Wistman's Wood, Dartmoor

The name 'Wistman' derives from the local word wisht which has supernatural connotations, as in eerie or wraithlike.
It is true that there are few trees on the high moors save for some hardy specimens that have managed to take hold in sheltered spots. However, in three special places there are some of the most beautifully surreal woodlands I have ever seen.The sparsity of woodland on the moor is mostly due to human activity thousands of years ago, clearing the trees for agriculture. By burning the trees these early settlers unwittingly created the acid peat bogs we see today. This in turn made the moor unsuitable for crops and the area was depopulated until mining brought people back to moor centuries later. However in three small areas the trees survive, protected from grazing and wind by clefts in the land. Wistman's Wood is perhaps the most famous of these, which I first came across in Archie Miles' excellent book 'Silva' a few years ago.
I was led to believe the wood was a hidden copse on the river Dart, which few people would scramble over moorland to see, so I was surprised to find it clearly sign-posted from a handy car park a short walk down a well trodden footpath. My disappointment was short lived once I found my way into the wood.
In passing Wistman's Wood you could be forgiven for taking little notice of the unprepossessing nature and stature of the trees. Delving into the copse and you see that the roots of the trees writhe and intertwine over granite boulders ('clitter') while being thickly covered with the rarest of lichens, mosses and liverworts. The stunted, contorted trunks lead to bowers that drip with ferns. Certainly you get a feeling of immense age amongst these small Pendunulate Oaks (Quercus robur) and arborists estimate some specimens to be at least a thousand years old.
I thought perhaps that the very rarity of Wistman's Wood was in itself what made it special and a magnet for visitors, a shelter amongst the bleakness, but I realised that this is just one aspect of the wood. It is as if the spirit of vast tracts of woodland over Dartmoor have been distilled into a tiny, singular place; the very essence of what moorland is not, a contrast, though very much a part of the whole landscape. Through this device a designer can find inspiration, crystallising an idea into its very antithesis and yet make it fit seamlessly into the completed design.