I think it will look a lot better when its done on printed card but I dont have a colour printer so the end result might be black and white. The Tor has got one side steeper than the other so the height map is correct its just that the base is all at different heights. What I am planning now is to just ignore the base and only cut from a certain height up. At least lets start that way and see how it pans out.
As for the cakes, your right. In about 878AD or something around then we were in the midst of a Viking invasion and they were pushing across the country and were at about a line that cuts Britain from Exeter across up to the North East. The Anglo Saxon King Alfred was holding them back and being pushed back to Somerset where it was all a marsh and had a secret abbey and stronghold in the marshes which had no obvious access.
He gathered up forces in the marshes at this small place called Athelney (where incidentally there is similar, smaller sort of Tor called Burrow Mump) and the story goes he got distracted whist planning the raids that he burnt the cakes in the oven. He set out across Somerset to Wiltshire to a place called Edington and fought the Viking King Guthram and defeated him and captured a few dozen of his top generals. He took them back and as part of the surrender terms forced them to convert to Christianity at a church in a place called Aller which is not too far from the Tor. He then went to his "palace" at Wedmore and Cheddar. The church at Aller still has an Anglo Saxon font which could have been the one used only I am told it is one of three and only one of them survives so its a 33% chance its the one. I must go there and have a look at that one day. There is a monument to Alfred at Athelney only its not on public land so you can take a photo of it but not get up close.
There is a cross at Wedmore in the church yard which celebrates his victory put there in 880's era which looks pretty battered now. In Cheddar there are the remains of the Saxon palace which in the school yard which is itself in front of Cheddar Gorge, the large fissure in the rock which have the famous caves in the depths of them.
I tell you this bit because it is a fact that J.R.R. Tolkien has his honeymoon with Edith in Somerset. Being a professor of Anglo Saxon I imagine he had a lot of interest in the area because of all of this Alfred stuff. In his letters he says that Helms deep is based on the palace at Cheddar and that in the book they retreat back to the stronghold with the caves in the background. In the Jackson films, Helms deep butts up against the caves, but in the book there is like a half a mile from the fortification back to the walled fortress in the rock which matches up much better to Cheddar.
Also incidentally there is a pathway up from Cheddar Gorge to the top of the cliffs where there used to be a tower that had a big fire on it that was lit in times of distress during the first / second world war. I am not certain he nicked that idea from there specifically, but its a good bet. Also the lake around here used to be called Faramere. I think he stole a lot of stuff from this area personally. I have a hunch that the Tor might also be the inspiration for the lonely mountain but that's a bit more speculative. But it does stand out as this big hill across the levels of Somerset and is pretty striking. There is another local story (which predates Tolkien by a large number of years) of a dragon which lives in the hills. Not the Tor specifically but I think around Shepton Mallet area which is about 10 miles East of the Tor. But that story was bound to be known to Tolkien.
EDIT: Just looking up this dragon, its supposed to be in Dinder which is to the East of the Tor but is not nearly as far as Shepton Mallet and is in sight of the Tor. So a dragon was supposed to be around the Tor which is a hill all on its own in the levels. Hmm, the lonely mountain doesn't seem quite so speculative any more.
Anyway, the plan today is cut this:
