17th October

October is proving to be wet, but we managed a dry walk, sunny in parts.  Starting from Sourton Village Hall, we set off towards Sourton Tors, but branched off to make our way around them first, climbing steadily.  For a while we followed the Rattlebrook Railway [E5], joining at the reversing point, which you will see if you check out the link.

The first time we branched off to find our first tor, we did so on the wrong side of the Lyd, which was impossible to cross!  Coming back to the track, we then found the right path, which although still soggy, led us on to Gren Tor (516m).  

On the way there were lovely views of the Lake Viaduct [E4], which we cycled across some years ago.  Continuing on up Woodcock Hill, we found Hunt Tor (562m), from where we could see our next two destinations.

At some point here, wellies became a necessity again.  With no soil to drain into, the water simply sits on these high levels of the moor, often in the pathways, as these are slightly more worn down than the surrounding grassy tummocks.  We made our way to Kitty Tor 579m, which is on the edge of one of the firing ranges and has an army hut and flag pole.  The views are impressive too - we were looking towards High Willhays and the other top peaks once again.

Our next tor, Steng-a-tor (541m), was the most soggy.  I did think it looked a bit like a dinosaur, as the name might suggest!  

Then coming along Corn Ridge with varying pace as we tried to keep to a path, but kept finding we had to detour to avoid sinking too deep.  There are views here of Links Tor, which although not quite over 500m, will be one we try to visit at some point.  It sits on its own with deep valleys either side, so is not easily combined with other tors in a walk.  Eventually we made it to Branscombe's Loaf (538m), taking four more off the list of tors over 500m.

We did investigate Sourton Tors (440m) on the way back, although the hunt for East Tor (405m) meant we went down and up again - not ideal having walked 6.5 miles already.  Overall it was just over 8 miles, a little less than expected, as our template was this walk from treksandtors.