Dartmoor
“Over the green squares of the fields and the low curves of a wood there rose in the distance a grey, melancholy hill, with a strange jagged summit, dim and vague in the distance like some fantastic landscape in a dream. Baskerville sat for a long time, his gaze fixed upon it, and I read upon his eager face how much it meant to him, this first sight of that strange spot where the men of his blood had held sway so long and left their mark so deep.”
“I have never before, in my long and eclectic career, been gifted with such an abundance of natural beauty as I experienced filming War Horse on Dartmoor.”
Today we hiked through Dartmoor National Park in Devonshire. Dartmoor National Park is recognised as one of the UK's finest landscapes. Dartmoor’s moorland core is the largest open moor in southern England and a place of remoteness and tranquillity.
Dartmoor’s landscape has inspired many writers, poets, and painters over the centuries, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Hound of the Baskervilles which is set against Dartmoor’s dark and brooding landscape. More recently Steven Spielberg set his film War Horse in the vast and spectacular Dartmoor landscape.
Wistman’s Wood
This site takes its name from a small oak wood. This amazing woodland is important for the mosses and lichens that festoon the trees and the impressive granite boulders found on the site.
Wild horses along the way.
The appeal of the wood is due to the combination of the jumbled granite boulders (known as clatter), the contorted ancient trees, and the great variety of mosses, lichens, ferns, and other plants that also inhabit the groves, often forming thick mats on the branches of the still living trees and covering nearly all of the ground and the boulders.
Looking down on the grove.
The West Dart River just below the Wood.
On our way back, Westman’s Wood in the background.
More wild horses
A tor is a large, free-standing rock outcrop that rises abruptly from the surrounding smooth and gentle slopes of a rounded hill summit or ridge crest. The term is commonly also used for the hills themselves, particularly the high points.
Bellever Tor behind us…nearly there.
Endless views over Dartmoor from Bellever Tor.
Soak it in
Such interesting rock formations.
Hmm…those clouds look a little dark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an5TeXyBe2o
Warren House Inn
After 7.5 miles of hiking, we earned a pint in this amazing little pub at a summit in the road inside the park.
The Warren House Inn stands isolated and remote, high on Dartmoor. At 1,425ft above sea level, it is the highest Inn in Southern England and also said to be the loneliest. Originally built to serve the busy local tin mining community, the Inn was always a favorite resort with miners from neighboring tin mines.
The name Warren relates back to the surrounding rabbit warrens which were extensive in the area and presumably a major part of the miner’s and local’s diets. The sign above the front door is of three rabbits chasing each other.
Well…I had a pint…Amanda had a nice hot cuppa! 🫖 ☕️
Love the smell of an oak wood fire!
Such a charming interior.
No beer between 3:00 pm to 5:30 pm, and no beer on Sundays, Christmas, and Good Friday!
