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High Willhays is the highest point on Dartmoor and also the highest point on the North Moor so accordingly Ryder's Hill is the highest point on the South Moor. Well, strictly speaking it's not, North Hessary is the highest at 517m but the tor is only half a mile from the B3375 road which is said to be the boundary between the north and south moors and so Ryder's is much more remote. The top of the hill is at an altitude of 515m compared to the 618m of High Willhays so 'tis a bit squatter. There is nothing remarkable about the place except the views and the fact that it's something that has to be done if you are a keen Dartmoor walker. The summit of Ryder's has a trig point, two boundstones and that's your lot, oh and the remnants of a prehistoric cairn. To the north is the old Hooten Wheals tin mine and nearby civilisation in the form of Hexworthy. To the east is the head of the river Mardle and southwards is Snowdon, yes there is a Snowdon on Dartmoor as well. To the west is very bad news especially in or following wet weather called Aune Head. Aune Head and Aune Head Mires is not the best of places and so it's always advisable to approach Ryder's Hill from the north or south. If the name of the hill is Ryder's who was Ryder? Hemery (1983, p.303) informs us that the hill bears the name of the Ryder Family of Lydia Bridge near South Brent and has done so since the eighteenth century. The first mention of the hill is in the perambulation of 1240 when it was listed as Battyshull and also as Gnatteshulle in Buckfast cartulary. A later perambulation of 1608 it had changed to Knattleburroughe. Glover et al. (1992, p.197) considers that the 'Gnat' element is a personal name of medieval origin, however Clark Hall (2004, p.157) lists gnæt as an Anglo Saxon word for midge. So the early name either means 'the hill owned by Gnat' or the 'hill of midges', there are also two more hills about 3 miles to the west known as Great and Little Gnats Head. The 1608 name, Knattleburroughe refers to the cairn on the hill (burrow or borough on the moor are local names for cairns) thus meaning the 'borough on Gnats'.

It is said that on a fine day you can see Portland in Dorset and The Lizard Point in Cornwall from Ryder's Hill. Every time I have been up there I could hardly see the trig never mind The Lizard it was so misty so I can't comment. But Hemery (p. 303) confirms that he has seen Portland but only as far into Cornwall as Mevagissey Bay, suffice it to say you can see for a long way.

But as always there has been a bit of jiggery-pokery going on and it concerns a missing boundstone. Crossing (1990 p.362) describes the hilltop as having two stones, a roughly cut one, two feet tall and inscribed with a 'H' known as Petre-on-the-Mount. The other stone was more carefully made and stood at four feet high with an inscribed 'B' known as  Petre's Bound Stone. Early thinking then suggested that the Ordnance Survey came along on stuck the trig point over the smaller boundstone which Crossing called Petre's Boundstone.

Bibliography.

Clark Hall, J. R. 2004 A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Univ. Toronto Press, London.

Crossing, W. 1990 Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor, Peninsula Press, Newton Abbot.

Gover, J.E.B., Mawer, A., & Stenton, F. M. 1992 The Place-Names of Devon, The English Place Name Society, Nottingham.

Hemery, E. 1983 High Dartmoor, Hale, London.