Wistman’s Wood, one of three precious fragments of native woodland dating back to 7000BC that once covered much of Dartmoor, is no exception. It occupies the sheltered, south-west facing slopes of the valley of the West Dart River and is split into three distinct groves of predominately Oak with the occasional rowan, and the odd holly, hawthorn, hazel, and willow. It owes its survivability to its inaccessibility to grazing animals such as the Dartmoor Pony and man's axe. Where rich brown earth soils washed down from the Tor’s above have become trapped among the inaccessible granite boulders to create a unique eco-system.
An alternative explanation is that it was a sacred grove planted by Druids. The Buller Stone, a boulder to the east of the wood, which commemorates an attempt in 1866 to date the trees, is also said to be the druids alter. One local belief holds that if you carry an acorn from the Druid’s Grove it will protect from rheumatism.
Some writers have even gone so far to claim this is the most “the most haunted place on Dartmoor”.
Crockern tor for example is said to be the home of ‘Old Crockern’ the ancient pagan spirit of Darmoor. A spectral phantom who rides out across the moor on a skeletal horse with his fearsome Whist hounds in search of human souls. The Whist hounds, not unlike the fearsome red-eyed hell hounds of many other legends, are said to emerge from their kennels in the trees Wistman’s Wood at the dead of night.
The wood is also a stronghold of Britain’s only poisonous snake, the adder. It’s claimed Wistman’s adders are the most venomous on Dartmoor and more lurid legends suggest a host of theses deadly adders can be seen slithering over its rocks in search of unwary victims. Jumbo a small terrier is reputed to have once fell victim to them while chasing rabbits amongst the boulders. Today it’s said you can see his ghostly form chasing rabbits through the trees as his plaintive cries echo across the valley.
Just north of Wistman’s Wood and Longaford Tor is a Lynch or Coffin Way used in medieval times to transport the dead across the moor from small isolated communities to Church for Burial. A ghostly procession of monastic looking men dressed in white habits slowly walking past Wistman's wood in sombre silence is reputed to haunt this section of the way. While Longaford tor, where a shepherd once met an untimely demise, is haunted by a band of phantom foxes that can be heard on and around the tor in the week before Christmas.
Whatever the truth, these legends have doubtlessly played a part in preserving the wood from the hand of man, which today is Site of Special Scientific Interest and managed by the Duchy of Cornwall under a nature reserve agreement with Nature Conservancy Council, English Nature and Natural England. It is not immune however from human influence.
Back in 7000BC when the human population of planet was no more than 5 million, humans were just beginning to make the transition from small bands of hunter-gathers to settled agricultural societies. It’s said the carbon released from clearing land for agriculture was sufficient to stop the Earth entering a new ice-age that may well have swept away Dartmoor’s forest and humans!
In the 1500’s, to which the current generation of trees mostly date, Henry VIII was monarch and the population of England and Wales just 2.25m. In 1620 these old trees were described as "no taller than a man may touch to top with his head". During the 20th Century, with the onset of global warming from the industrial revolution, the trees have doubled in height. A new generation of mostly straight-grown, single-stemmed oaks emerging, as opposed to the older generation of stunted/semi-prostrate trees, with the wood roughly doubling in size since 1900.
Who knows what new stories it might have to tell in the future?