Flora And Fauna

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 …

There is currently a modicum of debate in the archaeological world with regards to the question of art and how early it came to Britain. Linked with this discussion there are also those who have found what they consider to be examples of what only could be described as ‘prehistoric …

“A dog is for life, not Christmas”, is a well known saying and similarly you could say, “A robin is all year, not just Christmas”. Walk through a wood on a cold, dank and drear winter’s day and the chances are that somewhere ‘Robin Redbreast’ will be optimistically trilling away …

Ode to a Pair of Ring-Ouzels A deep and solemn silence broods Over the breezy solitudes Whereon the mountaineer intrudes To crown a summer climb: The soaring lark, a dreamy bee, A pipit twittering from the lea Beguiled the journey, but no glee Disturbs the peak sublime. Yet music haunts …