Wistman's Wood, Dartmoor: Grove of the Druids.

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  • Опубліковано 13 вер 2020
  • The best way to describe Wistman's Wood is that it resembles a moss-covered rock garden shrouded in contorted and grotesquely shaped overgrown Bonsai trees, which are also covered in moss. Situated almost in the centre of Dartmoor, in Devon, near a place named 'Two Bridges', a few miles east of Princetown. When we arrived in 'Two Bridges' the whole area was shrouded in thick fog, with visibility down to less than one hundred feet. As a consequence I had to film the intro scenes when we came back, as the sun had finally broke through. Wistman's Wood has to be reached on foot using a footpath, which starts off directly opposite the 'Two Bridges Hotel'. This path runs for almost two miles across the moors, which was quite an eerie experience in thick fog! Wistman's Wood is an enchanting place where, legend has it, the ancient Druids frequented. There are several prehistoric settlement sites in the vicinity. There are no footpaths inside Wistman's Wood so walking around entails scrambling over slippery moss-covered rocks and boulders, so sensible strong footwear is advised. There is also a small car park opposite the hotel where visitors can park.
    Music licensed through Artlist.

КОМЕНТАРІ • 68

  • @T4TipsGuides
    @T4TipsGuides 2 місяці тому +1

    An advert popping up 90 seconds in really added to mystical vibe. 😂

  • @weatherwitchandfelinefamiliars

    Absolutely glorious, thank you so much for filming this and doing it so magically as well ❤

  • @alcatraz3539
    @alcatraz3539 7 місяців тому +5

    Fantastic filming of a truly fantastic place!

  • @downinthemuff
    @downinthemuff 3 роки тому +12

    Live quite near Wistmans wood, such an amazing place, has an atmosphere like nowhere else.

    • @arcadia449
      @arcadia449  3 роки тому +2

      I lived in Ashburton back in the early 1960's. Loved it around Dartmoor.

    • @rayswoop4947
      @rayswoop4947 9 місяців тому

      God, what a magnificent blessing to be able to see this beautiful, enigmatic place in person....I'm from across the pond lol hope to see this magical place one day.

    • @Sean2002FU
      @Sean2002FU 5 місяців тому +1

      ​@@arcadia449 I know this is an old video, but I could not help myself....In 1992, I was a young Marine stationed at RAF St Mawgan. When we did our field exercises we often went to Dartmoor. What a beautiful and history laden place!! We were doing land navigation near Prince Town and we got lost on the moors. After many hours, we ( myself and another) came across a paved, yet narrow road ...we decided to go right. Lucky for us, it eventually led to Prince Town. There is a pub there in the main round about, we walked in with our weapons asking if we could use the phone...Everyone was looking at us like we were an alien species, quite funny looking back....
      One of these years I'm going to fly back across the pond and spend a week or so in Dartmoor......The subject of this video is indeed a beautiful place, again ,swamped in history!! THANK YOU for this video, it brought back many memories! 😊

    • @arcadia449
      @arcadia449  5 місяців тому

      @@Sean2002FU Thank you, Sean. When I was a kid I lived in Ashburton, just on the edge of Dartmoor.

  • @combatduckie
    @combatduckie 2 роки тому +2

    what a beautiful scenery....

  • @MrSpoonage
    @MrSpoonage Рік тому +1

    What a beautiful place. Absolutely breathtaking. We love Devon so much and makesure we take the kids there every year. Thank you for sharing, as this is now on our never ending list of things to do.

    • @arcadia449
      @arcadia449  Рік тому

      It's well worth the walk to get there.

  • @clarehatcher760
    @clarehatcher760 8 місяців тому +2

    Lovely ! Thanks for posting. I feel like I've been there!

    • @arcadia449
      @arcadia449  8 місяців тому +1

      Go there for real. It's amazing, but please don't climb over the rocks like some people do.

  • @lynniejenkins2079
    @lynniejenkins2079 3 роки тому +3

    Many faery folk live here. Go carefully, silently and with respect.

  • @ChrisLonsdale67
    @ChrisLonsdale67 3 роки тому +2

    Went there on a school field trip in, I think, 1984. Still remember it vividly. Magical place.

    • @arcadia449
      @arcadia449  3 роки тому

      I lived in Ashburton, not far away, back in the 1960's.

  • @luv2luv720
    @luv2luv720 2 роки тому +5

    What a beautiful walk! Thank you for sharing the web also. I Love Everything about nature. Would really enjoy to walk where the druids also did! Edit: I typed to soon! Wow! It is beautiful there. I definitely would've had my feet bare feeling the soft moss! I'm so glad I found your video! The music with it is perfect! Sorry about all the exclamation but it's Breathtakingly Beautiful

    • @arcadia449
      @arcadia449  2 роки тому

      If you ever go to Devon it's worth a visit.

  • @drealidia
    @drealidia 2 роки тому +1

    This is absolutely magical; thank you for this!

    • @arcadia449
      @arcadia449  2 роки тому +1

      It's well worth a visit.

    • @drealidia
      @drealidia 2 роки тому +1

      It’s on my bucket list. I live in the US but England has always been my number one place to visit in my lifetime. Some day..

  • @joyglasspool7493
    @joyglasspool7493 Рік тому +3

    Lovely footage, beautifully edited.

  • @davidmorgan984
    @davidmorgan984 3 роки тому +5

    So beautiful moss covered rocks, amazing video. Background music is so relaxing as usual. There is no commentary I miss your informative description in this video. Although it's a beautiful video, I like most the village videos as you uploaded earlier in Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. I'm waiting again another beautiful video of plane fields and villages. Keep entertaining.

  • @trashmammal4986
    @trashmammal4986 3 роки тому +2

    it's so beautiful and eerie, one day i'll visit for sure!!

    • @arcadia449
      @arcadia449  3 роки тому

      The fog really added to the atmosphere that day.

  • @Wotsitorlabart
    @Wotsitorlabart 10 місяців тому +1

    'Legend has it the ancient Druids frequented Wistman's Wood'.
    Or probably not.

    • @arcadia449
      @arcadia449  10 місяців тому

      I would imagine there were many places on Dartmoor frequented by Druids?

    • @Wotsitorlabart
      @Wotsitorlabart 10 місяців тому +1

      ​@@arcadia449
      Supposedly.
      I doubt there's hardly a rock formation on Dartmoor that doesn't go by the name of 'Druids' this' or 'Druids' that'.

  • @viktoria7939
    @viktoria7939 3 роки тому +3

    Very mystical place

    • @arcadia449
      @arcadia449  3 роки тому

      It has a great atmosphere when it's misty.

  • @scorpio19771111
    @scorpio19771111 2 роки тому +1

    Magick!

  • @Dainjamouth
    @Dainjamouth 2 місяці тому

    Nice

  • @lindadobson9854
    @lindadobson9854 3 роки тому +4

    Wish I was there. No covid there!

    • @arcadia449
      @arcadia449  3 роки тому +1

      That's right. Not much down that part of the country.

  • @hell0hkitty
    @hell0hkitty 3 роки тому +1

    Hauntingly beautiful! Where are the elves?

  • @OliverHollingdale
    @OliverHollingdale 2 роки тому +1

    we are doing a short film, is it far to walk to get to the woods say from a carpark?

    • @arcadia449
      @arcadia449  2 роки тому

      It's about 1 mile from the parking area.

  • @Grandmastergav86
    @Grandmastergav86 2 роки тому +1

    Inspiration for the short story "Whisper In the Woods" an "anonymously penned" tale which some have attributed to Charles Dickens' son.

  • @nilkamalsarma5561
    @nilkamalsarma5561 2 роки тому +2

    feels like something from lord of the rings or hobbit

    • @arcadia449
      @arcadia449  2 роки тому

      It has that atmosphere about it.

  • @water9584
    @water9584 3 роки тому +1

    I've been there. It's magical. But my hike was a real one, through the dirt and not on roads. With no one around.

    • @caysonreign2079
      @caysonreign2079 2 роки тому

      I guess it's pretty randomly asking but does anybody know of a good site to stream newly released series online ?

    • @larryalan3078
      @larryalan3078 2 роки тому

      @Cayson Reign i watch on Flixzone. Just search on google for it =)

    • @ralphjagger3813
      @ralphjagger3813 2 роки тому

      @Larry Alan yup, been using flixzone for months myself :D

    • @caysonreign2079
      @caysonreign2079 2 роки тому

      @Larry Alan thanks, I went there and it seems to work :) I really appreciate it !

    • @larryalan3078
      @larryalan3078 2 роки тому

      @Cayson Reign you are welcome =)

  • @bazza12121
    @bazza12121 2 роки тому +1

    A good place for a mushroom hunt too and from there. Not on the paths thought. Better cutting across country. Much more productive

    • @arcadia449
      @arcadia449  2 роки тому

      I've been mushroom hunting back here where I live in Hertfordshire. It's not a good year so far?

    • @bazza12121
      @bazza12121 2 роки тому +2

      @@arcadia449 no not here either.. I’ve had some chicken of the woods, some chanterelles… but none of the magical ones so far.. too early really though and too dry.. give it a week or two and after some rain and they will come up

  • @SenorTucano
    @SenorTucano 4 місяці тому

    Nice video but the music is too loud and overpowering

  • @loudoret353
    @loudoret353 Рік тому +1

    This is a small woodland, and one of the last remnant wildwoods of Dartmoor. The last thing it needs is further visiting pressure.
    If you care about the impact you have on nature, then the kindest and most responsible thing is to remove this video.

  • @heidiclarke9994
    @heidiclarke9994 2 роки тому +5

    Please remove this video. Enough destruction and advertising of the wood has happened and caused untold damage.
    The wood has suffered and changed due to much heavier footfall in recent years. How does this video help or respect the wood?

    • @Grandmastergav86
      @Grandmastergav86 2 роки тому +3

      Please remove this comment, how does grandstanding help anyone? Does your ego the world of good though, eh?

    • @heidiclarke9994
      @heidiclarke9994 2 роки тому +2

      @@Grandmastergav86 it’s hardly grandstanding, it’s just a video on UA-cam amongst millions and I’m not likely to win any favour or popularity here at all, for saying what I did.
      I believe that this video and the others on UA-cam have had a direct impact on the known and very real damage to the wood. There’s a comment I just saw below saying something like ‘I’m definitely going to visit and walk where the Druid’s did, barefoot in the thick moss’.
      That thick moss has shrunk away very obviously in the last few years because going from maybe a few hundred visitors a year to thousands, in what is actually very small area, will take its toll. The hanging rare lichens of scientific interest that take many many years to form have been taken away, and some of them are extremely rare. I’ve seen photos of wheee someone has carved some kind of crappy ‘spiritual’ symbol on one rock by scraping off the ancient moss on one rock. Can’t you see the irony of that?
      Rather than assuming I’m grandstanding, how about considering that in terms of those who share videos like this, showing the world special and little known places on the planet, for their own kudos and hits, that will create much more human traffic and threaten their uniqueness. That’s the consequence whether intended or not.

    • @mythtree6348
      @mythtree6348 Рік тому

      @@heidiclarke9994 bless you sweetheart. There is now a book locating all such woodlands. i agree that it was better when the only people who found them were the intrepid type who researched for themselves but i guess the world moved on.. ive seen such wreckage in recent years but the hope is by putting them on he map we will conserve them :( sigh. i dont know :(

    • @mythtree6348
      @mythtree6348 Рік тому

      @@heidiclarke9994 how about people only get to visit these places if hey are actively involved in conserving and restoring them ?? thats kind of how i've lived ..

    • @rog5963
      @rog5963 10 місяців тому

      @@heidiclarke9994 Great comment. There are signs up around Wistman's Wood asking people not to walk through the trees due to the damage that has been caused. Clearly the people involved in this video took no notice of them....

  • @juliagroom2027
    @juliagroom2027 Рік тому

    There are signs warning you not to go into this protected site. I don’t understand how anyone can wilfully destroy these remarkable places and encourage anyone else to copy them. Shame on you! There are plenty of surrounding rocks to sit on and contemplate this beautiful site. This is Dartmoor, not Disneyland.