Tony Beard is a farmer, a broadcaster and an entertainer. Join him each month as he completes another page of his Dartmoor Diary. "Hullo there, this month you need to put your walking clobber on as we're going to take a hike up to the top of Sharp Tor......."

If you’ve only got an hour or can spare a half a day or more, here’s a place you may well like to visit!

First buy yourself the yellow Ordnance Survey Map for Dartmoor, Outdoor Leisure 28, and find Map reference SX686729 for Sharp Tor.

I know there’s more than one on Dartmoor, but this one lies just off the Ashburton to Two Bridges road.

A well worn track takes you S.E. down into the small valley and up again onto a wonderful vantage point, the views are tremendous

The best way to approach this tor is to park in the carpark at the top of Dartmeet Hill SX681734 and, as you pull into the park, ahead of you is Sharp Tor.

Before you even reach the tor, there is so much to see.

In the bottom of the valley the path skirts around a small parcel of "fenced non-access land", the site of a deserted farmstead, Easdon Coombe.

A collection of large trees mark the site so there is no need to trespass.

Up the other side of the coombe, the keen observer will have already seen much of interest.

When you reach the top that solitary Hawthorn "hanging on for dear life" is a miracle of survival in itself

Geologically, look at the formation of the stones. The horizontal layers making up some of the granite masses you pass and the tor itself, with both horizontal and perpendicular fissures or faults in it, will make you wonder at what took place here millions of years ago when these granite masses were formed, and the natural weathering of the rock that has taken place since.

The gorse, the heathers, wortleberry bushes, the delicate little tormentil, the grasses and sedges are all there to be admired, and let us not forget the herbal treatments that some of these plants have been used for for centuries, like the little eyebright.

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