Sharp Tor, Tavy Cleave

• Parish: Peter Tavy
• Height: 441 m
• Grid reference: SX 5540 8332
• Rock: Granite
• Also called: Sharpy Tor, Tavy Cleave Sharp

Sharp Tor is the largest of the five rock piles known together as the Tavy Cleave Tors, and the only one of the five with a name of its own. It stands at 441 m on the north-eastern side of the great amphitheatre of Tavy Cleave, in Peter Tavy parish, and takes its name from its steep, vertical east face above the River Tavy. The mass is conical and partly grassed over. The best view into the Cleave is through the gap between its two main outcrops, further up the hill.

William Crossing included the tor in Gems in a Granite Setting (1905) and was the first to give an idea of how many tors make up the group. He reports that moormen call this principal mass Sharp Tor. Tors of Dartmoor adds that Ordnance Survey maps underrepresent these tors, despite how striking they are.

Dartmoor has seven tors called Sharp Tor and two spelled Sharpitor. Moormen use the name Lydford Sharp for the one on the adjoining common to the north-west (listing 3897), to tell it from this one.