Hare Tor, Willsworthy Range

• Parish: Peter Tavy
• Height: 531 m
• Grid reference: SX 5508 8423
• Rock: Granite
• Also called: Hayer Tor, Great Hay Tor, The Volcano

Hare Tor is a large granite mound at 531 m in Peter Tavy parish, with two main peaks. Its conical outline is distinctive from the Willsworthy range to the west, and some people think it looks like Vesuvius. Eric Hemery called it the huge, broken cone, with most of its loose rock on the south and west slopes. An oval rock basin lies on the north-east edge of the summit.

On a clear day the views are among the finest in Devon: Fur Tor to the east, the Tavy Cleave tors and White Tor to the south, Bodmin Moor and Brent Tor to the west, and Brat Tor, Lydford Sharp, Great Links and Chat Tor to the north. The tor stands inside the Willsworthy Range, and Terry Bound mentions the old rails of a mobile target on the range above Reddaford Leat.

The name may come from Higher Tor, worn down in speech to Hayer Tor and then Hare Tor; Crossing's Great Hay Tor supports this. The other idea is that it resembles a crouching hare seen from the east.

A second Hare Tor, small, ruined and not granite, lies about 5 km south near the Langstone menhir, also in Peter Tavy parish.

This is a location on Dartmoor that has a namesake. Read more about this: Dartmoor Places With the Same Name