautiful area if you are fond of the moors.

I'm curious - what size car were you driving?

We drove a Nissan Juke.

I'm less than impressed with Rick Steves for not doing more to warn tourists of the conditions of the roads here.

Have you read his guidebook? Rick Steves does warn tourists in his books that the roads are narrow and that tourists should take precautions and drive carefully. That said, there's only so much info that a travel guide can give you.

I drove in Cornwall and Devon earlier this year, and knew what I would face (based on reading guidebooks, including RS, and posts from this forum), but you really can't visualize it completely until you're faced with it. And I had spent 3 weeks in Scotland the year before driving, so I knew what single track roads could be like. Even then, I was appalled by some of the roads I drove in Cornwall and Devon.

Mardee, you're completely right..."you really can't visualize it completely until you're faced with it".

There's something about the boldness of Devon and Cornwall drivers on those lanes that can't be believed until it's seen. My partner claims the etiquette is getting worse, based on some people refusing pull over or back up despite being closer to the wide spot, not waving to thank us for pulling over, etc.