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.
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

At the end of the Byway I turned left then right and had a break on the bench. Behind me is the lane that leads to Bottor Rock