Vixen Tor facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Vixen Tor |
|
|---|---|
Vixen Tor from the car park near Merrivale on Two Bridges to Tavistock road
|
|
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 300 m (980 ft) |
| Geography | |
| Location | Dartmoor, England |
| Parent range | Dartmoor |
| OS grid | SX542742 |
Vixen Tor is a tor on Dartmoor, England. The tor is on private land and since 2003 access by the public has been banned, causing protests and mass trespassing by hikers and climbers.
The tor
The tor lies between Tavistock and Princetown on Dartmoor. There is a car park to the south of the B3357 road midway between Two Bridges and Tavistock. The tor is 0.5 miles (0.80 km) away.
The tor rises 120 feet (37 m) from the moor. The peak is 300 metres (980 ft) above sea level. It is a granite mass that appears to be made from rocks piled up on each other. The tor is the highest free-standing rock on Dartmoor. From some angles it is said to resemble the Sphinx. Others say it is a vixen and yet others say it looks like an old man with a cap on his head and his back to his wife. 27 rock climbing routes have been identified, but climbing, like walking, is banned.
Legend of Vixana
There is a legend that a witch named Vixana once lived in a cave at the foot of the tor that she had made the earth gnomes build for her. She was tall, bent and ugly. She delighted in calling up a mist to surround any traveller who passed the bog at the foot of the tor, so they would lose their way and be sucked down to their death. She met her fate when she tried to lure a handsome young man of the moor to his fate, but he had the power to see through the mist and to make himself invisible. He escaped and pushed the witch to her death on the rocks below the tor. Another version has the witch drowning in the bog into which she had lured so many people.
