This is an area I hadn’t been to for perhaps 5 years now, long before I started this website. I did part of this walk (in the opposite direction), heading up the lane from Five Lanes, then down towards the reservoirs before looping back through the woods and past Great Rock. I thoroughly enjoyed the area and decided to return and lengthen the walk to include a few more rocks in Shaptor Woods. This walk doesn’t give much in the way of views or wide open spaces, but in return the woodlands have a certain charm, and on a grey day make a great alternative, with some truly huge woodland tors.
Start – Hennock village |
Route – Twizzle Tree Tor – Great Rock Copse Tor – Great Rock – Trenchford Reservoir – Poolmill Cross – Gladstone Rock – Shaptor Woods – Shaptor Rock – Pixey Copse Tor – Middle Stonelands Tor – John Canns Rocks – Stonelands Tor – Bottor Rock – Five Lanes – Hennock |
Distance – 7 miles Start time – 11.00am Time taken – 4hrs 20mins Highest Point – 255m Nr Trenchford Reservoir |
Weather – Grey sky with some spots of rain |

You drop down from Gladstone Rock, then head around some houses and pop out into a clearing within woodland. Heading uphill a bit you come to this stile which is the entrance to Shaptor Wood

Shaptor Rock is a lofty perch above the trees. On a clearer day you get very good views to Dartmoor and its tors

You walk past 2 or 3 more rocky areas which could also be given names, which I’ve recently found to be Pixey Copse Tor and Middle Stonelands Tor. This is the exit from Shaptor Woods onto a byway which leads down to John Canns Rocks