TORS OF DARTMOOR
a database of both lesser- & well-known rocks and outcrops
Top TorToptor, Taptor, Tapter, Tor Hill, Torhill, Thornhill, Dream Tor
 There are no less than three prominent outcrops here which, as the name suggests, are at the top of the hill. The granite here is interesting with irregular jointing and fractured joints in the other outcrops. The summit pile is noticeably ruined, its huge mass of broken, angular granite particularly impressive from the north-west. William Crossing (1912) makes a brief note in his 'Guide to Dartmoor'; "A short distance northward of Foale's Arrishes is Top Tor, or, as the natives call it, Tapter. That part of the common immediately around it is usually referred to as Tor Hill." Writing much later, Eric Hemery (1983) describes the views which "Embrace the entire eastern highlands, westward across the Forest to North Hessary Tor, eastward to the Teign estuary and southward to Brent Hill."  It is now generally accepted that Top Tor is indeed the location of the fictional 'Dream Tor' to which the Dartmoor author and poet Beatrice Chase referred to. She lived at nearby Venton for many years and could see the rockpile from her house before the trees obscured the view. We learn from an extract in the Devon and Exeter Gazette that Dream Tor is certainly somewhere in the area as the author's friend and pilot Miss Enid Shortridge remarks on a flight to Dartmoor in August 1934: "Straight over Haldon, we could see Newton Abbot on the left and Bovey Tracey on the right and we passed over Hey and Saddle Tor. Then came down the side of Rippon and Dream Tor and the poet's corner and I pointed out Venton and we swooped." Five years later, in an article entitled 'Escaped Convicts' Route', Chase writes: "Past Dream Tor to Tinhill Tor, called amongst ourselves "The Poet's Corner." At 10.30 p.m. the convicts were seen striking matches under this tor which is just above Venton." It is clearly understood from this that 'The Poet's Corner' is another name for Tunhill Rocks.  However, for many years there has remained some dispute about the legitimacy of Top Tor being the correct site, as the aforementioned nearby Rocks have also been a candidate as they are much closer to Venton and directly overlook the once home of the author. This conundrum arose as a direct result of Chase never really providing clarity about the true location of her 'Dream Tor'.  In addition to this colloquial name, it seems that Samuel Rowe once used 'Thornhill' as an aka, too; "Leaving Widecombe - a smiling oasis in the desert - with all its natural attractions and olden associations, we shall proceed eastward by a road which mounts the hill in the direction of Heytor and Rippon Tor, where we shall again find ourselves among the ruder monuments of unrecorded antiquity, on the slopes of Thornhill or Top Tor." He also gives "Toptor - in the vernacular of the moormen Taptor." The tor is easily reached from most directions, and is well worth including in a walk taking in Lower Top Tor, Pil Tor and Tunhill Rocks which all stand on the same common with grassy paths linking the outcrops.
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