North Hessary Tor is a phenomenal viewpoint at 517 metres (1,696 feet) above sea level. Its trig pillar commands a staggering panorama that few others can possess, embracing no less than 100 other tors across Dartmoor and surrounds.
About North Hessary Tor
From North Hessary Tor trig pillar scan your eyes across the horizon and spot other tors across the region including Great Mis, Fur, Beardown, Longaford, Bellever, Hay, Rippon, Sheeps and Leather Tors. The tor itself, formerly known as North Hisworthy Tor, was once a boundary point on the Dartmoor Forest Perambulation of AD 1240, which was defined by the knights who rode the boundary on horseback and to which everyone who died within this massive parish had to be carried a long way in a coffin to Lydford; along what is known as the Lych Way.
Another interesting feature is the inscription PCWW / 1917 on the south-west face of the tor, which denotes Plymouth Corporation Water Works, the company that instructed the construction of Burrator Reservoir, completed in 1898. There are around 70 granite posts all around the catchment area of the reservoir so that Plymouth Corporation could put a stop to pollution coming from any of the surrounding farms, which were subsequently abandoned by moving out the inhabitants with no compensation offered. North Hessary, the highest part of the catchment, is unusual in that the inscription is not on a post but a tor!The most striking feature here, obviously, is the remarkable 196-metre high transmitter mast, perhaps Dartmoor’s most recognisable manmade landmark.
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Dartmoor National Park
Dartmoor is a unique protected landscape in Devon, with rare wildlife and free roaming livestock and ponies. Made up of 954 square kilometres (368 square miles) of open moorland and deep river valleys, the landscape is punctuated by exposed granite tors, providing vital navigation markers and rest stops.
There are plenty of opportunities to explore the wildlife and heritage of the park on foot, by bike, horse or on the water. The long history of Dartmoor can be discovered in ancient Bronze Age burial mounds through to mining landscapes of the medieval and Victorian eras.
Area details
Name: North Hessary Tor
X/Y co-ords: 257873, 74216.3
Region: South West
Country: England
Place type: Hill Or Mountain
Lat/Long: 50.55039978,-4.00754396
District: West Devon
Height: 510.5mm
Location Grid Ref: SX 5787 7421
OS Explorer Map: OL28: Dartmoor
County/Unitary Authority: Devon
