| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
 | |
  Location within Devon | |
| Location | Devon |
|---|---|
| Grid reference | SX612774 |
| Coordinates | 50°34′37″N3°57′40″W / 50.577°N 3.961°W |
| Interest | Biological |
| Area | 3.5 hectares (8.6 acres) |
| Notification | 1964 |
| Location map | English Nature |
Wistman's Wood is one of three remote high-altitude oakwoods on Dartmoor in Devon, England.
The wood lies at an altitude of 380–410 metres (1,250–1,350 ft) in the valley of the West Dart River near Two Bridges, [1] at grid reference SX612772. [2]
The source of the Devonport Leat, at a weir on the West Dart River, is just north of the wood. [3]
The wood is one of the highest oakwoods in Britain and, as an outstanding example of native upland oak woodland, was selected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1964. [2] It is also an NCR site and forms part of the Wistman's Wood National Nature Reserve. The wood was also one of the primary reasons for selection of the Dartmoor Special Area of Conservation. [4]
The other two high-altitude oakwoods of Dartmoor are Black Tor Copse on the West Okement River in the north, and Piles Copse on the River Erme in the south. [5] [6]
The wood is split into three main blocks (North, Middle, and South Groves or Woods), which in total cover about 3.5 hectares (8.6 acres). [1] These occupy the sheltered, south-west facing slope of the valley, where a bank of large granite boulders ("clatter") is exposed, and pockets of acidic, free-draining, brown earth soils have accumulated. Additional copses of scrub extend beyond the main body of the wood, suggesting that it originally extended over the entirety of the clatter deposits on the hillside. In the present day, the clatter outside of the main wood is covered in bracken, bilberry, and occasional gorse. [7]
Wistman's Wood is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall [1] and has been managed since 1961 under a nature reserve agreement with the Nature Conservancy Council, English Nature and Natural England. The wood has no active management, but many people visit the site on foot (mostly accessing the southern end of South Wood), and cattle and sheep have free access where the terrain permits, outside of a small fenced exclosure in South Wood.[ citation needed ]
The trees within the wood are mainly pedunculate oak, with occasional rowan, and a very few holly, hawthorn, hazel, and eared-willow. [1] The oaks are distinguished by their dwarf habit, and rarely reach more than 4.5 metres (15 ft) in overall vertical height. The trees also developed highly contorted forms with procumbent trunks, and their main branches tend to lie on or between the rocks on the forest floor. A few trees reach from 6 to 7.6 metres (20 to 25 ft) in height; these also tend to have more vertical trunks and spread crowns. [7]
Tree branches are characteristically festooned with a variety of epiphytic mosses and lichens and, sometimes, by grazing-sensitive species such as bilberry and polypody. [1] The horizontal habit of the trunks and limbs allows organic debris and humus to accumulate on them, favoring extensive growth of epiphytic vascular plants. These occur in much greater variety than in other British woodlands; in addition to polypody, which is the most common recorded epiphyte, and bilberry, these include many of the same species found on the forest floor. [7]
On the ground, boulders are usually covered by lichens and mossy patches – frequent species include Dicranum scoparium , Hypotrachyna laevigata, Rhytidiadelphus loreus and Sphaerophorus globosus – and, where soil has accumulated, patches of acid grassland grow with heath bedstraw, tormentil and sorrel. In places protected from livestock, grazing-sensitive plants such as wood sorrel, bilberry, wood rush and bramble occur. A fringe of bracken surrounds much of the wood, demarcating the extent of brown earth soils. [1] The wood supports approximately 120 species of lichen. [8]
Wistman's Wood has been mentioned in writing for hundreds of years. It is likely to be a left-over from the ancient forest that covered much of Dartmoor c. 7000 BCE, before Mesolithic hunter/gatherers cleared it around 5000 BCE. [1] Photographic and other records show that Wistman's Wood has changed considerably since the mid-19th century; at the same time climatic conditions have also generally become warmer. [9] [10] Over this period, the older oak trees have grown from a stunted/semi-prostrate to a more ascending form, while a new generation of mostly straight-grown and single-stemmed oaks has developed. The oldest oaks appear to be 400–500 years old, and originated within a degenerating oakwood that survived in scrub form during two centuries of cold climate. [1] In c. 1620, these old trees were described as "no taller than a man may touch to top with his head". Tree height increased somewhat by the mid-19th century, and during the 20th century approximately doubled (in 1997 the maximum and average height of trees was around 12 m (39 ft) and 7 m (23 ft) respectively). [10] In addition, a wave of marginal new oaks arose after c. 1900, roughly doubling the area of wood. Part of the evidence for these changes comes from a permanent vegetation plot located in the southern end of South Wood. This is the oldest known of its kind in British woodland, with a small part having been recorded by R. Hansford Worth in 1921. [11]
The Buller Stone, a boulder to the east of the wood, commemorates an attempt in 1866 to date the trees, when Wentworth Buller (with permission from the Duchy) felled an oak, which was estimated to be close to 168 years old. [1]
The wood has been the inspiration for numerous artists, poets, and photographers. It appears in hundreds of 19th-century accounts. One tradition holds that it was planted by Isabella de Fortibus (1237–93). [1]
The wood is described in detail and discussed as a point of great interest in The Tree (1978), an essay on naturalism by English novelist John Fowles. [12]
The name of Wistman's Wood may derive from the dialect word "wisht", meaning "eerie/uncanny" [13] or "pixie-led/haunted". [14] The legendary Wild Hunt in Devon, whose hellhounds are known as Yeth (Heath) or Wisht Hounds in the Devonshire dialect, is particularly associated with Wistman's Wood. [15]
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers 954 km2 (368 sq mi).
Quercus kelloggii, the California black oak or Kellogg oak, is an oak in the red oak section native to western North America. Although genetically separated from them for more than 20 million years, its leaves are remarkably similar in appearance to several other members of the red oak section including the red oak and the black oak found in eastern and central North America.
The Devonport Leat is a leat in Devon constructed in the 1790s to carry fresh drinking water from the high ground of Dartmoor to the expanding dockyards at Plymouth Dock.
Grimspound is a late Bronze Age settlement, situated on Dartmoor in Devon, England. It consists of a set of 24 hut circles surrounded by a low stone wall. The name was first recorded by the Reverend Richard Polwhele in 1797; it was probably derived from the Anglo-Saxon god of war, Grim.
In the United Kingdom, ancient woodland is that which has existed continuously since 1600 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Planting of woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 1600 is likely to have developed naturally.
Golden Cap is a hill and cliff situated on the English Channel coast between Bridport and Charmouth in Dorset, England. At 191 metres (627 ft), it is arguably the highest point near the south coast of Great Britain and is visible for tens of miles along the coastline. It is accessible via a coastal footpath from Seatown, and takes around 40 minutes to reach the summit.
Killarney National Park, near the town of Killarney, County Kerry, was the first national park in Ireland, created when the Muckross Estate was donated to the Irish Free State in 1932. The park has since been substantially expanded and encompasses over 102.89 km2 of diverse ecology, including the Lakes of Killarney, oak and yew woodlands of international importance, and mountain peaks. It has the only red deer herd on mainland Ireland and the most extensive covering of native forest remaining in Ireland. The park is of high ecological value because of the quality, diversity, and extensiveness of many of its habitats and the wide variety of species that they accommodate, some of which are rare. The park was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1981. The park forms part of a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area.
Savernake Forest stands on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately 4,500 acres.
Isabel de Forz was the eldest daughter of Baldwin de Redvers, 6th Earl of Devon (1217–1245). On the death of her brother Baldwin de Redvers, 7th Earl of Devon, in 1262, without children, she inherited suo jure the earldom and also the feudal barony of Plympton in Devon, and the lordship of the Isle of Wight. After the early death of her husband and her brother, before she was thirty years old, she inherited their estates and became one of the richest women in England, living mainly in Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, which she held from the king as tenant-in-chief.
The Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway (P&DR) was a 4 ft 6 in gauge railway built to improve the economy of moorland areas around Princetown in Devon, England. Independent carriers operated horse-drawn wagons and paid the company a toll. It opened in 1823, and a number of short branches were built in the next few years.
Okehampton Hamlets is a civil parish in the Borough of West Devon and the English county of Devon, it runs independently from the Okehampton Town Council, meetings are held at the Meldon Village Hall.
Dendles Wood is an area of protected oak-beech woodland located on the southern edge of Dartmoor, in the English county of Devon. Forming part of the Dartmoor Special Area of Conservation, the wood is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and 30 hectares of it has been designated a national nature reserve. It is one of five woodlands within Dartmoor that have been protected as national nature reserves. Dendles Wood and the adjacent Hawns Wood are sometimes known collectively as Hawns and Dendles. The wood supports a variety of flora and fauna, representative of upland oakwoods. In particular, it has a rich variety of moss and lichen, and several breeding bird species.
Dizzard is an area, in the civil parish of St Gennys, Cornwall, containing five farms. On the coast is Dizzard Point, and the unique, dwarf oak, Dizzard Wood, which is of international importance for its lichen communities.
Boscastle to Widemouth is a coastal Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Cornwall, England, noted for its biological and geological characteristics. The Dizzard dwarf oak woodland is unique and of international importance for its lichen communities, with 131 species recorded.
Michael Charles Faraday Proctor PhD was an English botanist and plant ecologist, lecturer, scientific author based at the University of Exeter. He retired from his post as Reader in Plant Ecology at Exeter University in 1994.
Celtic Rainforest is a colloquial term which refers to the temperate rainforest of Ireland and Great Britain. These woodlands are also variously referred to as Atlantic rainforest, Upland Oakwoods, Atlantic Oakwoods or Western Oakwoods. Today, the Celtic Rainforest exists as small fragments of the temperate rainforest that once covered much of Ireland and the west coast of Great Britain. The majority of these fragments occur on steep-sided slopes above rivers and lakes which have avoided clearance and intensive grazing pressure. There are notable examples in Ireland especially along its western coast, including the Beara Rainforest in West Cork, the Great Forest of Aughty in Clare and Galway, Oldhead Wood in Mayo and Ardnamona Wood and Glenveagh in Donegal. In Scotland, rainforest exists on the islands and shores of Loch Maree, Loch Sunart, Loch Lomond, and one of the best preserved sites on the remote Taynish Peninsula in Argyll. In Wales, they occur on steep-sided riverine gorges in Snowdonia and Mid Wales. In England, there are examples in the Lake District, and steep-sided riverine and estuarine valleys in South West England, including the Fowey valley in Cornwall, and the valley of the river Dart which flows off Dartmoor, and has rainfall in excess of 2 metres per year.
Briarwood Banks is the name given to a woodland Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in north Northumberland, North East England. Composed mainly of elm, oak and ash, the site is semi-natural and now recovering from the removal of planted conifers.
Pillar and Ennerdale Fells is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Ennerdale, Cumbria, England. Protected for its biological interest, the site is named after Pillar, which at 892 metres (2,927 ft) is the eighth-highest mountain in the Lake District, and other fells in the same range. The area is 425.25 ha.
