TORS OF DARTMOOR
a database of both lesser- & well-known rocks and outcrops
Coombe Down Tor We first learn of the name of this tor in 1990 in a review of Terry Bound's 'The A to Z of Dartmoor Tors' by Brian Carter. Carter writes: "Another "granite gem" which I call Coombe Down Tor stands among drystone walls between Shapley Common and Coombe Down, not far from Shapley Tor. Perhaps he [Terry Bound] will include it in some future edition of his A to Z." Just three days later Carter mentions the tor again, this time as part of a walk with an accompanying map where 'Combe Down Tor' (with one 'o') is labelled: "Among the drystone walls and enclosures was the little outcrop I call Coombe Down Tor. Why it should remain nameless on the Ordnance Survey map bewilders me." The writer clearly loves this spot as in 1991 and 1995 he includes the tor in more of his Torbay Express and South Devon Echo newspaper articles.  After their seemingly unrelated visit in 1996, Sanders and Watson provide the following details: "Coombe Down has a most attractive rock formation on it, which should be termed Coombe Down Tor. Coombe Down Tor has had a major wall built into it, with most of the Tor lying below the wall." Crucially, they are the first to provide the National Grid Reference of SX 705823. Neither William Crossing nor Eric Hemery describe the area even though the rocks are particularly distinctive when seen from the north west on Shapley Common. The name of the tor resurfaces in 2012 when Tim Jenkinson gives this overview in Dartmoor Magazine: "In recent months I have returned to the Coombe Down area to make an assessment and there is quite obviously a tor here, a cluster of what appears to be three main but low outcrops part involved in a field wall." He gives the location as some 350-400 metres north east of the summit of Shapley Tor and comments on what he terms the "peculiar oversight" of previous commentators in their failure to acknowledge the rocks. He is particularly critical of Crossing who in Excursion 59 describes a route from Moor Gate over the Common to Shapley Tor, adding that "There is no mention of the rocks on the top of Coombe Down that would have been clearly visible on high to the left of the approach to Shapley Tor."  In June 2022, the parishioners of North Bovey walked part of their parish boundary and Max Piper got to speak with the landowner of West Coombe who told him that the rocks on Coombe Down were known locally as 'Toad Rocks'. This odd appellation is discussed in Piper's (2022) book on East Dartmoor's Lesser-Known Tors and Rocks where he wonders if part of the tor resembles a toad? The rocks here are certainly squat and rounded.  The top of the largest rock has no less than four rock basins upon it, one of which is large yet shallow. Views from Coombe Down Tor are memorable, and although blocked out to the west, are well worth seeing. A fine prospect of East Dartmoor can be had, with Easdon Tor rising boldly from the fields beneath and Moretonhampstead sitting snuggly at the head of the Wray Valley to the left. King Down topped by King Tor rises tremendously above West Coombe Stream to the south-west. The tor on Coombe Down is part public, part private, with the rocks on the east side of the wall being on open access land. The rocks on the other side are nonetheless accessible by use of a gate in the wall to the south.
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