Hangingstone Hill with the South West Peatland Partnership

We had read about the South West Peatland Partnership’s (SWPP) work on the peatlands on the moors in the region, we had talked to staff who were experts in archaeology or botany who shared some of the amazing difference their work is having on top of the moor, but we had never seen it for ourselves – not the vast swathes of restoration work on the top of the highest area of Dartmoor.  We were excited to be asked and wondered how it would be! 

As part of our How to Bury the Giant programme we have been experimenting with creative ways to restore small patches of peatland with local communities, school groups and other people who have never been on the Dartmoor before.  This has included planting local fleecy hand-made nests with sphagnum or bog moss growing in them and using embroidered fleece blankets to cover bare areas of peat that might restore the moor and reduce the carbon from escaping.  All our events and activities make a tiny difference to the land, and a big difference to the people taking part. 

The work of SWPP is on a completely different scale.  We were driven up there by 4-wheel drive vehicles from the nearest car park.  We were part of an annual visit among a dozen or so interested individuals.  Some worked for South West Water, others lived in Okehampton, one led walks on the moor, another was an ecologist. Such a great bunch and lots of exchange of information.  It took nearly an hour to get to the top in our wellies and over all the lumps and bumps of damaged peatland. 

The landscape has been pitted and damaged by surface mining for tin and peat cutting over hundreds of years and the water flows fast down the gullies - as it flows, carbon and peat are washed away.  So instead of a few handmade nests, they use an army of volunteers, or contractors with clever machinery that hardly makes a mark on the surface of the boggy land, and they construct peaty dams and wooden dams made of local conifer that slow the flow, block the gullies, and hold back the water.  It all looks a mess for a few weeks, but within a few months we were amazed to see the wildlife the new ponds attracted, the sphagnated water starting to fill with bog mosses, the cotton grass beginning to grow. 

You could feel the difference in vegetation beneath your feet. 

The final stop was by a peat hag at Whitehorse Hill cist.  These cliffs of peat, thousands of years old cannot be rescued and will erode completely away relatively soon. The ground is too dry now to support this ancient peat.  But it’s erosion had revealed more archaeology, a burial pit, a few thousand years old with the remains of a young adult, probably 1700BC discovered in 2011.  Read more about Whitehorse Hill cist here.

We were incredibly lucky with the weather and had a picnic in a peat cutting that used to be used by mule.   Several sphagnated new bogs and ponds later, and with amazing views of beyond Dartmoor, we scrambled back downhill.  We had learnt so much and seen places we had been wishing to visit for years.  Now we can tell the full tale of peatland restoration in these areas when we plant our nests, make the mossy carpet and embroidered blankets.   We were also reassured that our creative work added to this major core of repair, providing a local climate and carbon-based mossy story in the small bare patches around the edges of the peatland nearer where people live. 

We are all trying to Bury the carbon Giant! 

Our thanks to the SWPP team, particularly Morag Angus, Rachael Land and Martin Gillard.

The South West Peatland Partnership is a collaboration between local and regional government agencies, non-governmental organisations, businesses, landowners, commoners and farmers. Working together across the UK’s South West to reduce further degradation to peatlands by raising the water table and restoring the hydrological function of these areas.

Their vision is of restored peatlands across Cornwall, Dartmoor and Exmoor that support wildlife, store carbon, manage flooding, improve water security, enhance the historic environment, and champion livelihoods.

Read more about the restoration work at Hangingstone Hill