“Thither, youths, Turn your astonish’d eyes; behold yon huge And unhewn sphere of living adamant, Which, poised by magic, rests its central weight On yonder pointed rock: firm as it seems, Such is the strange and virtuous property, It moves obsequious to the gentlest touch Of him whose breath is …

For anybody who goes letterboxing a visitor’s book will be nothing new but for those who are completely perplexed with the concept of ‘boxing’ this page might make things clearer. Letterbox visitor’s books come in all shapes and sizes but these days normally consist of notebook which is small and …

I often get asked how to become a Dartmoor Letterboxer, especially how to go about actually putting a box of your own out on the moor. This page explains how to do this from inception to completion using the example of an actual letterbox of mine that is due to …

If you walk Dartmoor then sometime you are sure to encounter either a Dartmoor letterbox or Dartmoor letterboxers. The former will probably be the discovery of a small plastic pill pot hidden under a boulder and the latter will be a group of people huddled around a rock with an …

When walking on Dartmoor it won’t take very long to come across a leat, in the modern landscape it may appear as a gently flowing channel of water or simply as a shallow, dry ditch. Nobody to my knowledge has been brave enough to estimate the miles of leats that …

There are many ‘lakes’ on Dartmoor, in fact so many that one could be forgiven for thinking that perhaps it should have been known as the Lake District. But as always things on the moor or not always as they seem, certainly in the case of the ‘lakes’ or when …

Junket is the dish of Devon, A better dish is hard to find, This is everyone’s opinion, Excepting those who’re out of mind. To mention ‘clouted’ cream without junket is akin to fish without chips, and I can only too well remember the Sunday ‘junkit’ and ‘craime’. Sadly one seldom …

As with any remote upland area the horse and pony have played a vital role in the everyday life of moorfolk, serving as a means of transport and power. Albeit carrying people to and fro, pulling a plough or toting loads across the moor in packhorse trains all was done …

I have heard on occasions that Hog’s Pudding is the ‘Devonshire haggis’ which I find totally incomprehensible. It looks nothing like haggis and it sure as hell tastes nothing like haggis. Granted it is a large sausage and it has some magical ingredients but unlike the haggis they do not …

Not long ago I wrote a webpage on the ‘Archerton Camp‘ and whilst doing the research I found that the prehistoric settlement appeared on the ‘Heritage At Risk Register‘. As I was not sure exactly what this was and what it entailed I dug a little deeper. Around about the …