“I was reading your “Satan & the Holy Cross” page, which I found quite entertaining. You did mention “White Jelly fungus” which is sometimes found on Dartmoor. I have sometimes come across this substance on Dartmoor, and wondered what it is. The stuff I have seen,  which looks just like …

“I coulde never learne an Englishe name for it. The Duche men call it in Netherlande, spilboome, that is, spindel-tree, because they use to make spindels of it in that country, and me thynke it may be as well named in English seying we have no other name.” – William …

If by the 10th the snowdrops are out. More snow throughout the month without a doubt. It is quite fitting that I write this page on the 2nd of February as this is Candlemas Day which was/is strongly associated with the first snowdrops of the year appearing. At some of …

Sonnet to the Lark on Dartmoor Sweet soaring minstrel of the wild, I hear The pleasing music of thy tuneful throat, As welcome o’er the desert to mine ear, As to benighted hinds the matin note. I thank thee, warbler, for thy cheering lay, But why in such a barren …

“Another rare thing, lingering in caves and deserted mine adits, is the shining moss, that glimmers like dim gold under darkness. Those who snatch at it and bring it to the daylight find only a little rusty earth in their hands”. Eden Phillpotts – A Shadow Passes If ever you …

The Shepherd’s Sundial is probably better known as the tiny flower called the Scarlet Pimpernel.  This plant is classed as a weed and is often found in the hedgerows and fields of the lower moorland fringes. It was often called the Shepherd’s Sundial by the moorfolk because it was a …

It is thought that sheep have been a part of the Dartmoor landscape since prehistoric times, in fact some say that the native Dartmoor breeds were descended from the Iron Age Soay sheep. There is certainly evidence that by the late 13th century Dartmoor was a wool producing area. Around …

  “The great, solitary rowan-tree did much good, for it gave a welcome shade to the cattle and the traveller ; it broke the line of the level fiat gratefully, it offered pleasure to the eye at bud-break and sparkled with bunches of scarlet fruit in the autumn, which both …

…’Tis said that here The Druid wander’d. Haply have these hills With shouts ferocious, and the mingled shriek, Resounded, when to Jupiter upflam’d The human hecatomb*. The frantic seer Here built his sacred circle; for he loved To worship on the mountains breast sublime – The earth his altar, and …

As always nothing is simple on Dartmoor and the distinction between a tor and rocks is one such example. The term ‘rocks’ can be used in two separate ways when alluding to granite outcrops. Firstly there are the instances where the term ‘rocks is used as a place-name suffix. In …