2026
What is natural mysticism? Can nature recover on Dartmoor? How do myths shape our lives? These and many other compelling questions were on the agenda in 2026, but it wasn’t all talk. We walked, danced, listened and learnt, in a smorgasbord of events including a sell-out performance by Celtic songstress Gwenno, a sunrise pilgrimage to the prehistoric stone rows at Drizzlecombe, a natural witchcraft workshop with Rebecca Beattie, and Morris dancing with Grimspound Border and Newton Bushell Morris. The festival concluded with a new community pageant and well dressing, St Gudula’s Gathering (main picture), a celebration, both joyful and reflective, of the water that sustains life.
2025
Why don’t we have the right to walk the land ? Do our landscapes have feelings ? Where does nature end and magic start ? How can we help the moors to survive and thrive ?
These are just a few of the many fascinating questions asked at the 2025 Dartmoor Tors Festival. The first festival of its kind, set up to bring people together to share ideas, feelings and their love for wild and ancient places like Dartmoor.
In 2025 we had a sell out performance by lyrical folk singer Martha Tilston who kicked us off on Friday night followed by a whole day on Saturday of animated discussions and talks at Ashburton Arts Centre ranging from land art, to access activism, to the latest in Dartmoor archaeology. On Saturday night we stomped our feet to the quintessential folk music of Dartmoor with the inimitable Seth Lakeman. Around town vibrant exhibitions and events took place in galleries like the fantastic folk-focussed Field System. On the next day, we got our walking boots on to go stone-bothering, storytelling and sketching with walks and talks by artists, local guides, archaeologists and archaeoastronomers. And on Sunday night we celebrated the end of the festival with the anarchic, joyful and slightly scary Beltane Border Morris.
Hope you can join us in 2027.
Featured image by Emma Stoner
Other images with thanks to Emma Stoner, Carolyn Kennett, Alex Murdin, Sophie Pierce
