At the beginning of 2006 there were around 60 wild boar missing from a farm near West Anstey, they had be released by some mindless animal rights protesters. Originally there were 100 wild boars released but locals managed to re-capture 40 of them but the farmer warned at the time …

Vaccinium mrytillus, in Scotland they call it a blaeberry, in Wales it is known as a whimberry, in Devon they talk of whortleberry on Dartmoor ‘tiz a ‘hurt‘. Call it what you want it tastes delicious and it is a chore to pick, you seem to spend hours plucking, squashing …

Dartmoor’s weather has been said to be ‘unpredictable’ but to the moorfolk who know what signs to look out for nothing comes as a surprise. It could be said that the weather can on occasions be split in two forecasts in so much as it could be raining on the …

Fust it rain’d then it blaw’d The it ‘ail’d then it snaw’d Then it com’d a shower o’ rain Then it vreez’d an blaw’d agean. Wet, misty, foggy, windy, cold, and even wetter – all descriptions of Dartmoor’s weather that readily comes to people’s minds. Hardly ever do you hear …

Warts have always been considered as unsightly and associated with old crones and disease. It is therefore no surprise that many folk were keen to rid themselves of wart afflictions by any means possible. As you will see many of the cures are based on the theory that it took …

Recently (June 2009) the dog and I were walking up on Hameldon Ridge the other week, it was a glorious day with the promise of some good hot weather and a typical Dartmoor stroll, which it turned out to be. However, on the way back to the car I could …

Springtime on Dartmoor sees the emergence of the delicate violet, often nestled under a hedgebank alongside the primrose. This sweet scented harbinger of warmer days has for centuries been part of the moorman’s medicine cabinet and lore. The violet is common along the hedgebanks and row of the lower moorland …

“About them stretched square fields, off some of which a harvest of oats had just been shorn; while others were grass green with the sprawling foliage of turnip.” Falcon Farm – Orphan Diana, Eden Phillpotts For anyone that has seen the now famous Warhorse movie they will recall the Dartmoor …

I don’t think I would be far wrong in suggesting that there are very few places on Dartmoor from which a tor of some kind is not visible. This is hardly surprising as it is the literal bedrock of the moor and what we see today are mere vestiges of …

Summer is the time of year when you can return from a day out on Dartmoor and find you have one or more uninvited hitch hikers firmly attached to your person. Depending on how soon you discover them they can appear as a small, spider-like insect or as a reddish …