Inspirational Places: Dartmoor

I have decided to make a regular feature of places that inspire and motivate me in crafts, art and writing. For me, there is no better place to start than Dartmoor, in Devon. I spent much of my childhood and all of my teenage years in a small town near the moor, and have always found it to be a mysterious and exciting place. I moved away a few years ago and as such don’t have any recent photos to share with you, but next time I head down there I’ll be armed with my camera and out looking for good shots! In the mean time, I wanted to point you in the direction of Seth Lakeman, one of my favourite folk musicians, not least because his songs are largely inspired by the moor. Listening to Seth while I’m crafting or working on my art journal is both relaxing and inspirational - I highly recommend him! One of his albums is called ‘Kitty Jay’ in reference to the story of a young girl by that name who lived on the moor. It’s a sad tale - the story goes that she fell pregnant and rather than live with an unsavoury reputation, she hanged herself. Her grave can still be seen on Dartmoor today (see photo below from legendarydartmoor.co.uk) and there is a local myth that fresh flowers appear by the grave every day, left by an unknown hand.

Another Dartmoor tale I absolutely love is Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles” - clearly a fictional work but still giving the reader a sense of what Dartmoor is all about.

It’s stories like these that make Dartmoor such an intriguing place. Go there, if you can!