Wistman's Wood facts for kids
| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
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| Area of Search | Devon |
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| Coordinates | 50°34′37″N 3°57′40″W / 50.577°N 3.961°W |
| Interest | Biological |
| Area | 3.5 hectares (0.03500 km2; 0.01351 sq mi) |
| Notification | 1964 |
| Location map | English Nature |
Wistman's Wood is a very special and ancient oak wood found on Dartmoor in Devon, England. It's one of only three such woods high up in the Dartmoor area. These woods are unique because they are so old and grow in a wild, rocky place.
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Where is Wistman's Wood?
This amazing wood sits high up, about 380 to 410 metres (around 1,250 to 1,345 feet) above sea level. You can find it in the valley of the West Dart River near a place called Two Bridges. A small stream, the Devonport Leat, starts from a weir on the West Dart River just north of the wood.
Why Wistman's Wood is Special
Wistman's Wood is one of the highest oak woods in all of Britain. Because it's such a great example of a natural upland oak forest, it was named a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in 1964. This means it's a protected area. It's also part of the Wistman's Wood National Nature Reserve. The wood was a key reason why Dartmoor was chosen as a Special Area of Conservation.
What Does Wistman's Wood Look Like?
The wood is split into three main parts: North, Middle, and South Groves. Together, they cover about 3.5 hectares (which is about 9 acres). These parts are on a hillside that faces southwest, where you can see many large granite rocks. These rocks are called "clatter." Over time, pockets of rich, brown soil have built up between the rocks.
Outside the main wood, you can see smaller groups of bushes. This suggests that the wood used to be much bigger, covering all the rocky areas on the hillside. Today, the rocky areas outside the wood are covered in plants like bracken, bilberry, and sometimes gorse.
The Duchy of Cornwall owns Wistman's Wood. Since 1961, it has been looked after by groups like the Nature Conservancy Council and Natural England. There isn't much active management done here. Many people visit the wood on foot, usually going to the southern part of South Wood. Cows and sheep can also wander freely in most areas, except for a small fenced-off part in South Wood.
Plants of Wistman's Wood
The trees in the wood are mostly pedunculate oaks. You'll also find some rowan trees, and a few holly, hawthorn, hazel, and eared-willow. The oak trees are quite short and twisted. They usually don't grow taller than 4.5 metres (about 15 feet). Their main branches often lie on or between the rocks on the forest floor. Some trees are a bit taller, reaching 6 to 7.6 metres (20-25 feet). These taller trees tend to have straighter trunks and wider tops.
The tree branches are covered with many different epiphytic mosses and lichens. Sometimes, you'll even see plants like bilberry and polypody growing on them. Because the trunks and branches grow horizontally, dead leaves and other plant material collect on them. This helps many different kinds of plants grow on the trees, more than in other British woodlands. Besides polypody and bilberry, you can find many of the same plants growing on the ground.
On the ground, the rocks are usually covered by lichens and mosses. Where soil has built up, you'll find patches of grassy areas. These areas have plants like heath bedstraw, tormentil, and sorrel. In places where farm animals can't reach, you might see plants like wood sorrel, bilberry, wood rush, and bramble. A border of bracken surrounds most of the wood, showing where the good soil is. The wood is home to about 120 different kinds of lichen.
Animals of Wistman's Wood
This special wood is home to many adders, which are a type of snake.
History of Wistman's Wood
People have written about Wistman's Wood for hundreds of years. It's probably a small part of a much larger, ancient forest that covered most of Dartmoor around 7000 BC. Early hunter-gatherers likely cleared much of this forest around 5000 BC.
Photos and other records show that Wistman's Wood has changed a lot since the mid-1800s. The weather has also become warmer during this time. The older oak trees used to be short and sprawling, but now they grow more upright. A new group of mostly straight, single-trunked oaks has also grown. The oldest oaks seem to be 400 to 500 years old. They likely grew from a dying oak wood that survived as scrub during two centuries of cold weather. Around 1620, these old trees were described as "no taller than a man may touch to top with his head." By the mid-1800s, the trees had grown a bit taller. In the 20th century, their height almost doubled. In 1997, the tallest trees were about 12 metres (39 feet) high, and the average height was around 7 metres (23 feet). Also, many new oaks started growing around 1900, almost doubling the size of the wood. We know about these changes partly from a special plant study area in South Wood. This is the oldest known study area of its kind in British woodlands.
The Buller Stone, a large rock east of the wood, remembers a time in 1866 when someone tried to figure out how old the trees were. Wentworth Buller cut down an oak tree and estimated it was 168 years old.
Myths and Stories of Wistman's Wood
Wistman's Wood has inspired many artists, poets, and photographers. It appears in hundreds of stories from the 1800s. One old story says that Isabella de Fortibus (who lived from 1237 to 1293) planted the wood.
The wood is described in great detail in a 1978 essay called The Tree by the English writer John Fowles.
The name Wistman's Wood might come from an old local word "wisht." This word means "eerie," "uncanny," or "haunted by pixies." The famous Wild Hunt in Devon, with its scary hellhounds known as Yeth or Wisht Hounds, is especially linked to Wistman's Wood.
