Region 40 Cornwall and Devon
High Willhays, the highest summit of Dartmoor, lies just south of Yes Tor, a more conspicuous but slightly lower top on the northern edge of the moor. These are the only tops over 2000 feet in the south of England.
Yes Tor was one of the earliest hills I climbed. A long weekend in the area, when I was based near London, coincided with a heavy snowfall. The friends I was visiting, met on a Rambler's holiday the previous summer, were thrilled and took me to the top of Yes Tor which seemed like a crag in the Arctic. At the time they told me that this was the highest point of Dartmoor. When we acquired George Bridge's list of 2000' tops I realized the mistake and another visit, in high summer, bagged the higher summit, a top with rather less character.
On a recent visit to Dartmoor we were unable to revisit these two tops because of military activity in the area. Being now retired we had gone midweek, when it seems that there is nearly always firing on the ranges. Details of the firing times can be found on a very useful website: Dartmoor Firing Ranges - Public Notices & Information
This is without doubt the daftest hill in the tables. Yet at one time it has been an important summit. As its name implies it must have been used as a signalling point, the highest spot for miles around. Now it is completely overshadowed by enormous spoilheaps from the china clay mines. What made it even more ludicrous for us was our failure to find parking on the east or north of the hill which would have given us a short climb to earn our tick. Moreover it was raining torrentially. Hence we parked at the start of the completely flat vehicle track to the west and scampered the half kilometre along it as fast as we could go. The mound of a tumulus gave a few feet of ascent to the trig point and close by, well above us, dumper trucks were depositing yet more spoil, to spoil indeed the prospect from this most unsatisfying summit.
Carnmenellis was not a very satisfying summit either. In this case the trig point is dwarfed by a radio station. We drove right round the hill before finding parking near the north-western side and we went more or less straight up from there with the upper part of the climb being very hard going in heather, gorse and brambles. We made our way round the west of the fence to join the track which took us back to the road after a not particularly pleasing excursion.
After two unsatisfactory walks we determined to finish the day with a better one. The weather had improved which was one factor on our side. We also found satisfactory parking at the start of the signed path to Men-An-Tol, an interesting relic with curiously holed stones. Another diversion delayed us as we were lured by the castellated tors of Carn Galver and enjoyed a pleasant scramble to their two summits. From here it was a simple bog slog to the less interesting but higher top which carries the trig point. We dropped down north-west to join the path which took us across the main road to the coastal footpath which we had walked some years ago. It was good to incorporate a small segment of it into this circuit although we had time only to go as far as Morvah and return by minor roads in the dusk.
Bodmin Moor was a place which we had wanted to visit for a long time, before we had started ticking tops in Dawson's tables. We had heard rumours of access problems but also read that there was a permissive path from Rough Tor so this is where we went. It is obviously a popular spot with a good car park and on this splendid clear day the route to the first top was easy to find although it would take some awkward scrambling to stand atop some of the many rough tors which give this hill its name. From the ridge the path up Brown Willy was clearly seen involving the crossing of a boggy valley en route. Soon we were standing on Cornwall's highest summit enjoying remarkably clear views of the rolling moors beyond. We returned by a slightly more northerly route to get a closer look at the remarkable stone formations on Showery Tor, a striking foreground for a picture looking back to the highest hill with a storm brewing behind.
A toll road runs up Kit Hill from the east so we deliberately set out from the west starting at Kelly Bray. We somehow missed the line of the right of way and ended up tresspassing up the western fields. Near the top we found open heathland and a good track but the very summit was unusual, dominated by a tall chimney but also carrying the banks of an earthwork and a big flat grassy area on which kids were playing football. Brilliant evening sunshine gleamed on the trig point which was rather dramatically situated on a steep and narrow portion of the bank. In this lovely light the hill certainly lived up to its claim on the map to be a viewpoint although the prospect was rolling rather than dramatic. We returned more or less the same way, this time finding the path, although this was not really an advantage since it was exceedingly boggy.
This was another of those hills which could be claimed by driving up and walking across a single field. We decided on a slightly more energetic approach however, parking in Silverton and walking up the narrow road to the top. The summit is crowned by a new radio mast, not shown on our map, but the trig point is still there, well hidden in the hedge. On the way down we used the well maintained path to the east of the road which runs down between hedge and fence with pleasant views across the valley below.
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