TORS OF DARTMOOR
a database of both lesser- & well-known rocks and outcrops
Hart Tor (Okehampton Common)East Okement Farm Tor, Hartor  Situated beside the south-west wall to East Okement Farm, and at the end of a military road, this is a small granite outcrop on a low hill. It regained some prominence in 1996 when Tim Jenkinson included it in his acclaimed Lesser Known Tor series in Dartmoor Magazine of that year and later provided more details in a 2002 update, going on to use it as a good example of how a little tor can survive despite military presence in his talks to various Local History Groups in the early 21st Century. However it is William Crossing (1912) who first records the name when recounting a view from Row Tor Combe; "Away to the L. is seen the Belstone range, with the huge Cosdon behind; also Steeperton Tor, with Ock Tor to the L. of it, the latter, though a small pile, here showing itself to great advantage. Nearer to us the little Hart Tor is seen, on the common at the corner of the enclosure to which it gives name." It seems that it was also named East Okement Farm Tor in the 'Geology of the Country around OKEHAMPTON' (1968) by the Institute of Geological Sciences.  From 2002 Tim writes: "Beside the military ring road that encircles the heart of the northern moor lies a lowly pile known as Hart Tor. Many will have driven past this spot unaware that this small and broken outcrop has given its name in time to a Hill, Hole and Corner. The tor itself is completely overshadowed by the nearby observation post (OP 22) that has been built to its very edge."  Most of the remaining rocks here are of square and flat construction with horizontal fissures, the two largest of which form the central outcrop which used to have a rusting iron hook embedded in its face but not seen in recent years. Away to the south some 50 metres or so across the road a small, flattened outlier can be found.  Adding to Crossing's account views from the tor are largely concentrated northward where from west to east the grand piles of Yes, West Mill and Row Tors can be seen. Further to the east the range of the Belstone Tors arrests the eye, whereas to the south east the lesser but still distinctive knobs of Knattaborough and Oke Tors rise. Despite the obvious military and to a lesser extent agricultural intrusions, the tiny Hart Tor survives to this day as a ravaged but resilient rock pile within the Okehampton Artillery Range.
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