This walk: 2012-5-23. Boulters Tor, Roos Tor, Great Staple Tor, Cox Tor, Setters Tor, , Great Mis Tor, non-granitic rock forming local tors, Higher Godsworthy, sundew plant, Colly Brook, dry stone wall, field system, White Tor, P-stone, Great Combe Tor, St. Peter's Church in Peter Tavy, Brentor, skewbald pony, Church of St. Mary in Mary Tavy, speedwell, bluebells, May blossom, Peter Tavy swimming pool, toads, tadpole,
Walk details below - Information about the route etc.
Link to Google Satellite view of the area
A previous walk in this area 12 May 2010 and the same walk on 29 April 2009.
Boulters Tor, SX 525 780, elevation 336 metres (1102 feet) .....
Zoomed view of Boulters Tor.
Roos Tor (left), SX 543 766, elevation 454 metres (1489 feet) and Great Staple Tor (centre), SX 542 760, elevation 455 metres (1492 feet).
Great Staple Tor.
Cox Tor, SX 531 762, elevation 442 metres (1450 feet).
The group in front of Boulters Tor.
Approaching Setters Tor, SX 532 779, elevation 360 meters (1181 feet), composed of brown "border" rock rather than granite.
White Tor (Whittor), SX 542 786, elevation 468 metres (1535 feet).
The tors in this area are not composed of granite but the surrounding out-country rock. The rock is clearly layered, originally sedimentary (Upper Devonian slates and volcanics, 380-360 million years ago) and then heated to become metamorphic ...... more details here: Dartmoor National Park Authority - Geology and Landforms Factsheet and Introduction to the geology and geomorphology of the Meldon area. The Dartmoor granite was intruded in the Carboniferous Period, 360-300 mya.
White Tor with Little White Tor to the left.
Higher Godsworthy.
Round-leaved Sundew - Drosera rotundifolia, the insect-eating plant (to supplement minerals etc. that are lacking in the soil) .....
Close-up view of the Sundew, showing the hairs with globules of sticky glue on theends of the hairs that entrap insects.
Looking back at the gateway by the crossing (beyond) over the Colly Brook aka Wedlake and Peter Tavy Brook ......
Looking over the gate - the stream runs right-to-left.
Hi-ho, hi-ho - its off to walk we go!
Roos Tor, with a boundary stone left of the tor marking the limit for the taking of stone in the past.
Cox Tor.
An example of dry stone walling.
Bronze Age field system on the northern flank of Cox Tor .....
Zoomed view of the field boundaries.
Looking north-east to White Tor.
The P-stone, bearing a "P" at SX 5297 7693, on the corner of enclosed land, taken to be a Peter Tavy parish boundary stone. An online photo.
Great Combe Tor, SX 5226 7745 - across the steep slopes of Peter Tavy Combe is Little Combe Tor.
Another view of Great Combe Tor.
View north-west to Brentor with St Peter's Church, Peter Tavy .....
Zoomed view to the church.
Waiting at the gate near Great Combe Tor.
Skewbald Dartmoor pony, probably a Godsworthy pony.
Zoomed view of the granite Church of St Mary, Mary Tavy, which dates from the C15th and C16th, with Victorian restoration. It lies in the original part of the village. In the past it would have been busy with traffic on foot or by packhorse, being then the main route to Peter Tavy. Also, as in much of the area, it had an important mining industry. In the churchyard is the grave of William Crossing and his wife Emma.
Heath Speedwell, Veronica officinalis. Also known as also known as common speedwell, drug speedwell, common gypsyweed, fluellin, Veronica and Paul's betony .....
Speedwell.
A patch of Common Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta; other names: Endymion non-scriptum, Scilla non-scripta and Agraphis nutans.
Bluebells.
Bluebells
Bluebells .....
Looking up inside a bluebell.
May blossom on a May tree, otherwise known as Hawthorn (Cretaegus monogyna) or Queen of the May .....
Close-up of a May blossom.
Feeder stream into Peter Tavy swimming pool, SX 5201 7761, opened 1933, closed 1992 due to Health & Safety considerations, re-opened 1994 as a wildlife pond.
Mating toads in the pond .....
General view .....
Large tadpole - of frog, toad or newt? Dead insect wings are floating on the surface of the water at bottom left.
Looking up the picturesque stream valley.
A valve mechanism for controlling water level or for draining the pond.
Looking up the Colly Brook .....
Another Colly Brook photo .....
Dartmoor CAM movie.
TIPS .....
A movie of a cool glade with a tumbling Colly Brook |
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Click the photo to download File size: 5 MB. Time to download: e.g. 13 secs Length 18 secs |
Some of our walkers .....
A few more walkers on the footbridge over the Colly Brook.
MAP: Red = GPS satellite track of the walk.
Ordnance Survey © Crown copyright 2005. All rights reserved. Licence number
100047373.
Also, Copyright © 2005, Memory-Map Europe, with permission.
The walk was reached from Plymouth on the A386 via Tavistock to Peter Tavy. The roads off the main road are typical Dartmoor lanes, becoming quite narrow into Peter Tavy. After passing the church on your left, turn right up onto the moor and park in the small quarry, marked by the yellow cross and the P symbol on the map.
Statistics
Distance - 6.3 km / 3.9 miles.
All photographs on this web site are copyright ©2007-2016 Keith Ryan.
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