TORS OF DARTMOOR
a database of both lesser- & well-known rocks and outcrops
Branscombe's LoafBranscombe's Cheese, Brandscombe's Loaf, Brandscombe's Cheese, Bronescombe's Loaf, Bronescombe's Cheese
 High on the top of Corn Ridge, the Loaf is the larger of two outcrops; with hefty slabs of cheese laying beside it. A cairn is situated nearby and is best accessed from Prewley Moor.  Hemery describes it; "The tiny cohesive tor is itself surrounded by the outline of a circle, not unlike the bare remnant of a cairn once enclosing it, having a circumference of seventy-seven yards, and near it is a smaller outcrop of rock. Its odd name, or choice of names, stems from a legend concerning the medieval Bishop Walter Bronescombe of Exeter..."  Sylvia Sayer writes; "Bishop Bronescombe often travelled to the Moor himself... tired and hungry he became, and how a stranger approached him with an offer of bread and cheese, if, in return, the Bishop would get off his horse, take his cap and call him "Master"; how the famished bishop almost did, but the chaplain spied the stranger's cloven hoof just in time - at which the Bishop cried out to God and made the sign of the cross, whereat the stranger vanished, leaving the bread and cheese turned to stone: it still can be seen on Corn Ridge... and is still called Branscombe's Loaf and Cheese!" 
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