Wistmans wood

"Scarce hoarier seems the ancient Wood

Whose shivered trunks of age declare

What scath of tempests they have stood

In the rock's crevice rooted there;

Yet still young foliage, fresh and fair,

Springs forth each mossy bough to dress,

And bid e'en Dartmoor's valleys share

A Forest-wilderness".

Sophie Dixon -1829.

It is like going on a little pilgrimage when visiting Wistmans wood on Dartmoor and things don't feel fight if it hasn't been done for a while. It changes so much with every season. In summer the paths are crossed by sheep and their lambs, the trees are all vividly laden with green.....but everything inside the wood is hidden.

Come in winter and the bare branches enable you to see the lichens and mosses more easily. The wood reveals its secrets.

It can be combined with what we have named 'Rohan' Tor for the full experience. Along the path into Wistmans you can go up on to the nearest tor and take in the view...imagine you are in the land of Tolkiens Rohirrim. In between this tor (properly known as Littaford tor) are ancient settlements and pillow mounds! Pillow mounds are probably a late medieval development. They are low stone mounds which were once covered with earth and used as artificial rabbit warrens.

However, just being near to the ancient trees of Wistmans can be enough to lift the spirits. Enchantingly atmospheric, the eerie silhouettes of these stunted and gnarled oak trees have inspired legend and folklore - and no doubt, fired the imaginations of walkers and photographers who visit as much is written about how "other-worldly" it feels to stroll in this pre-historic forest.

At first the wood seems so far away, a tiny dot on the valley slopes ahead, dwarfed by the tors that sit on the crests of the hills above. But as you get closer things begin to magically change as the wood takes form. At first shadows and light. Then you are drawn in, beckoned into the depths of the wood by outreaching arms, long twisted branches of the ancient oaks, knobbled twigs

curl out to entice you.

And as you enter or glimpse within arches and tunnels watched over by guards and their lichen laden arms you think twice about treading where long the ancients have been.

For millennia this small, mystical, stunted woodland has been held in awe and for many fear. Tales of Druids, ghosts, the Devil and a host of other supernatural creatures abound, some dating back to the long lost ages before man could write.

Legend has it that Wistman's Wood was a sacred grove of the Druid's and it was here that they held rituals at the huge boulder known as 'The Druid's Stone', otherwise called the 'Buller Stone'.

The wood is also said to be the kennels where the diabolical 'Wisht' hounds are kept. These are a pack of fearful hell hounds who hunt across the moors at night in search of lost souls and unwary traveller's.

Near to the northern edge of the wood is the ancient Lych Way or 'Way of the Dead'. It was along this track that the corpses were carried for burial at Lydford. There have been reports of a ghostly

procession of monastic looking men dress

ed in white habits slowly walking by the oak wood in sombre silence.

The lichens and ferns drip from and mimic the curves of these old dwarf oaks. They grow in twisted form around boulders that carpet spaces between the aged trunks. These boulders have fleeces of moss, comforting, soft, deep. Sit a while here on the edges and gaze within and the lichens create veils that hide mysterious shapes and dryads.

I always feel a bit wary of entering this wood.

The boulders make it difficult and the rare mosses and lichens should not be trodden and trampled by the curious, but there is something else that keeps me to its fringes! An unspoken word, a whisper. This ancient place has survived and become what it is only because it has been left alone, untouched. The magic survives because it has been protected. But as I leave I feel it has be noted that I trod carefully and I'll be welcome another day.

Now a conservation project, this small 170 hectares woodland is heavily protected. Natural England and other agencies have accounted for 47 species of moss and 119 types of lichen growing on the twisted branches of the trees and the boulders strewn across the ground. While efforts are being made to gather acorns for replanting this wood and extending its area, it is also hoped that under its current protection as an area of special scientific interest, natural regeneration will encourage new growth and that this wood will, at least in part, be restored to its extensive former glory.