TORS OF DARTMOOR
a database of both lesser- & well-known rocks and outcrops
Sandsgate Tor At Sands Gate Cross, where the A382 bends left to descend the valley of White Water to Sandy Park, there lies hidden, in the woodland behind a stone wall, a collection of fine moss granite outcrops scattered across the hill. This tor has slipped from public awareness and lying on private land has certainly been a contributing factor. Sandsgate House is a high market holiday let sat atop French Hill and the tor resides on the lower levels of its beautifully tended garden. For those not wishing to overnight there, the tor can be viewed from the roadside, but extreme caution must be taken as it is on a very dangerous blind bend.  Our research revealed that, whilst largely unknown, Sandsgate Tor has managed to have been recognised in literature, with at least two references to its existence. The first is in 1858 in The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, in an article entitled 'On the Rock-basins in the Granite of the Dartmoor District, Devonshire' by G. Wareing Ormerod. When describing the granite in Rushford Woods near Chagford to the south, Ormerod mentions that; "...a small irregular basin is formed on the Tors at Sandsgate near the same locality." The irregular rock basin has not yet been found by the Tors of Dartmoor team.  In 1968 a grid reference can be found in the book 'Geology of the Country around OKEHAMPTON by the Institute of Geological Sciences'; "In Rushford Wood [703896] and near Sandsgate [69809024] there are scattered exposures of big-feldspar granite. At about 400 yd N.E. of Sandsgate there are scattered blocks of fine-grained granite that may be derived from the chilled margin of the granite." 
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