Cats Tor is a

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southe ...

hill on the border between

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

and

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, between the towns of

Macclesfield Macclesfield is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Bollin in the east of the county, on the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east ...

and

Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.

. The summit is above sea level. ''

Tor Tor, TOR or ToR may refer to: Places * Tor, Pallars, a village in Spain * Tor, former name of Sloviansk, Ukraine, a city * Mount Tor, Tasmania, Australia, an extinct volcano * Tor Bay, Devon, England * Tor River, Western New Guinea, Indonesia Sc ...

'' is an Old English word for a high, rocky hill. The higher peak of

Shining Tor Shining Tor is the highest hill in Cheshire, England. The summit has a maximum elevation of above sea level. It is in the Peak District, between the towns of Macclesfield in Cheshire and Buxton in Derbyshire, and is on the administrative boundar ...

is about 2 km south along The Tors

gritstone Gritstone or grit is a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone. This term is especially applied to such sandstones that are quarried for building material. British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for pa ...

ridge. The ridge continues to the north past

Windgather Rocks The Windgather Rocks ( a.s.l.) is a gritstone crag on the Derbyshire– Cheshire border in England. It is in the Peak District National Park and is a popular site for learning the rudiments of rock climbing. As the name suggests the area is expo ...

and Taxal Edge towards

Whaley Bridge Whaley Bridge () is a town and civil parish in the High Peak district of Derbyshire, England. It is situated on the River Goyt, south-east of Manchester, north of Buxton, north-east of Macclesfield and west of Sheffield. It had a population ...

. On the west wide of the ridge, water drains into Todd Brook which feeds

Toddbrook Reservoir Toddbrook Reservoir, a feeder for the Peak Forest Canal, opened in 1838. It is sited above the town of Whaley Bridge in the Derbyshire High Peak area of England. The reservoir is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) providing habitats f ...

. East of Cats Tor are views of the

Goyt Valley The River Goyt is a tributary of the River Mersey in North West England. Etymology The name ''Goyt'' may be derived from the Middle English ''gote'', meaning "a watercourse, a stream". Derivation from the Welsh ''gwyth'' meaning "vein" has bee ...

, Foxlow Edge and

Fernilee Reservoir Fernilee Reservoir is a drinking-water reservoir fed by the River Goyt in the Peak District National Park, within the county of Derbyshire and very close to the boundary with Cheshire. The village of Whaley Bridge, Fernliee sits at the north en ...

. The moorland ridge on which Cats Tor lies is designated "Open Access" land for the public, following the

Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (c. 37), known informally as the CRoW Act or "Right to Roam" Act is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament affecting England and Wales which came into force on 30 November 2000. Right to roam The Act imp ...

. The closest access is from Pym Chair car park, from where a public footpath, laid on large stone slabs, runs south across Cats Tor and continues south along the ridge to Shining Tor. A local legend tells that Pym Chair is the spot where a highway man called Pym robbed passers by on the packhorse route. Another story is that Pym was a preacher who gave sermons there. The open gritstone moorlands of the Upper Goyt Valley (Wild Moor, Goyt's Moss,

Burbage Edge Burbage Edge is a gritstone escarpment overlooking the Burbage district of Buxton in Derbyshire, in the Peak District. The hill's summit (marked by a trig pillar) is above sea level. The boundary of the Peak District National Park runs along t ...

, Shining Tor to Cats Tor ridge and Hop Moor) are a designated

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

(SSSI). Heather is the main plant but the heathland is habitat for a variety of native grasses, rushes, sedges and shrubs including

bilberry Bilberries (), or sometimes European blueberries, are a primarily Eurasian species of low-growing shrubs in the genus ''Vaccinium'' (family Ericaceae), bearing edible, dark blue berries. The species most often referred to is ''Vaccinium myrtillus ...

crowberry ''Empetrum nigrum'', crowberry, black crowberry, or, in western Alaska, blackberry, is a flowering plant species in the heather family Ericaceae with a near circumboreal distribution in the Northern Hemisphere. It is usually dioecious, but there ...

, cowberry and

cross-leaved heath ''Erica tetralix'', the cross-leaved heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, native to western Europe, from southern Portugal to central Norway, as well as a number of boggy regions further from the coast in Central Europe ...

. Hare’s-tail cottongrass and

sphagnum moss ''Sphagnum'' is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, peat moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations of ''Sphagnum'' can store wa ...

are common along The Tors ridge. The area is important for upland breeding birds including a large population of

golden plover '' Pluvialis '' is a genus of plovers, a group of wading birds comprising four species that breed in the temperate or Arctic Northern Hemisphere. In breeding plumage, they all have largely black underparts, and golden or silvery upperparts. Th ...

, as well as

red grouse The red grouse (''Lagopus lagopus scotica'') is a medium-sized bird of the grouse family which is found in heather moorland in Great Britain and Ireland. It is usually classified as a subspecies of the willow ptarmigan but is sometimes consider ...

curlew The curlews () are a group of nine species of birds in the genus ''Numenius'', characterised by their long, slender, downcurved bills and mottled brown plumage. The English name is imitative of the Eurasian curlew's call, but may have been in ...

lapwing Lapwings (subfamily Vanellinae) are any of various ground-nesting birds (family Charadriidae) akin to plovers and dotterels. They range from in length, and are noted for their slow, irregular wingbeats in flight and a shrill, wailing cry. A gro ...

whinchat The whinchat (''Saxicola rubetra'') is a small migratory passerine bird breeding in Europe and western Asia and wintering in central Africa. At one time considered to be in the thrush family, Turdidae, it is now placed in the Old World flycat ...

snipe A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/camouflaging plumage. The ''Gallinago'' snipes have a near ...

twite The twite (''Linaria flavirostris'') is a small brown passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is similar in size and shape to a linnet, at long. It lacks the red head patch and breast shown by the linnet and the redpolls. It is bro ...

ring ouzel The ring ouzel (''Turdus torquatus'') is a mainly European member of the thrush family Turdidae. It is a medium-sized thrush, in length and weighing . The male is predominantly black with a conspicuous white crescent across its breast. Females ...

and

merlin Merlin ( cy, Myrddin, kw, Marzhin, br, Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a mage, with several other main roles. His usual depiction, based on an amalgamation of historic and le ...

. On 30 September 1943 two

Republic P-47D Thunderbolt The P-47 Thunderbolt was a World War II fighter aircraft built by Republic Aviation from 1941 to 1945. Early designs XP-47 (AP-10) In response to a USAAC requirement for a new fighter aircraft, Republic Aviation engineer Alexander Kartveli p ...

planes crashed on Cats Tor. Both pilots were killed. The

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

aircraft were from the 2906th Observation Group. The planes were on a training flight from

RAF Atcham Royal Air Force Atcham or more simply RAF Atcham is a former Royal Air Force station located east of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, on the north eastern boundary of Attingham Park. Initially built for RAF Fighter Command, during the Secon ...

. Both aircraft flew straight into the hillside in cloud in the mid-afternoon. Cats Tor is a popular location for

paragliding Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or lies supine in a cocoon-like 'po ...

, used by the Derbyshire Soaring Club and the Peak Soaring Association. Oldgate Nick, on the northern slope of Cats Tor, is a gritstone buttress with 15 graded rock climbing routes.

References

Mountains and hills of the Peak District Hills of Cheshire Mountains and hills of Derbyshire

See also

References