30th July

Counting this as two walks, as we moved the car to start at a different spot for two extra tors. A walking partner who'd not joined me since January, and strong sunshine made it a memorable morning.  We started from the pumphouse near Rundlestone, walking firstly along the road, and then south to climb Rundlestone Tor (490m).  Here's part of the view:

From here we could see our next destination, Herne Hole Tor, which at 500m was on my list of hit targets! 

Rather than going down the same way, we headed on over North Hessary Tor. So good to be up there and able to see in all directions! Remember my last experience there?  Coming down we couldn't immediately see, but headed for Hollow Tor (481m). It's a lovely Tor to look at - not much clitter, but chunks of rock set apart quite dramatically. 

Back to the car, we'd covered four tors in two miles!

A short hop in the car to the Merrivale car park and we set off for walk two. Not towards the Mis Tors, but instead to Over Tor and Church Rock. The rock is the highest point of the tor, so we found both together. 

From there we crossed back across the road and visited the Merrivale antiquities [M6].  Two walks, and the tally of tors visited is growing.

26th July

Sunday afternoon walk this weekend, due to working Friday and rain yesterday. Thankfully we avoided today's showers! We opted for an easier walk, partly due to the weather but also as my mum was walking with us.  I had spotted two tors at the south end of Burrator Reservoir which we'd not yet found. We parked at the quarry car park, firstly making our way up out and above.

Not much further along towards the reservoir, we found Claig Tor (246m) and a view of the water below. 

Continuing along, after a while the path dipped to road level. We then headed to the dam [Q5], from where we could look back up to Claig.  As we reached the other side of the dam, we crossed a stile and above us was Burra Tor (240m). A bit of a scramble up through the trees to reach the top of the tor. Certainly the greenest tor we've climbed to date, covered in mosses. 

Rather than slide back down to the dam, we followed a path on through the woodland, gradually descending.  It's a beautiful valley, lots of mossy rocks and fallen branches, fungi and old oak trees.  Eventually we came to the river Meavy. It was an adventurous crossing and I was glad to be in wellies! The path headed further south a little way, then we doubled back to the road not far from the car park.  A good 2 mile stroll, with over 500 feet between lowest and highest points.  

17th July

I've spent a bit of time this week sorting which tors and rocks were 500m or more. These are the ones we're going to try and reach over the next few weeks. There was firing at Merrivale today, so my first choice of Beardown wasn't going to work. We're saving the north west moor for our holidays in a couple of weeks.

As much of the southern moor is under 500m, there was only one more spot to cover, Hameldown. We chose to start from Widecombe in the Moor, despite it being quite a climb. 

Heading first along the valley on the road between Hameldown and Chinkwell Tor meant that we completed the more boring bit of the walk first.  This is one or the paths of the Two Moors Way, which is split in two at this point. Looking at the elevation, we climbed quite a significant way along the road, but it was steady and we had fresh legs! And we were glad of some shade as the sun was shining.

We branched off the road onto open land just before a small plantation, still gradually climbing. It was then a small dip and suddenly we found ourselves at Grimspound, where there are the remains of a late bronze age village. Better views of the village are actually from Hockney Tor to the north, or as you walk up Hameldown Tor to the south, from where the photo below is taken.

Hameldown Tor (529m) was our highest summit of the day, here it is with the triangulation point.  Here we joined the other route of the Two Moors Way and it was then quite flat between there and Hameldown Beacon Rocks (517m). Along the way we spotted some of the Duke of Somerset's boundary stones from the 1850s [J15 and K15], which include Hameldown Cross, an older cross repurposed as a boundary stone. Here's a selection including the cross:

From the Rocks the views stretch to the sea and coast of Devon and Cornwall. The sun was strong as we began our descent. On the way down we found two more tors, Stoneslade Tor (472m) pictured, and Kingshead Tor (459m).  The final distance was over 7.5 miles, and my legs were certainly complaining by the time we reached the car.  The screenshot below indicates that we'd been up and over around 950ft, certainly one of our more strenuous walks so far.

10th July

Today's walk was to find the most southerly tor, starting from Harford Moor Gate just beyond the village of Harford [W11].  Firstly we sought out Tor Rocks. A bit of a nondescript name, but found fairly easily south west of a small plantation which apparently encompasses a reservoir.  It has more significance for me, as it was my 50th Tor!

Then skirting around Weatherdon Hill, we crossed the Two Moors Way, in search of the summit of Western Beacon [X12] (320m). It was a bit elusive as the top is quite flat and therefore the summit is out of sight climbing from this direction. Firstly the cairns were spotted, then just to the south, the Tor. It was well worth finding. From the top I could see the sea from the Torbay area right round to Cornwall, about 180 degrees.

We followed a line of boundary stones northward, down to Black Pool. Then continuing up in search of Black Tor (333m), apparently on the side of Butterdon Hill. One of the smallest tors in Ken Ringwood's book, so we were pleased to find it. I don't think we would have done without the picture from the book. The grid reference given seemed to point to the pool - I recorded Black Tor at SX65385842.

Then on over Butterdon Hill to the much more obvious Hangershell Rock (356m).

This was walk number 16, and whether I can manage 50 walks in 2020 remains to be seen.  Thankfully my ankle is holding up well as we're hoping to concentrate on some higher peaks for a while now.  All encouragement appreciated, details on the Get Involved page!

5th July

Trying to keep away from the main busy areas of Dartmoor, we parked south of Princetown for our next walk, rather than in the village.  Our main destination was South Hessary Tor, but we took a long route around, firstly heading for a triangulation point south west of the tor.

As often seems to be the case, the paths were the places water gathered, so much of this first part of the walk was from grass clump to clump. I didn't succeed in keeping the water out of my boots, Jonathan fared a little better.  From the triangulation point, we carried on in search of Cramber Pool [P8]. This and a gert running up to it is all that remains of a tin mine and we were glad we didn't get too close as there may be a hole in the bottom!

The next stop was Cramber Tor (421m), with views westward.  Then down to the north, across a bok and up to Hart Tor (390m). We had wondered whether to fit in nearby Black Tor also, but it would have been another down and up, crossing another brook, and time and energy were not on our side. So from Hart, we headed east, and climbed South Hessary Tor [O8] (450m). On top of the tor, there is an old metal forest boundary marker, known as Excalibur. You can see why from the photo. The Tor marks one of the boundaries of the Forest of Dartmoor.

The walk back to the car involved negotiating our way carefully through a group of cattle with their young. More clumps to find underfoot!