Final Countdown to First Ever Dartmoor Tors Festival

Totnes residents and right-to-roam campaigners Guy Shrubsole and Lewis Winks are among the line-up at the first ever Dartmoor Tors Festival, which is taking place on the late May bank holiday weekend, starting Friday 23rd May.

They’ll be part of an event called “Dartmoor: Open to All?”, discussing how much access we really have to our local national park.

Guy, who writes books about land rights, and Lewis, who co-founded The Stars are for Everyone campaign to defend the right to wild camp on Dartmoor, will be appearing alongside artists, writers, historians, musicians, and archaeologists at the festival, which aims to celebrate Dartmoor’s culture, history and people, and to explore the human connection with wild landscapes.

There’ll be talks and conversations at Ashburton Arts Centre on Saturday 24th May, and then on Sunday 25th May (and on subsequent days in the following week), there will be various walks on offer, all over the moor, from Belstone to Hound Tor, and from Haytor to Burrator.

The two headline music events, Martha Tilston and Seth Lakeman, have already sold out, but there are lots of others to choose from. Co-organiser Sophie Pierce says events about Dartmoor’s archaeology are proving very popular. “Lots of people have already bought tickets for a talk by Dartmoor National Park archaeologists Lee Bray and Andy Crabb, who will be revealing the long-awaited results of an exciting Bronze Age discovery at Cut Hill last year.  And a walk led by archaeologist Alan Endacott, to a recently discovered stone circle and dolmen, has nearly sold out.”

Talks on Saturday 24th May at Ashburton Arts include a panel of artists including the fine art photographer Garry Fabian Miller, discussing how visual artists have portrayed Dartmoor over the years. Poet Sean Borodale and novelist Fiona Williams, whose work has a strong connection with wild landscapes, will be giving readings and discussing the role of place in human stories with local author Caspar Walsh. And the authors of a new book about Dartmoor, Alex Murdin and Sophie Pierce, will be talking all about the tors with author Wyl Menmuir.

On Sunday 25th May, (and on various days in the following week) there will be walks all over the moor, including a sunrise walk to the Merrivale stone rows in the company of archaeoastronomer Carolyn Kennett who specialises in the relationship of ancient monuments to the land, sky and sun, and to Hound Tor with storytellers Lisa Schneidau and Sara Hurley who will bring alive Dartmoor’s myths and legends. On Sunday 25th May the Festival will culminate in a performance (and talk) by the Morris side, Beltane Border outside Ashburton Arts.

The festival has been organised by writer Sophie Pierce and artist Alex Murdin, in partnership with Field System gallery in Ashburton, and Ashburton Arts Centre.

To find out more about the festival, and book tickets, visit www.dartmoortorsfestival.co.uk