The following blog post is the culmination of two consecutive weekends on Blackadon Down. I felt the wealth of granite found on my solo visit merited a return with Tim Jenkinson, to verify the outcrops I had found. Also present, my friend Matthew King had the chance to experience these previously undocumented tors. Parked up […]
It wasn’t my intention, but Bee Tor was to be the last tor to bag on the Social Hiking list. I had written to the landowner a couple of months ago but not heard back, so I mustered up the confidence to drive by and knock on the door. But beforehand, on my way to […]
As of April 2021, parts of Ausewell Woods are now accessible to the public. This is an account of a permissive visit, back in September 2017, granted by Fountain Forestry who previously managed the site. Some sections, such as Cleft Rock, remain closed off to the public for both safety and to protect the wildlife. […]
Coombe Tor is on private land. It is not a minor transgression from a footpath or a harmless hop over a gate; it is half a kilometre from the nearest right of way, within dense woodland left to encourage wildlife, and surrounded by a patchwork of fields. The responsible course of action is to seek […]
Every time I get wind of a tor I haven’t heard of before, the urge to get out there and find it takes hold. Less than 24 hours had passed, from my attention being captured, and I was venturing out in a brief window between the rain, in search of “Granate” Tor. I had been […]
If you look at a map of the area between Canonteign Falls and Hennock, on the eastern edges of Dartmoor, you will see a few places with the name “Hyner”; There’s Hyner Bottom, Hyner Farm, Hyner Hill Plantation, Hyner Bridge and Little Hyner, but curiously, there doesn’t appear to be reference to a Hyner Rocks […]
A few weeks ago, Tim Jenkinson emailed me a link to an online reference of a long forgotten tor curiously called Nympenhole. It was part of an article about Hameldown and within it, an author, named Sir Walter Besant, described the views from King’s Tor. I tracked down the origins of this and found a […]
Fresh from a successful walk in Holne Chase, Rich and I said farewell to Tim Jenkinson, then headed to Holne to seek out Gibby Combe Tor. This was a significant tor in that it was my last publicly accessible one to bag the Social Hiking list. The remainder would require either permission or stealth! We […]
Having had a friendly encounter with the owner of Was Tor a few weeks back I was in a positive mind that approaching landowners to ask for access permission might not result in a flat “No!” every time. When the majority of tors and rocks that remain on my list are buried deep within private […]
I’ll admit that Crownhill Tor was something of an irritant; not even within the national park and surrounded by the awful china clay works that scar the landscape. I expected little of the walk to bag this one, possibly there, back, job done. I’m pleased to report I was wrong! I pulled in at the […]