Wistman's Wood
On high Dartmoor is a wood of twisted dwarf oaks growing between mossy boulders. Legend says the hounds of the Wild Hunt are kennelled there.
What was reported
Wistman's Wood is a small patch of ancient woodland on Dartmoor, its oaks bent and knotted, their branches dripping with moss and ferns, growing out of a field of granite boulders. It looks like something from a fairy tale.
People said druids worshipped there, that it was full of adders, and that the 'wisht hounds' of Dartmoor, black spectral dogs that hunt the moor at night with the Devil, lived among its rocks.
Explanations offered
The oaks are stunted by the wind and thin soil, and they survived because the boulders protected them from grazing and fire. It's a rare remnant of the moor's ancient forest, now a nature reserve.
- When
- Told for centuries
- Where
- Dartmoor, Devon, England
- Witnesses
- Dartmoor folklore, and walkers
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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