Wistman's Wood

Please do not enter the wood. Natural England and the Dartmoor National Park Authority ask visitors not to walk through Wistman's Wood or scramble over its boulders, because footsteps destroy the lichens and mosses that make it special. Look at it from the outside and keep to the paths around it. This is a request from the people who protect the site, and the pressure on the wood is the reason for it.

Wistman's Wood is a small, ancient oakwood in the valley of the West Dart River, about a mile north of Two Bridges. It lies at roughly 380 to 410 metres above sea level, making it one of the highest oakwoods in Britain. The trees are mostly pedunculate oak, rarely more than 4.5 metres tall, with twisted trunks and branches that lie across the granite boulders they grow among, and every surface is thickly covered in mosses and lichens.

It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, notified in 1964, and forms part of Wistman's Wood National Nature Reserve. It is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall and managed by Natural England. The wood is home to Horsehair lichen, which the park authority says is found at only two sites in Britain. The authority describes the wood as a piece of Dartmoor's own rainforest.

Looking after it

The wood has suffered from the number of people walking in it. In 2025 the Duchy of Cornwall, Natural England, Moor Trees and the Woodland Trust began planting a newly fenced area, with 450 young trees of Wistman's Wood provenance going in during March 2025. The Duchy's stated aim is to double the size of the wood over time. The Duchy puts the present wood at over seven acres.

Visiting the area

The small car park opposite the Two Bridges Hotel has very few spaces and is best avoided at busy times; please do not park across gateways or along the road. The walk from the car park to a viewpoint on the edge of the wood and back is about 4 km, and the park authority suggests allowing an hour. The path becomes rough, muddy and wet after the gateway, and the weather on the moor can change quickly. Wild camping, fires, barbecues and cycling are not allowed here, and branches, lichens and mosses must not be picked.

At the edge of the wood stands the Buller Stone, which records that in 1868 Wentworth Buller felled a tree here, with permission from the Prince of Wales, to find out how old the oaks were.

Connections

The wood is the setting for the folklore of the Wisht Hounds. It is one of three high-altitude oakwoods on Dartmoor; the others are Black-a-tor Copse on the West Okement River and Piles Copse on the Erme. See also the West Dart River and Crockern Tor.

• Designation: National Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest (1964)
• Owner: Duchy of Cornwall; managed by Natural England
• Altitude: about 380 to 410 metres
• Grid reference: SX 612 772 (approximate)
• Access: visitors are asked not to enter the wood