Tors of Dartmoor Blog
Every time I get wind of a tor I haven’t heard of before, the urge to get out there and find it takes hold. Less than 24 hours had passed, from my attention being captured, and I was venturing out in a brief window between the rain, in search of “Granate” Tor. I had been […]
If you look at a map of the area between Canonteign Falls and Hennock, on the eastern edges of Dartmoor, you will see a few places with the name “Hyner”; There’s Hyner Bottom, Hyner Farm, Hyner Hill Plantation, Hyner Bridge and Little Hyner, but curiously, there doesn’t appear to be reference to a Hyner Rocks […]
A few weeks ago, Tim Jenkinson emailed me a link to an online reference of a long forgotten tor curiously called Nympenhole. It was part of an article about Hameldown and within it, an author, named Sir Walter Besant, described the views from King’s Tor. I tracked down the origins of this and found a […]
Fresh from a successful walk in Holne Chase, Rich and I said farewell to Tim Jenkinson, then headed to Holne to seek out Gibby Combe Tor. This was a significant tor in that it was my last publicly accessible one to bag the Social Hiking list. The remainder would require either permission or stealth! We […]
Having had a friendly encounter with the owner of Was Tor a few weeks back I was in a positive mind that approaching landowners to ask for access permission might not result in a flat “No!” every time. When the majority of tors and rocks that remain on my list are buried deep within private […]
I’ll admit that Crownhill Tor was something of an irritant; not even within the national park and surrounded by the awful china clay works that scar the landscape. I expected little of the walk to bag this one, possibly there, back, job done. I’m pleased to report I was wrong! I pulled in at the […]
“Other piles have also fanciful names attached to them, one being known as Harton’s Chest, and another as The Foxes’ Yard. A rock near the river, and not far from Foxworthy Mill, bears a name which should render it a fit companion to the Parson’s Loaf. It is the Round of Beef, the very sound […]
I arrived an hour before opening time for Lydford Gorge, parking at the White Lady Waterfalls car park, with the intention of trying to find the owner of Was Tor before I turned my attention to the gorge. Please note this small outcrop lies on private land with horses and permission should always be sought. […]
Back in August 2015, I made my first visit to this south-western corner of the national park. In the height of summer, the weight of growth in the woods, the height of the bracken, made it difficult to explore and I had to give up on any attempt of reaching Shaugh Beacon from the path […]
Sunday morning, I left the overcast skies of Okehampton, heading to the western side of Dartmoor, where the countryside bathed in warm sunshine. Well, that’s how it felt from the car, but when I had parked up on the edge of Roborough Down, I stepped out into a biting wind which had me layering up […]