Yar Tor

Thursday 6th June and both Ant and I find ourselves with the same day off and keen to put up some big numbers after a few disappointing trips of late. I inform him of Yar Tor not too far to go and as memory serves, a good place for letterboxing.

Yar tor is opposite Corndon Tor, passing Two Bridges, keep right, passing Dartmeet, a steep incline and your there. Jack came for his third letterboxing experience, keen to find his first box.

We found a cracking first box, a box called Antiquities through the ages- Cave Penny Cross, which we thought would be the start of many.......we thought wrong! After 3 frustrating hours we found just the 2 letterboxes, our second being a listed box called Thomas Dartmoor Toybox.

Again there were many similarities to Down Tor, fantastic sites, rocks rolled away and nothing there. As someone that has letterboxed for 20 plus years, you know when you have found an area where a box used to be and Yar Tor was full of them.

Hoping to have more success Sunday on the North moor.

Scott

The first time I ever went to Yar Tor I think I found about 30 boxes, give or take, 10 years ago it was only 7 and 5 years ago it was 5. Many have been removed by their owners but sadly a lot all round the moor have been removed by the DLT.

Spent a windy hour there last week and found one box! Tried Corndon and did little better. Is it the DLT or (whisper it) are there less being put out these days?

The heyday of letterboxing was definitely in the early to mid 90's, where there would be 10 plus boxes in just about every square kilometer. With the announcement that all boxes would have a "5 year lifespan" before it would have to be re-registered for the catalogue. This had mixed reviews when the idea was first put to everyone, but the biggest benefit was that the catalogue price was kept down to affordable levels, if it had continued as it was going we would be looking at a book, today, over an inch thick and costing about £20!

There were also new restrictions on certain areas (one of which was my favourite) when Newtakes were implemented and we were asked to remove all the boxes in that area. Some farmers hated the hobby and removed any boxes that could be found. Down by Yellowmead Farm for example there used to be over 100 boxes from the road to Foggintor Quarry and they all vanished in a weekend apart from the odd WOM box (coincidence? perhaps), and then there was the Dartmoor Letterbox Thief (Thieves).
The attrition of the letterbox seems to have leveled out a bit and we just have to walk further.
I worked out the last two boxes I got on the moor cost me £56 per box, that was the fuel to get me down and back again... but to step onto the moor again was worthwhile.

So after all my waffle to answer your question... Yes!