PHIL
STARKEY
ON YOUR DOORSTEP:
DARTMOOR
Having lived in Cornwall for the last twenty-eight years and have the pleasure of waking up to the sounds of nature,
moving to Devon a year ago was quite a change. The watching the mists rising from the valleys and seeing and
landscape of Cornwall is very beautiful but quite different to photographing the landscape change as the light does when
Devon. Devon has a huge range of different environments to the sun begins to rise. There is nowhere better to sleep under
explore, from large woodlands to vast open moorland that the stars and to wake up to.
stretches out for miles upon miles with large craggy Tors that
tower above the rest of the land. The moorland is something There’s a real romance about Dartmoor, but I’m under no
that I have without a shadow of doubt fallen in love with, illusion that it’s also very harsh at times too. This last winter
Dartmoor specifically. was my first real experience of how harsh it can be. Having
developed into a southern softy from living in Cornwall for
Dartmoor has given me a sense of freedom and escape where so long I’d only really been used to quite mild winters with
Cornwall couldn’t. When I’m stood on the top of a Tor the only the very occasional millimetre of snowfall once in a blue
openness is something that makes me feel truly away from moon due to it being surrounded by the sea. However this
the day to day routine, it relaxes my mind and removes any winter on Dartmoor Mother Nature decided to show me
stresses, and helps me to forget any problems that I might exactly what cold really was and how hard and deep snow
have whilst I’m out walking and photographing here. It’s truly can fall. I have to say as much as I absolutely loved it, it was
therapeutic. also a swift lesson in how to keep safe and look after yourself.
The weather and conditions can change in an instant, and if
I’m now living only ten minutes drive down the road from you’re ill equipped you could without a doubt find yourself in
the edge of the moors and I feel extremely lucky to have this big trouble in the blink of an eye. That said, with some careful
wonderful National Park comprising of three hundred and planning and of course the right gear, I managed to come
sixty five square miles to explore. On every visit I always see away with some winter images that have fond memories
something new, whether that be in the landscape, or some attached to and that make me smile broadly when I look at
wildlife that I’ve perhaps not come across before. And believe them.
me, the wildlife is rich and diverse here.
I have a great deal yet to learn about Dartmoor, I haven’t yet
I’ve camped before, but only really on typically touristy even scratched the surface of it, but I am very much looking
campsites, wild camping isn’t something that I was really forward to spending a long time getting to know it intimately,
familiar with until moving here. But now, every now and again photographing it in all of it’s splendour and wrath, and falling
when my partner Alan and I have the opportunity to, we deeper in love with this National Park.
venture up onto Dartmoor for an overnighter under canvas
Gutter Tor, Dartmoor
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