Rough Tor (), or Roughtor, is a tor on Bodmin Moor,

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, United Kingdom. The site is composed of the tor summit and

logan stone Rocking stones (also known as logan stones or logans) are large stones that are so finely balanced that the application of just a small force causes them to rock. Typically, rocking stones are residual corestones formed initially by spheroidal ...

, a neolithic

tor enclosure A tor enclosure is a prehistoric monument found in the southwestern part of Great Britain. These monuments emerged around 4000 BCE in the early Neolithic. Tor enclosures are large enclosures situated near natural rock outcrops, especially ...

, a large number of Bronze Age

hut circle In archaeology, a hut circle is a circular or oval depression in the ground which may or may not have a low stone wall around it that used to be the foundation of a round house. The superstructure of such a house would have been made of timber an ...

s, and some contemporary monuments.

Toponymy

In the 19th-century the hill was known as ''Router''.

Geography

Rough Tor is approximately one mile northwest of

Brown Willy Brown Willy (possibly meaning "hill of swallows" or meaning "highest hill") is a hill in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The summit, at above sea level, is the highest point of Bodmin Moor and of Cornwall as a whole. It is about northwest ...

, Cornwall's highest point, on Bodmin Moor. Its summit is 1313 ft (400m) above mean sea level, making it the second highest point in Cornwall. Both hills are in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

of St Breward and near the town of

Camelford Camelford ( kw, Reskammel) is a town and civil parish in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, situated in the River Camel valley northwest of Bodmin Moor. The town is approximately ten miles (16 km) north of Bodmin and is governed ...

. The De Lank River rises nearby and flows between the two hills. Rough Tor and Little Rough Tor are twin summits of a prominent ridge of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

, though there are actually three tors at the site: Showery Tor (Also known as Flat Cap Ned), Little Rough Tor, and Rough Tor. Crowdy Reservoir and the Lowermoor Water Treatment Works are not far away from the hill. Hikes to the summit and to neighbouring Brown Willy are popular, though the walk may be strenuous; a road provides easy access to a car park, which is about a mile and a half from the summit.

Neolithic

The summit of Rough Tor once had a

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

. The summit is encircled by a series of rough stone walls that align with natural stone outcroppings on the tor. The walls would have originally completely encircled the tor and would have had numerous stone lined openings. In the interior of the circle, there are remains of terraces levelled into the slopes, which archaeologists believe formed the foundations of circular wooden houses. There are also cleared areas near the terraces that have been garden plots.

Bronze Age

The Rough Tor enclosure is located in an area containing numerous upstanding monuments and other

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

sites, such as Fernacre stone circle, which is only 200 metres from the site. Stannon stone circle is also located nearby, and there are numerous cairns and burial monuments in the vicinity. On the southern slopes of Rough Tor, there are the remains of a large number of stone hut circles, set around three or four enclosures that may have held stock. There are also the remains of a large field system, which is partially overlain with a medieval field system. The purpose of this field system has been debated, with historians disagreeing as to whether the fields were used for cereals or for stock.

Medieval

The summit of the tor was once the site of a medieval chapel, which was built into the side of one of the cairns, and was dedicated to St. Michael. The chapel was recorded in the 14th century, and is the only known hilltop chapel on Bodmin Moor. As it overlooks an ancient trackway across the moor, it may have served as a guide for travellers. There are remains of a second medieval building at the bottom of the summit and a beacon may have been maintained here or at the summit by a hermit. A medieval field system based on straight lines overlays the Bronze Age field system at Rough Tor, and several medieval artifacts have been found in the area, such as the base for a stone cross, and a small stone cross.

Contemporary

A memorial stands below Rough Tor, commemorating the men of the 43rd (Wessex) Division who lost their lives in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. The Memorial reads: :ROUGH TOR ON WHICH THIS :MEMORIAL IS PLACED HAS :BEEN GIVEN TO THE NATION :IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO :LOST THEIR LIVES WHILE :SERVING IN THE 43RD (WESSEX) :DIVISION IN THE NORTH-WEST :EUROPEAN CAMPAIGN 1944/5 There is also a memorial to Charlotte Dymond, who was murdered on the Tor in 1844. In a programme shown in 2007

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

's ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...

''investigated a 500-metre cairn and the site of a Bronze Age village on the slopes of Rough Tor. There is also a Rough Tor on

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous P ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, three miles west of

Postbridge Postbridge is a hamlet in the heart of Dartmoor in the English county of Devon. It lies on the B3212, roughly midway between Princetown and Moretonhampstead. Postbridge is next to the East Dart river, one of two main tributaries of the Rive ...

. The early colonial name for Mount Barrow, in Northern Tasmania, was 'Row Tor, - believed to be the homonym of 'Rough Tor': named by Matthew Flinders on his maritime survey.

Popular culture

Rough Tor features in

Daphne du Maurier Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, (; 13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989) was an English novelist, biographer and playwright. Her parents were actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and his wife, actress Muriel Beaumont. Her grandfather was Geo ...

's novel ''

Jamaica Inn The Jamaica Inn is a traditional inn on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall in the UK, which was built as a coaching inn in 1750, and has a historical association with smuggling. Located just off the A30, near the middle of the moor close to the hamlet ...

''.

References

External links

{{Cornwall, state=collapsed Archaeological sites in Cornwall Bodmin Moor Hills of Cornwall