This was "May blossom" season, with many hawthorn trees in flower. 

Beech tree cowl enveloping the end of a hedge .....

Hedge of beech trees.

May blossom (hawthorn) complete with pollen beetles if you look closely).

Adit, SX 56378 92007 or SX 56375 92041 (more than one) .....

Internal view, with "flash" illumination.

First footbridge, at SX 56427 92083 (not crossed, but there are wheelpits and "finger dumps" to be seen on the other bank of the river i.e. West Okement River) .....

Looking upstream.

Meldon Pool, an old limestone quarry, now flooded. This was a special Carbonifereous period limestone, not found anywhere else on Dartmoor; laid down 350 million years ago by living coral reefs. The rock was treated in nearby lime kilns with alternate layers of limestone and charcoal, which was lit at the bottom and burned at high temperature for three days. Used for treating fields and soils in farming to "sweeten" the land. The pool is deeper than the nearby Meldon Viaduct is high: the pool is around 40 metres (130 feet), the tallest viaduct span is 120 feet .....

View across Meldon Pool. Early in the Carboniferous Period, around 350 million years ago, the Variscan Orogeny occurred, when the African tectonic plate collided with the European plate. This climaxed with the intrusion of the molten magma of the Dartmoor granite. Oceanic sediments were pushed up, folded and baked with the tremendous heat of the process. The rocks around the granite were changed and are referred to as the metamorphic aureole - Meldon is entirely within this region. Super-heated fluids leaked from the granite into the metamorphosed rocks of the surrounding country rock to form new minerals .....

Zoomed view .....

View from further along the pool, showing the reflections in the water.

The ruins of a building associated with a weighbridge that is almost hidden nearby, for weighing cartloads of lime from the nearby kiln .....

Remains of the weighbridge, made by Bartlett & Son, Bristol.

The west lime kiln ..... built 1880-1885, charcoal was made here from the surrounding woodlands as well until the train came with cheaper fuel, coal. The limestone was roasted in alternate layers using charcoal to convert it fom calcium carbonate into quicklime, calcium oxide.  This would be slaked with water and then powdered to form slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) to put on land to raise the pH and increase its fertility. The stone and charcoal were lifted to a loading platform at the top of the kiln using an inclined tramway. The charge was lit through the grate at the back of the kiln and after three days, the lime was shovelled out through the same grate into waiting carts. The limekiln was disused by 1905. Source: "Exploring a Dartmoor Valley", Peter Keene, DNPA & Devon County Council, 2007, page 17 .....

Closer view .....

The kindling grate.

View across the valley at hawthorn trees in blossom.

First view of the Meldon Viaduct, with a more modern description .....

From the oroiginal Meldon Viaduct web site .....

"Meldon Viaduct, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, is a superb example of Victorian Engineering and is one of only two in the country of this type of construction. Built in 1874 for the London and South Western Railway main line between Waterloo and Plymouth, it was widened to double track in 1878 and closed to trains in the late 1960s.

The widening was achieved by constructing a second viaduct along side the first, using an almost exact copy of the original design. Over the years the two structures have been tied together in an effort to reduce sway when trains crossed the viaduct. The structure underwent a major refurbishment in 1996. Although the trains have long gone it is still a significant landscape feature that it is now available to walkers and cyclists."