One thing that Devon and therefore Dartmoor are not short of are fields; big ones, little ones, recent ones, prehistoric ones, steep ones, and flat ones, they  surround Dartmoor on all sides. Some are enclosed by hedges whilst others stone, all with the same purpose to delineate boundaries, keep …

“Over this old road very large quantities of peat were formerly annually conveyed on the backs of packhorses, as I have learnt from old men who at one time worked at the turf-ties to which it leads.” Crossing, p. 55. Many moons ago the small moorland village of Peter Tavy …

  A few weeks ago I received the following email from Mike Rhodes: “Dear Tim, Firstly thank you for your excellent website. As a Devonshire lad I have long been fascinated by Dartmoor and reading your material brings back happy memories of stories told while camping for Ten Tors and letterboxing. …

“By the lone fountain’s secret bed’ Where human footsteps rarely tread, ‘Mid the wild moor of silent glen, The sundew blooms unseen by men; Spreads there her leaf of rosy bloom, A chalice for the morning dew, And, ere the summers sun can rise, Drinks the pure waters of the …

Corndon Down was a very special place for the folk who roamed Dartmoor in the Bronze Age, so much so it could have been regarded as a ritual place where they buried their dead. Why? Probably because of the wide ranging vistas that can be seen from the top of …

“One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl and four for a boy,  five for silver, six for gold and seven for a secret never to be told, eight for a wish, nine for a kiss, ten for a bird that’s best to miss.”“ I will bet that …

Curse definition: “A solemn utterance intended to invoke a supernatural power to inflict harm or punishment on someone or something.” So how long have we vengeful humans been cursing? In Britain there is ‘documented’ evidence in the form of curses written on tablets which date back to between the 2nd …

When on holiday most people like to send postcards of places they have visited to their family and friends, either to show where there are or what they have seen, maybe rather cynically even to brag about where they are. Perhaps in this day and age of instant media such …

The Piskies are a happy band, And live right merrily, And only in a pleasant land Are they content to be. For centuries is has been  a known fact that Piskies live on Dartmoor and are famous for their good deeds they perform for true believers. OK, at times they can …

“The quarry lies like a gash in the slope of the hills. To the dizzy edges of it creep heather and the bracken; beneath, upon its precipices, a stout rowan or two arise, and everywhere Natures has fought and laboured to hie this wound driven so deep into her mountain-side …