High Tor
No not that one, another one
No not that one, another one
A fine spot overlooking Mount St Bernard Abbey. Excellent low to mid-grade problems plus a small number of harder ones. Those who have not climbed on volcanic tuff before might think the rock to look green and greasy, but the rock is sharp and does not absorb moisture and gives good climbing despite its appearance. High Tor is well shaded by trees and is exposed to the wind and as such is a good option on a hot day.
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Parking: Park at the car park at Mount St Bernard Abbey.
Approach: Walk south out of the car park along a track. Follow this straight to a stile, cross this and follow the path westwards to the wood. Carefully cross the wall to access the boulders.
Approach: Walk south out of the car park along a track. Follow this straight to a stile, cross this and follow the path westwards to the wood. Carefully cross the wall to access the boulders.
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Three hard problems at High Tor are featured from 1:35.
The monastery of St. Bernard has, no doubt, done more than anything to increase people's acquaintance with Charnwood. It has induced many to climb the rugged rocks and ramble over tracts of primitive wilderness, who would otherwise have remained as ignorant of Charnwood as California!
- Rambles Round Loughborough, T. R. Potter (1868)
The local nomenclature of Leicestershire is an epitome of the historic conquests of England. Possibly, indeed, the name of a brook or a hill here and there may still bear uneffaced the mint-mark stamped upon it by the once ubiquitous Gael before the pre-historic invasion of the Cymro ousted him from the Midland fields and forests. At all events, in some few instances, the waters and the waste hill-tops bear names undoubtedly Celtic. They hardly formed part of the property actually reduced into possession by after invaders, and there was no practical need for their new lords to give them a new name. The old generic local names conferred by the early Briton 'thus became specific, but remained in outward form the same, unchanged by Roman or Englishman, Dane or Norman. The high 'Tors' are still the 'High Tors,' and the 'Ox' is still the 'Ox-brook.'
- Leicestershire Words, Phrases, and Proverbs, A. B. Evans and S. Evans (1881)
Then in October 1839, Lord Shrewsbury accepted de Lisle's invitation and with his wife they came to stay for a few days at Grace Dieu. On the Sunday they visited the monastery and heard the monks singing vespers. What happened on that occasion de Lisle recounted a few years later to Newman: 'It was a most lovely afternoon and when vespers were over, Lord Shrewsbury walked over the land with me and when we came to a great rock he said: "What a pity the monastery was not there." I told him that I felt the same, but that Providence had ruled otherwise... Lord Shrewsbury said no more then and we returned to Grace Dieu; after dinner, he took a walk with me and to my great astonishment he said: "My dear fellow, I am so delighted with what I have seen and heard today that I have resolved to give you £2,000 to build the monks a proper monastery on condition that it be built under the rock we both fixed upon."
- The Return of the Cistercians to the Midlands, B. Elliott (1982)
On the founding on Mount St Bernard Abbey
On the founding on Mount St Bernard Abbey
In the middle of this Charnwood Forest, some monks have made their home, and here they live, die, and are buried in this quiet place just as they did hundreds of years ago, in many other parts of England. They spend most of their time tilling the land around their home, and they have turned many a wild rocky district into fruitful fields of corn.
- A Big Block, H. Major (1883)
