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‘They erupt from the moor like castles, monsters and giants’: exploring Dartmoor’s tors
These ancient rocks have inspired myth and mysticism for millennia, and a new book and festival celebrate their enduring powerThe first bluebells are out along the Dart gorge, creating a faint purple haze under the twisted oak trees. I’m on my way to Luckey Tor, one of Dartmoor’s most hidden rock stacks, which sits by the river, shrouded in vegetation like Sleeping Beauty’s castle. It’s not the easiest of walks. The path peters out as I get deeper into the gorge, and the final approach to the tor involves clambering and hopping over large mossy boulders and navigating huge shelves of rock that border the river.The first sight of it is unforgettable. A small stream, the Row Brook, runs in front of it, like a moat. The tor looms up squarely from the valley floor, dwarfing everything around, framed in a grassy clearing that is a popular place to bivouac. Its position is unusual. Most tors are at the summit of a hill, dominating the views for miles around, standing grandly in the landscape, devoid of trees. Luckey Tor is sequestered in the folds of the Dart valley, and in the summer is mostly obscured by foliage; when you find it, you feel as though you’ve entered a secret kingdom. Continue reading...
These ancient rocks have inspired myth and mysticism for millennia, and a new book and festival celebrate their enduring power
The first bluebells are out along the Dart gorge, creating a faint purple haze under the twisted oak trees. I’m on my way to Luckey Tor, one of Dartmoor’s most hidden rock stacks, which sits by the river, shrouded in vegetation like Sleeping Beauty’s castle. It’s not the easiest of walks. The path peters out as I get deeper into the gorge, and the final approach to the tor involves clambering and hopping over large mossy boulders and navigating huge shelves of rock that border the river.
The first sight of it is unforgettable. A small stream, the Row Brook, runs in front of it, like a moat. The tor looms up squarely from the valley floor, dwarfing everything around, framed in a grassy clearing that is a popular place to bivouac. Its position is unusual. Most tors are at the summit of a hill, dominating the views for miles around, standing grandly in the landscape, devoid of trees. Luckey Tor is sequestered in the folds of the Dart valley, and in the summer is mostly obscured by foliage; when you find it, you feel as though you’ve entered a secret kingdom. Continue reading...
