Dartmoor - Wistman's Wood
Wistman's Wood on the west side of the River Dart in the heart of Dartmoor is one of the most extraordinary and most atmospheric fragments of ancient woodland in Britain, a relic of the original high-level oak woodland that covered Dartmoor after the last Ice Age, the stunted and contorted pedunculate oak trees growing in the shelter of the granite clitter boulders at an altitude where woodland would normally be impossible. The combination of the gnarled trees draped in moss and lichen, the massive granite boulders between which the roots wind and grip and the isolation of the high moor creates a woodland experience unlike any other available in England.
The trees of Wistman's Wood are among the oldest in the British uplands, many estimated to be several hundred years old despite their small size, the combination of altitude, wind exposure and the thin soils between the boulders limiting their growth to a twisted and ancient-seeming form quite unlike the upright oaks of the lowland woodland. The moss and lichen communities on the trees and boulders are among the most diverse and most ancient in the southwest, reflecting the very high atmospheric humidity and clean air of this remote moorland location.
The wood features prominently in Dartmoor folklore as a place of dark character, associated with the Wild Hunt and with supernatural occurrences in a way that reflects the human response to a woodland of genuinely unusual and rather sinister aspect. The walk across the open moor from the Two Bridges road to the wood takes approximately thirty minutes and the sense of arrival at this unexpected and otherworldly place after the open moorland crossing is one of the finest natural heritage experiences on Dartmoor.