This is not much to look at but there is a collection of protruding rocks from the left-hand side of the 10th fairway at Bovey Castle Golf Club. It is set on private land but there is a footpath that crosses the course from which some of these rocks can be seen from afar.
Regarding the history of the location the following report appeared in the Devon and Exeter Gazette from April 1929: "The Great Western Railway Directors have decided to establish an hotel on the edge of Dartmoor, with the object of further assisting the development of South Devon as a tourist resort. They have purchased North Bovey Manor, the beautiful residence of the late Lord Hambleden, together with 200 acres of park and pasture lands, and it is hoped that the hotel will be opened in the near future."
Bought for £15,000, the hotel did indeed open in the following year, complete with an 18 hole golf course designed by the renowned golf architect of the time John Frederick Abercromby, and it was built by Frank Harris Brothers Ltd. The account continues: "Approached by a drive intersecting the estate for three quarters of a mile, with a lodge at either end, the house stands on the higher part of the estate" and, as a result of its position, "It thus enjoys a maximum amount of sunshine. In every direction are beautiful views across pleasure grounds and rock gardens falling gently to a lake and to the River Bovey which flows through the property."
Peter de Savary transformed the hotel and golf course c2004 and it is all owned now by Sir Peter Rigby. It is an exclusive place both in terms of hotel accommodation and golf membership. This and its neighbour Castle Tor are normally out of bounds to the general public and can only really be properly viewed when playing golf.
The lowly rocks that constitute the tor are little to whet the appetite but on closer inspection, the two main mounds do show evidence of feather and tare, so one wonders how much more substance there once was and where the cut rock was used in the stonecutting industry.
Little Castle 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 7253 8483
Height:
232m
Parish:
North Bovey
Tor Classification:
Emergent
Access:
Private (but a fee to visit)
Rock Type:
Granite
Credit:
Tim Jenkinson
Reference / Further Reading:
Bovey Castle Scorecard Devon and Exeter Gazette (1929): North Bovey Manor - Its Utilisation as an Hotel, GWR Enterprise, 9th April
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:
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.
