Landscape pro Neil Burnell teaches our reader to tame the gnarled trees of an ancient woodland
Dartmoor is an area of England steeped in legend. The national park is supposedly home to pixies, ghosts and the famed Dartmoor Beast. It’s the setting of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles and its history is peppered with tales of witchcraft. But a small oak wood with its distinctive gnarled trees and mossy rocks stands out as the moorland’s most eerie place.
Wistman’s Wood is said to be home to a pack of bloodthirsty hellhounds, the spectre of an unfortunate terrier and the site of many a blood ritual. There’s more to this unique woodland than just spooks and scary tales, though. It’s thought to be a remnant of the ancient forests that once covered the land and houses a species of lichen that can only be found in one other place in the whole of Britain.
