By: Blonde One
Dartmoor Tors have very unique features. They are all made of granite but they look so different to each other that they almost seem to have their own personality. People love ‘collecting’ tors. Not literally you understand! That would be slightly tricky to put them in your pocket and display them at home!! There are several different lists out there which claim to contain the definite list of all the tors. Some lists contain the tors that actually go by the name of a hill rather than a tor, such as Bonehill. Other lists only have the ones that have ‘tor’ in their name. Whichever you go by, it’s good fun to try to visit as many as possible.
A recent birthday (21st of course!) gift was the fabulous Dartmoor Tors Compendium written by Josephine Collingwood. Not only does this have some stunning black and white photography but it has detailed and interesting information about the tor and the immediate surrounding area. I did not realise, for instance, that Rippon Tor was home to 2 abandoned granite millstones! I’ve been to this tor with Blonde Two many times but have never seen these. It has given my next walk there a focus though.
The book is clearly very well researched and has a wealth of tempting details to draw me up to the moors even more.
