TORS OF DARTMOOR
a database of both lesser- & well-known rocks and outcrops
Maiden Tor
 Not to be confused with the much better-known tor of the same name on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, there are the three low-lying piles of Maiden Tor, a name that is introduced for Dartmoor by Eric Hemery in 1983, set below the giant and sprawling hulk of Sheeps Tor well down on its western side. The highest but smallest of the outcrops possesses a summit rock with two adjacent rock basins remarked upon by Jenkinson in 1996, the largest of which is oval in shape and traps rainwater. Lower and further west the moderate central pile consists of large, rounded and closely-grouped rocks that form small caves and low twisting alleyways. Close to this pile on the summit plateau, there was once a windswept hawthorn but it succumbed to the strong winds that sweep across the tor from the west, its stump still visible, and set close by is one of the Plymouth Corporation Water Works (PCWW) stones that encircle the hill and are in the main dated 1917.  The PCWW stones were meticulously assessed and photographed by Mark Fenlon and Tim Jenkinson of the Plotting Plymouth's Past team in 2014, a project initiated by the Milestone Society in Devon and sponsored by the Old Plymouth Society and Plymouth City Council, to record all of the boundary markers of the Plymouth city environs and much further afield associated with the city and former town connections. The various locations of the waterworks boundary stones on the open moor are available on the Dartefacts website.  The lowest part of the tor here the third pile is without doubt the most substantial, where two sets of huge boulders lie above the leafy Joey's Lane, the highest of which forms a small rock face that is crowned by a large slab. A curious oblong rock resting on its side is also a feature of the lower group, it sits on the edge of a heavy clitter that stretches to the Moorgate. Between the second and third outcrops of the tor a huge pillow mound can be found - it is suggested by Hemery that this is one of several here that were used for the breeding rabbits for sport at the end of the First World War c1918.  The tor here was also included in the original set of Lesser Known Tor articles by Tim Jenkinson in Dartmoor Magazine in 1996 where he writes: "Apart from the lake Maiden Tor overlooks the picturesque village of Sheepstor to the south west whereas north the small pile of Lowery Tor is visible on the higher south slopes of Peek Hill." It is without doubt a grand place to visit and take in the breathtaking scenery that the tor overlooks.
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