MARCH 2025 · GROUNDED
Ancient woodland, Dartmoor
Black-a-Tor Copse, Dartmoor National Park
The hike in is arduous in the specific way Dartmoor demands — boggy ground, no path, the military danger zone marker on the map doing its job of dissuading the casual. I camped the night before on the hill above the copse, looking down at the treeline, planning for morning mist. The mist did not come.
Black-a-Tor Copse is a National Nature Reserve at 380 metres, one of the highest ancient oak woodlands in Britain. The trees are stunted by the altitude and the wind — dwarf pedunculate oaks, gnarled and horizontal in their growth, shaped by weather over centuries. The Duchy of Cornwall owns it. Forty-four moss species have been recorded here. You notice the moss before anything else.
You notice the moss before anything else.
Black-a-Tor Copse — March 2025
Everything in the copse is covered. The boulders are covered. The tree trunks are covered. The branches are covered, so thickly that the shape of the wood beneath is obscured, the moss forming its own topology over the original form. Some of the oak trunks are broader than they look because the moss adds several centimetres on every surface. The boulders become soft-looking, as if padded.
The West Okement runs through the lower edge of the copse. Moss-covered rocks in the streambed, gnarled oak branches overhead, water moving through and around the boulders. The sound of it is constant. The lichen on the rock surfaces is white and grey, different species layering on top of each other, each with a distinct texture.
The morning light came without mist, flat and even. Sometimes that is what you work with. A single gnarled oak standing on the open moorland at the copse edge, white-lichened rocks beneath it, the moor extending beyond. The tree has been there long enough that the moor accommodated it.
Moss-covered boulders beneath gnarled oak trees in Black-a-Tor Copse ancient woodland
Delicate lichen and moss growth on weathered tree branches, Dartmoor
Moss-blanketed woodland floor with contorted oak trees in Black-a-Tor Copse
Gnarled oak trunk covered in bright green moss surrounded by boulders
Moss-covered boulder with twisted branch overhang beside flowing stream
Lichen-speckled boulder beneath moss-clad oak tree and flowing water
Ancient moss-covered oak trunks surrounding weathered boulders in woodland
Dense moss-covered forest floor of Black-a-Tor Copse with twisted tree trunks
Thick moss carpet covering boulders and twisted roots on woodland floor
Lush moss-covered rocks beneath gnarled oak canopy in ancient woodland
Aged oak trees rising from moss-blanketed boulders on hazy woodland floor
Twisted oak branches overhead with vibrant moss below in Black-a-Tor woodland
Gnarled oak trunks and moss-covered boulders at edge of Dartmoor woodland
Ancient stunted oaks and dense moss covering forest floor of Black-a-Tor Copse
Contorted tree limbs and moss-covered forest floor beneath mist-shrouded canopy
West Okement River flowing past moss-covered boulders and gnarled oak woodland
Weathered oak branches thick with moss above river and rocky streambed
Stunted oak on misty Dartmoor moorland with moss-covered rocks and heather
Gnarled oak tree standing isolated on Dartmoor with white-lichened rocks
West Okement River flowing past moss-covered rocks beneath twisted oak branches
Stream winding through moss-blanketed rocks and gnarled oak woodland
Grass-fringed moss-covered rocks in river stream with twisted branches overhead
Spreading oak tree reflected in shallow stream surrounded by bare woodland