
It has been a busy year for us at Kitchen Witch HQ. So many fabulous things have happened, and we have been exceedingly busy. We have in the past took ourselves off together for a few days – I think Bath was the last time. We put our heads together to see what a good place would be to just wind down, connect with the lands and with nature and Dartmoor came out in the list (yes, there will be other kitchen witch retreats).
I hadn’t ever been to Dartmoor although I’ve gone past it, so I was very excited about spending some time in the open moorlands. Open wild spaces are Rachel's favourite, and Heather was very much looking forward to it too. We couldn’t access our apartment until 4pm on the Monday so we decided to get up early and head towards Charmouth and Lyme Regis for the day to collect some sea treasures.
An early stop off for Rachel and myself at.. ahem…McDonalds for breakfast. Our excuse is there weren’t any cafes open at the time that we headed off. To be honest, I don’t mind a bacon and egg McMuffin, hash brown and a toffee latte on route somewhere.
We arrived at Charmouth to meet up with Heather at about 10am and the weather was a little drizzly and windy but not a bad day. We then spent the next 4 hours with our heads down, looking for sea glass, fossils and any interesting stones that the shoreline wanted to gift us. The crash of the ocean waves was powerful and the swish of the waters as they came up to where we stood was energising. We got quite a bagful of treasures each and rumbling tummies soon told us that it must be a very late lunch time.

Back in the car to Lyme Regis. I’ve never been there either and it was a quaint little fishing village with the usual small shops, cafes, pubs, penny arcades. We didn’t really explore Lyme as we just wanted something to eat, although we did walk along the Cobb (a stone built breakwater and jetty which dates back to 1328, although the original was damaged by storms) for a look out to sea after. We bought pasties and cake to take with us to the apartment we were staying at.
An hour or so drive took us to Dartmoor. Coming off of the main stretch onto 6 miles of single-track roads, we knew we were close to where we were staying. Coming to a junction and a set of cattle grids, we were suddenly faced with Hay Tor, standing against the skyline up a steep hill. This was what we wanted to see while we were here, and it was right on our doorstep – wonderful! Our mornings early start, and our daily adventures meant that we were quite tired, so decided to leave the exploring until the Tuesday. We settled ourselves in at our apartment and with a cup of tea in hand, had a look at our treasures and finds along the shore earlier.
Wednesday was a lovely dry day, a little windy and the sun appeared every now and again. We set off after breakfast for the Tor. Walking boots and raincoats, just in case. We didn’t take the tourist route to the Tor and decided to head for some cairns and discovered a discarded quarry. This quarry extracted granite in the early part of the 19th century by a landowner called George Templer. He also built in 1820, a tramway which ran from the quarry to Stover Canal – a good 18 miles away, to carry, by horse and cart, the mined granite. This tramway was called Templer Way and parts of it are still in existence today and can be seen along the verges. Nature was reclaiming her territory and although there are signs of the working quarry, lots of bracken, gorse and brambles were evident. We felt a hostile energy to the quarry. Parts of her landscape had been dug at and excavated and I don’t think she like human company very much.
We wandered off and climbed a cairn and just sat at the top, admiring the stunning views. Just miles and miles of landscape, cows dotted about, the caw of a crow and the sound of the wind. We then approached the Tor itself – the energy was immense. It looked like a sleeping giant and although we were in Dartmoor, I began thinking of the Norse giants and the rune Perthra which is connected to rocks, stones and caves. Just how my mind works..
We did a little ritual away from the main tourist walkway of the Tor – a ritual for thanks to one another and to the land beneath us, the spirits and ancestors of the land. I think we could have sat there for a few more hours.
The next day was going home day, but we decided to explore Scorhill Stone Circle. I had seen a painting of it in the Ladies loo in a cafe and mentioned it to Rachel and Heather, so we decided to explore it before heading home. Although it was only 14 miles from where we were, it seemed to take forever to reach it. The single-track roads got narrower and narrower and the sides taller and taller. Meeting oncoming traffic on the single track was interesting – passing spaces were few and far between and even then, we didn’t account for a large dustcart coming our way. Hats off to him as we couldn’t move any closer to the side and he had to reverse a good few feet into a driveway.
A short walk once parked led to the circle. It felt even more remote than Haytor and the stone circle itself wouldn’t let us inside until we all had walked around it. It had a lovely ancient energy about it but I couldn’t walk directly to the centre of the circle. I felt a strong energy almost like a force field and a lot of ancestor activity. Not hostile, I just felt that the direct centre was not where I needed to be, which was fine. The rain started to fall in big heavy drops, so we each thanked the circle and walked back to the car.
It was a lovely recharged 3 days, and we still managed to do lots of planning and plotting for Kitchen Witch while we were there. It happens when the 3 of us get together, whether we like it or not.
It was a very memorable visit, let's see where we can go next year..
Further information of our visit:
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