Tag Archives: Dartmoor

There is not a finer sound than to be walking on the Dartmoor commons on a summer’s day and to hear the distinctive call of a cuckoo. I have heard hundreds of them but would estimate that I have actually seen about a dozen. This elusiveness is what adds to …

    The Crab Apple Tree (Malus sylvestris) is one of the original ancestors of today’s cultivated apple trees. The twigs of the tree sometimes develop little spines thus taking on a ‘crab-like’ appearance which has led to the idea that this is where its name came from. The Crab …

“The Bluebell is the sweetest flower That waves in summer air: Its blossoms have the mightiest power To soothe my spirit’s care.” Emily Bronte In 2002 the English Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) was voted Britain’s most popular flower and so was adopted as the national flower of Britain. As with most …

“Oh, yet, ye solemn Altars! while I feel The shadowy spells of power that round ye dwell.” J. E. Reade -1843 “On the left within a farm enclosure is Bel Tor, which although only a small pile, is sufficiently interesting to call for notice. A gate in the wall will …

If you consider the amount written about adders or ‘long cripples’ as they are called on Dartmoor it would be possible to imagine that the place is literally crawling with them, that is not the case anymore. There are many walkers that despite years of tramping the moors have never …

In the summer of 1975 a group of archaeologists from Exeter University were excavating the remains of an old blowing house high up the Walkham Valley. Having located the feature an excavation trench was dug and a possible leat was found. To enable the full extent of its course to …

“Fire sent forth great clouds of smoke upon the waste, wind running ripples of flame crept along before the wind. Behind them extended a gloomy mantle of ash and char; before them streamed their banners of smoke. These spring fires, or “swaleings,” had been deliberately lighted that furze and heather …

Many sources state that the rabbit was not an original native of Britain and that they were introduced by the Normans. There are now several reports that this was not so and perhaps re-introduced should be the correct term. Archaeological excavations at Boxgrove in West Sussex revealed rabbit remains that …

One thing Dartmoor is not short of is walls and another thing is stone with which to build them, there must be literally hundreds of miles of walling across the moor. It is also surprising how deep into remote areas the walls extend and are a true testament to the …

“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 …