Thirty DPA and Devon Wildlife Trust volunteers gathered at Pudsham Meadows for the annual orchid count on 13th June.  The weather and the flowering season were in our favour this year.   Pairs and small groups each surveyed one species in one field.       We came up with the grand total of 3664…

On Friday 25th May, under a sky of mostly white cloud, eighteen of us met at Pork Hill car park to walk over Barn Hill, down to Windy Post, over Feather Tor and its quarrying artefacts, on to Pew (Pu) Tor and its stone workers’ “keep out” markers. Then, to Heckwood Tor Quarry and on to see…

We were so lucky.   6th May was hot and sunny with clear views over the north of Dartmoor.  14  walkers left the car park by the house that used to be the Rising Sun pub, on the old A30 near South Zeal.    The first stop was the chimney which had served Ramsley Mine until the…

The DPA monthly short walks seem to come around quite quickly. On Wednesday morning, 25th April, twenty-four of us met at Swallerton Gate car park to set off at 10 o’clock.  While enjoying the conviviality of the occasion, having arrived over half an hour early, I suddenly realised 10 am had passed!   Our first…

On Sunday 25th March, 38 DPA members and non-members met at Four Winds car park for the walk to Great Mis Tor. The weather was as favourable as any of us could have wished for. Many of the photographs below were taken on a reconnoitring mission in good weather a few days after the March snow and…

Despite a weather forecast the night before of continuous heavy rain seven brave souls turned up for the work party at Pudsham Meadows.  Two redundant sheds and some old fencing were removed.  Derek Collins who had to oversee operations from the APY wagon due to temporary incapacity said “sheds and fence seemed to evaporate before…

Twenty-eight members and friends met in the main car park at Postbridge on Sunday 25th Feb. for a walk through the antiquities on Lakehead Hill and out to Bellever Tor. The weather was forecast the previous day to be cloudy with the temperature at 0 °C “feeling like -6 °C. In the event there was blue…

Common Wood: part 13 – this item from the CampaignerKate Blog It was a misty morning on Mon. 19 February, but that did not deter the Dartmoor Preservation Association conservation volunteers.  Fourteen of us came on the workday at Common Wood, my common near Horndon on Dartmoor which we are managing for fritillary butterflies.  Megan…

On February 15th seventeen volunteers spent a day working on Mardon Down. We split up into several groups: one group completed the clearance of a T shaped reeve on the summit of the Down that had been identified by archaeologist Phil Newman another group re-cleared slit trenches dating from the American army camp at Mardon…

On Thursday 25th January, the Short Walks group met at Bal Mine car park, Norsworthy Bridge, with some belated “Happy New Years” being exchanged. For once, since the turn of the year, the weather was quite fine although there was a short hail shower near the end of the walk.     The first photograph…