TORS OF DARTMOOR

a database of both lesser- & well-known rocks and outcrops

Home Search Map The East Access About Team Social Blog

Lower Top Tor

Bovey Rock

This scruffy little pile of jumbled blocks and boulders lies way down on the lower north west slopes of Top Tor to the south of the B3357 as it starts its descent to Widecombe in the Moor. It seems that Hemery (1983) is the first to describes the rocks; "Above Bovey Rock and significant by position rather than size is Top Tor (approx 1,450 feet) known locally as 'Tapter'. The lower side of the north west pile is utterly decayed, its residue like debris in a quarry tip."

Ken Ringwood (2013) correctly describes this section as a "small granite tor" having "two main outcrops and extremely large blocks but very little clitter" but he confuses the site here with Bovey Rock, which as the name implies is a single rounded rock, shapelier, nearer the road (B3387) and much further down the hill towards Widecombe at SX 7299 7667. It is possible that the author has been influenced by a misleading grid reference for Bovey Rock of SX 7338 7668 that appears in Mike Brown's Gazetteer of Dartmoor Names from 1995 that actually places it some way to the north and west of the site he describes.

The first use of the name Lower Top Tor appears in an article by Tim Jenkinson (2019) on Bovey Rock who in an attempt to differentiate between the two locations writes "More sizeable chunks of granite are strewn on the slopes below the Rock and uphill we see on the horizon what I now consider to be the mistaken rocks of what could be dubbed Lower Top Tor some 300 metres or so away to the south east." This comment is supported by a photograph that shows the relationship.

icon
icon
Lower Top Tor
The map above is not a navigation tool and we recommend that the grid reference shown below is used in conjunction with an Ordnance Survey map and that training in its use with a compass is advised.
Grid Ref:
SX 7340 7650
Height:
405m
Parish:
Widecombe in the Moor
Tor Classification:
Small
Access:
Public
Rock Type:
Granite
Credit:
Eric Hemery
Reference / Further Reading:
Eric Hemery (1983): High Dartmoor
Tim Jenkinson: Dartmoor Discovered: Bovey Rock on Widecombe Hill Dartmoor Magazine No 135 Summer p38-39 (2019)
Mike Brown (1995): The Gazetteer of Dartmoor Names
Ken Ringwood (2013): Dartmoor's Tors and Rocks

Please Support Us

We are proud to see the names of lesser-known tors are now being used more commonly on other websites and whilst this is to be encouraged we do request that, should you wish to use the information on this page, you provide a backlink to the website as reference, by copying the relevant address:

https://www.torsofdartmoor.co.uk/tor-page.php?tor=lower-top-tor

Please also consider a small donation to the upkeep of the site; any contribution goes toward the fees to keep the database online and any costs incurred when undertaking research such as subscriptions to online archives.