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This walk: 2016-1-11. Drake's Plymouth Leat, Yennadon Down, Sharpitor, Sheep's Tor, clapper bridges, Mabor Wood, Yeoland Consoles Mine, adit, tunnels, Chub Tor, Chubb Tor, Tyrwhitt's tramway, Devomport Leat.

Walk details below - Information about the route etc.

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). This track is very spiky in the area of the tor but the track on the map below is clearer although of less potential magnification by zooming.

• try zooming in with the mouse thumbwheel and "dragging" the map to see points of interest

• click on the red place-markers to read their label - they are most accurate at the highest zoom level 

• try "mousing" over the list of placemarks on the left of the screen, highlights their place on the map

• use browser back arrow or Alt key and left-arrow cursor key together to return to normal web page.

Previous walks in this area: 28th Nov. 2012 and 11th Feb. 2015. 

This walk will concentrate somewhat on the implications of the road sign below ......

HERE is a similar photograph of the same roadside sign by Tim Jenkinson - it begs the question - is there a tor at Chub Tor?

The 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey map shows two labels, "Chub Tor" and "Chubb Tor", close together. A postcode search shows several local properties named after Chub Tor, these being West Chub Tor, Higher Chub Tor, Middle Chub Tor, Little Chub Tor, Chub Tor Cottage and Chub Tor or Chub Tor House (Chubbtor on old maps). There is also Olderwood House, adjacent to these properties and towards Yelverton, that was formerly called Chub Tor Farm (DNPA Planning Register, enter a property and click View Map). Along the track running past Yeoland Consuls Mine (disused) is Chubbtor Cottage. 

Ordnance Survey Six-Inch map 1888-1913 showing "Chubbtor" (a house), "Chubbtor Wood",  Yeoland Consols Mine and an old mine shaft.

In view of all the places on Dartmoor that are named after real tors, it seems inconceivable that this tor would be "invented" or non-existent.

Drake's (Plymouth) Leat seen from the bridge by car park on the road down to Clearbrook: the leat is normally dry but carries rain run-off from the old wartime airfield at Yelverton, RAF Harrowbeer. There is also some surface water here beside the leat.   The building over on the left is The Wharf, or stables, for Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt's horse-drawn tramway, this was the old Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway, opened in 1823.

The area in the centre distance is Yennadon Down, with Sharpitor behind - the village of Clearbrook is also seen.

Sheep's Tor, SX 566 682, elevation 369 metres (1210 feet).

Looking back along Plymouth Leat - leats are normally named after the place they take water to.

The clapper bridge at SX 51601 65320 .....

Looking back, into the sun, at the same bridge.

The wide bridge at SX 51694 65433.

Another clapper bridge, at SX 51737 65528.

Here, I met an artist who draws this tree throughout the season as one of his favourite subjects for his portfolio.

Traces of Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt's horse-drawn tramway.

Bridge over the leat, leading down to Mabor (and thence to Chubbtor) Wood.

Looking down the woodland footpath.

At the bottom of the slope is a stile right by the old railway embankment.

Tunnel through the railway embankment.

The sign at the bottom - turn left towards Yelverton.

PLEASE NOTE -  When you step off the track or any footpath, you are on private land ..... for example, where these remains are .....

Part of the remains of Yeoland Consols Mine .....

As previous photograph - turn around ......

Adit through the railway embankment, at SX SX 52124 66354 .....

Looking into the adit .....

If you look the adit (above), you have passed this tunnel by about 20 metres, it leads to our goal today - Chubb Tor. Interestingly, I photographed this tunnel in Nov. 2012 (halfway down the page, captioned "Another small tunnel under the railway embankment, quite small so probably just to connect land, to allow animals to pass through perhaps.")

PRIVATE LAND - After passing through the tunnel, the steepness of this gully is not shown well in this photograph, it is steep! I could have used four-wheel drive, in fact I did when I climbed up the right-hand bank to the tor. walking poles and a grappling hook on a rope would have been best, especially in light rain and going through deep leaves - it was slippery. On a subsequent visit (25th January 2016), I used a long walking staff, my companion used a walking pole, and we used ropes to get back down into the gully afterwards. It was still slippery. A further visit (2nd. Feb.) was used for a few measurements etc.

An overview of the most prominent  (and highest) rock in this area ..... probing the ground around this area with a large fire poker on 2nd Feb. indicated that this is an exposed outcrop of the bedrock, around which the soil ranged from about 2-inches to 7 or 8-inches deep in places. This indicates that this is a real tor and not a collection of loose rocks ..... this becomes more obvious when looking at the lower section of the tor below.

This is what I identified as Chubb Tor from previous photographs by Mike Kitchener on Wikimapia.

Two web sites have previously listed Chub Tor:

• The tors of Dartmoor

  Chub Tor

  Chubb Tor (EH)

  Yelverton

  520 661

  183

• Legendary Dartmoor's tors page
  No elevation given

Some human scale.

Geologically, this area consists of metamorphosed Upper Devonian Slate (hornfelsed by the high temperatures of the igneous granite intrusion): this was originally a sedimentary rock (Source: BGS Geology of Britain Viewer. 

First of two close-ups of the rock face, it is nothing like granite .....

Second close-up.

My GPS location was SX 52068 66331 � 3 metres, with an elevation of 150 �3 metres: the GPS was calibrated in situ, although the area is covered with trees. The waymark on Memory Map gives the elevation adjacent to the mark (on the same "invisible contour") of 149 metres, for what that is worth. It is possible there are other outcrops further up the slope but due to the conditions and fading light, I did not investigate further. A second record was made on 25th Jan. giving SX 52078 66343 � 7 metres; the GPS calibration was done in situ, which may have been a mistake as it was under tree canopy. No other outcrops were noted up the slope.

Rocks a little lower than the rock featured above, which is somewhere at the upper right of this photograph, behind the large tree.  Somewhere behind the rocks, from the camera, is the open shaft.

Whether or not there is a tor in this area seems to be unknown to even local residents. I knocked on four doors of properties with Chub Tor in their name, two people answered the door and patiently explained that they did not know why the area was so-called and whether there is a tor locally. One resident has said as much on a seemingly now-defunct blog.

What defines a tor?  Basically, it is an exposure of the bedrock, that may or may not be at the top of a hill.

If this rock is 150 metres in elevation, then it is the fifth lowest tor/rock when compared to the features in Dartmoor's Tors and Rocks, by Ken Ringwood, University of Plymouth Press, 2013. The page numbers of each rock or tor is given in the table below.

Another photograph showing the lower section of the tor ..... the vertical face here is about 10 ft / 3 metres at a guess ..... it was tape-measured at 25 ft / 7.60 m from the top to the tree stump left of centre in the photograph. The angle is a somewhat under 45�; by scale drawing, if the angle to the top is 30� then the face is about 12 ft / 3.60 m above ground level at the stump.

Showing the proximity of the tor and the railway embankment (left) ..... the height of this "vertical" face has been measured at 11.5 metres (11 ft. 6 inches) down to the level of the small tree .....

Montage showing the tor and the embankment.  Click on the image to see a larger version.

Close view of the lower outcrop vertical face ..... it seems to be composed of separate rocks and stones adhering together like a breccia formation ..... my guess at the moment is that it might be an igneous breccia associated with the heat of the intrusive pluton that was the granitic upwelling that formed much of Dartmoor.

Closer view of this exposed face.

View of the main tor (lower outcrop) taken from alongside the fence around the mine shaft: this shows this formation to be cracked into possibly separate rocks.

Mine shaft, about 10 metres downhill from the main rock above .....

The mine shaft, which is fenced for safety, noted on the Ordnance Survey Six-Inch map 1888-1913 ..... about 20-metres south of the tor .....

The shaft (bottom right), showing the proximity of the small tunnel through the railway embankment (upper centre): the top of the embankment is just visible at the top of the photograph. 

Sketch map - Click on the image to see a larger version.
Crossed circles are selected trees.
The shaft is actually about 10 metres from the highest rock of the tor (on the left in the sketch above) and about 40 metres from the railway embankment.

Movie clips filmed around the site .....

1:32 minutes	360� panorama, filmed from the top of the gulley wall, on the approach to the high rock of the tor.   Starts with a zoom view down to the tunnel. Then, it pans right, looking up the gulley, pauses, tilts upwards to see the top area of the gulley.  Because of the lay of the land, you cannot actually see into the gulley.  There are some hiccups in these films occasionally as I stumbled while walking around the camera tripod - the ground slopes a lot.  The video goes to the top of the main rock and then pans right, to the main tor outcrop, at 1:07 minutes.  It continues to pan right to the mine shaft (hidden behind the tree).
0:36 minutes	Filmed from almost in front of the highest rock of the tor and then pans right to the lower, main outcrop of the tor.
0:21 minutes	Filmed from down and around the main outcrop, against the fence around the mine shaft.  It zooms to the centred tunnel - that looks like a "splodge" with bits of tree and twig in the way, it then zooms out and looks at the shaft but the camera auto-focused on the wire in the fence.  It then pans up to show the railway embankment and finally pans left to the lower outcrop.
0:53 minutes	Filmed from in front of the highest rock, pans left to the gulley, down to the tunnel, zooms in and then out again, and tilts down to the mine shaft.  This shows something of the steepness of the ground.
0:58 minutes	360� panorama from right above and behind the highest rock, it zooms in but shows next to nothing of the rock because it is somewhat hidden from this viewpoint, then, pans right to the tunnel, continues panning right to look up the slope and ands looking towards the highest rock again.
0:11 minutes	Filmed from the far side of the tor, away from the gulley. This is a short video panning left from the highest rock (centred at 3 seconds, just to the right of the large tree) down to the main outcrop.
0:39 minutes	Filmed from the tree stump below the vertical face of the tor, showing the cracked nature of this lower part of the tor, zooming in and out again.

From the images above, the tor appears to be composed of two distinct types of rock.  The highest part seems to be the hornfelsed Upper Devonian Slates - looking a bit like fancy quartz to me!  The lower outcrop is of a very different rock that appears to be composed of small pieces cemented in a form of decaying, large grained concrete.  I hope to get an amateur geologist to look at this n the not-too-distant future when we are working on Devonport Leat.

Some pointing noticed in the small tunnel.

The stream running down through Mabor Wood.

The footpath in the wood scoured of leaves by rain-water runoff.

Sunset in Mabor Wood, seen over a sea of brambles.

Remnants of Tyrwhitt's tramway alongside the road outside the Chub Tor properties.

Entrance to the tunnel on the Devonport Leat (the east, or Yelverton, end) .....

Where the leat exits the tunnel at the west (or Clearbrook) end.

Devonport eat, now disused but acting as a rain-water drain.

Walk details

MAP: Red = GPS satellite track of the walk.

© Crown copyright and database rights 2016.  Ordnance Survey Licence number 100047373
Use of this data is subject to terms and conditions.
Also, Copyright © 2005, Memory-Map Europe, with permission.

This walk was reached via the A386 from Roborough to Yelverton, turning off at the Clearbrook sign and parking at the yellow cross/  P  symbol on the map, on the right just before the road goes over a small bridge that crosses the dry leat

Statistics
Distance - 4.73 km / 2.94 miles.

NOTES