This walk: 2015-8-12. Dartmoor ponies, Little Mis Tor, Forest of Dartmoor bound stone, Great Mis Tor, rabbit bury, Over Tor Gert, Over Tor (Church Rock), Merrivale Warren, Merrivale Quarry, stone rows.
Walk details below - Information about the route etc.
Old maps .....
Ordnance Survey, Six-inch to the mile, Published 1906 - There was a school at Rendlestone
Ordnance Survey, S1:25,000 Published 1907 - There was a school at today's Four Winds
Where we walked: Google Satellite view of the area - including the GPS track of the walk (compare with the Ordnance Survey map plus track below)
Previous walks in this area: 19th Sept. 2012, 8th June 2015 and 15th April 2015
Dartmoor ponies running across the road by Four Winds car park .....
Safely across.
The group today - 16 of us.
View west to :Little, Middle and Great Staple Tors.
Zoomed view to Middle Staple Tor, SX 5403 7564, elevation 431 metres (1414 feet).
Leading the way to Great Mis Tor, SX 563 769, elevation 538 metres (1765 feet).
We pass the ponies ....
Some ponies decide to join us ......
Others just wanted a break .....
That's better - by the way, if you want to support the Dartmoor pony, see Dartmoor Pony Heritage Trust.
Little Mis Tor, SX 564 763, elevation 480 metres (1574 feet) .
Again .....
The story of the memorial cross on the tor.
Great Mis Tor .....
Complete with military flagpole.
The Eddystone is out there somewhere .....
The following photograph is taken from the walk on 19th Sept. 2012, a less hazy day, when the photographs were 1000 x 750 pixels instead of today's 1600 x 900 ............
Zoomed and cropped view to the Eddystone lighthouse, 14 miles from Plymouth sea front, about 28 miles (38 km) from here. The main lighthouse and the short stump of the original Smeaton's Tower can be seen to its right.
Closer to Great Mis Tor, with a view of the unmarked Forest of Dartmoor bound stone that marks the extent of the King's hunting forest from the 1240 Perambulation of the preserve, to ascertain its boundaries as King Henry III made over the land to his brother, Richard of Cornwall. If you are interested in making this perambulation yourself then you can enrol for the Dartmoor Ancient Boundary Walk - Perambulation!
Zoomed view to the top of the flagpole - it looks similar to old photographs.
Looking back at Little Mis Tor.
View to Shillapark, 1.0 km (0.62 miles) distant, with Little and Middle Staple Tors behind.
View to Merrivale and it's now-defunct quarry (closed 1997).
A telling place, where she told us!
Over Tor Gert, where a tremendous amount of overburden has been removed, possibly using water to flush it away?
Over Tor, SX SX 558 753, elevation 390 metres (1279 feet), a tor with several outcrops.
Looking down the gert.
This area was the site of Merrivale Warren, to supply rabbits probably for the tinners but perhaps later as a sporting enterprise .....
Over Tor ..... this rock pile is known as Church Rock .....
View from Over Tor to Merrivale and its quarry .....
Zoomed view.
General scene.
The outcrop of Over Tor that has rock pans on the top of some rocks, known as Mrs Bray's hand basins (see earlier walk for photos) ......
Another view.
Down that way, near the road, was the warren house ....... built by a Mr Watts in 1830, who was accosted by the passing Reverend Bray for taking stones from ancient monuments in the area .....
Just there, it was?
Zoomed view to the Merrivale stone rows .....
View of the long double stone row (southernmost, 263 metres in length) and the end of the shorter northern double row (183 metres) ......
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Striking rectangular granite block, at SX 55799 75213 .....
Another view.
MAP: Red = GPS satellite track of the walk.
© Crown copyright and database rights 2015. Ordnance Survey
This walk was accessed by parking at Four Winds (SX 560 748) on the B3357, south of Great Mis Tor, on the Tavistock - Two Bridges road, marked by the P symbol and the centre yellow cross on the map.
Statistics
Distance - 4.67 km / 2.90 miles.
All photographs on this web site are copyright © 2007-2016 Keith Ryan.
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