By: Blonde Two

I know, you purists are going to tell me that the trig pillar in the image above is not on Dartmoor. You are right of course, but there is a good reason that I don’t have any photos of Dartmoor trigs; when Blonde One and I ‘collect’ things on Dartmoor we don’t (maybe surprisingly) include these concrete beauties. We love them of course; who wouldn’t miss them at the top of the hills (or not), just sitting there and waiting to be touched when the hard climb (or squelch) is over. We collect instead ‘squares‘, cairns, strange shaped boundaries (love these), memorials and odd kinks in contour lines (tricky but satisfying).

We have however been recently engaged in an ongoing conversation about trig points; this brought me to the realisation that I didn’t actually know to how many Dartmoor could lay claim. Mr Google (or rather Mr Lonewalker) did know though; and informed me that a total of 31 trig points had chosen to make their home within our fair  (and best) National Park. I think he may have missed off Cosdon Beacon (probably because it is a bit of a climb!)

I had a count up and have, to my shame, only visited 12 of them. This is a situation that must be rectified. Amongst those I really should have visited by now are Yes Tor and Cramber Tor, both I am sure you would agree are Dartmoor imperatives. Here a few Blonde Two awards to those I have visited:

Cox Tor – Best Views (maybe not on the day I took this photo!)

Cox Tor

Rippon Tor – Windiest (and most visited by Father Christmas)

North Hessary Tor – Tallest Mast (and most loved by tired walkers)

Cloud North Hessary

Three Barrows – Most Peaceful Spot (possibly in the whole world)

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If you want to find out more about trig points (there is lots more to find out) then Ordnance Survey have a very interesting page here. We don’t just like it because we are OS Get Outside Champions you know; more likely because we are map nerds (and proud of it!)