Sharpitor, Lustleigh

• Parish: Lustleigh
• Height: 262 m
• Grid reference: SX 7719 8149
• Rock: Granite (a spur tor)
• Also known as: Sharp Tor, Sharpiter, The Nutcrackers, The Christening Stone

Sharpitor sits at the south-eastern edge of Lustleigh Cleave on East Dartmoor, a granite spur tor now covered by woodland. It is a steep climb from Lustleigh village, or you can leave the bridleway at the top of the Cleave and drop into the Cleave itself, where the main rocks are. The ground is a maze of granite, brambles and steep drops on the southern side, so take care. Crags on the south-eastern slope stand above the prehistoric settlement at Hammerslake.

The tor has a large cracked summit rock and a long spine of broken outcrops with rock basins. William Crossing, writing in 1912, recorded several logan stones here. The best known is the Nutcracker, reported toppled by vandals on 6 May 1950. A visit by the Tors of Dartmoor team in 2023 concluded that the rock that fell was in fact the Christening Stone, and that the Nutcracker still stands but no longer rocks.

A little over a hundred years ago the Cleave was moorland grazed by sheep. Sharpitor was a popular picnic spot and appears on old postcards, and guidebooks recommended visiting it from Lustleigh Station on the Moretonhampstead branch of the Great Western Railway, which closed in 1964. A viewpoint at SX 77220 81443 looks over a deep wooded ravine to Trendlebere Down and Black Hill. Winter and early spring are the best times to go.

Dartmoor has two Sharpitors. This is not Sharpitor near Burrator, and it is also easy to confuse with the Sharp Tors at Lydford, Tavy Cleave, Chinkwell, Harford Moor, Yartor Down, Peter Tavy and Castle Drogo.