North Brentor

North Brentor is a village on the western edge of the moor between Tavistock and Lydford, and it lives in the shadow of one of the most striking sights in Devon. Brent Tor rises abruptly from the fields, a steep cone of volcanic rock quite unlike the granite of the moor behind it, and on the very top stands the church of St Michael de Rupe, St Michael of the Rock, one of the smallest and highest parish churches in England.

The church has stood there since the thirteenth century, and the usual question, why anyone would build in such an absurd place, has been answered locally for centuries with a story about the Devil moving the stones each night until St Michael drove him off. The climb takes only a few minutes and the view from the top runs from Dartmoor to Cornwall and out to the sea. The village below is quiet and ordinary, which somehow makes the tor above it stranger still.