Into the valleys

Most Dartmoor visitors head for the hills. But there’s a whole other beautiful world down in the woodland valleys.

- CHRISSY HARRIS

Sunlight is pouring through the trees onto an open glade where tiny caterpillars of the pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly feast on dog-violets. The River Bovey, home to families of otters, passes under a nearby medieval packhorse bridge. Dormice nest in the undergrowth beneath the trees, many of which are covered in various shades of rare lichens.

Springtime in Bovey Valley woods is the place to be. Dartmoor’s hills loom large above us but it’s clear that all the action is happening down here.

“Woodlands sit around the edge of the high moor in these valleys but they tend to get a bit overshadowed,” says Dave Rickwood, a manager for the Woodland Trust, which owns and manages many sites on Dartmoor. “I don’t mean that in a negative way. Everybody who comes to Dartmoor tends to head for the high moor. But these wooded valleys are very special in themselves. There’s a lot of drama down here.”

As we walk along by the River Bovey, we spot two bird watchers, trying to spot the lesser spotted woodpecker, a regular visitor here. Then Dave heads over to a tree by the riverbank.

“See this,” he says, pointing to some wobbly-shaped leaves in among the bright green moss. “That’s lungwort. It’s called that because it looks like the alveoli in the lungs. It’s quite a rare species.”