Join us this year for the second Dartmoor Tors Festival, bringing together walkers, thinkers, creatives who are interested in natural landscapes and how we relate to them. It is a celebration of the power and beauty of places seen as wild and ancient around Britain, and an exploration of why and how they provoke an response.
The Dartmoor Tors Festival returns for its second year, celebrating the start of summer on the Early May Bank Holiday weekend. Artists, writers, musicians and more will gather, in a host of events exploring Dartmoor’s nature and culture. The festival was founded last year by husband-and-wife team, artist Alex Murdin and writer Sophie Pierce, who wanted to provide a forum for conversation and creativity about Dartmoor. Events will take place in Ashburton and at other locations around the moor.
The Dartmoor Preservation Association are delighted to support the festival as lead sponsor for 2026. We’ve been campaigning to keep Dartmoor wild and free for 144 years, and the conversations and connections that this festival fosters are vital elements of that work. Festival founders, Sophie and Alex, will also continue to work closely with Ashburton Arts Centre and the Field System Gallery in Ashburton.
There will be talks, walks, performances, exhibitions and workshops. The Saturday night headliner at Ashburton Arts Centre is the Mercury Prize-nominated Gwenno, who sings in Cornish and Welsh as well as English. Also performing on other nights are the Dartmoor-based singer Cole Stacey, and the band Craven, described as ‘dark folk’.
There will be talks and conversations with a variety of thinkers including the mythologist Martin Shaw, sculptor Peter Randall-Page, Dartmoor witch Rebecca Beattie, nature writer Sophie Pavelle, photographer Chris Chapman, poet Jane Lovell and rewilder Derek Gow. There will be May Day celebrations with dancing from Morris sides Grimspound Border and Newton Bushel, and a new well-dressing ceremony at St Gudula’s Well in Ashburton. An exhibition at Field System Gallery will explore portals, labyrinths and mazes.
Walks will be offered all over Dartmoor, with different themes: a performance poetry walk along the River Dart led by MED Theatre, a dawn chorus walk with ornithologist Tony Whitehead, an exploration of the Merrivale stone rows with dowsers Peter Knight and Sue Wallace-Knight, and a drawing walk at Bench Tor with artist Kay Pearson. The Dartmoor Preservation Association is providing a free, mindful walk to the Dewerstone, Emma Cunis will lead a ‘Bellever Day’ walk, recreating an old Dartmoor tradition when thousands of people would converge on Bellever Tor, archaeoastronomer Carolyn Kennett, with guide Paul Rendell will take people to visit ancient sites including Shoveldown near Chagford and Brisworthy near Shaugh Prior, and storytellers Lisa Schneidau and Sara Hurley will tell tales of Wistman’s Wood and Crockern Tor.
The Festival is also trying to air some of the challenges that Dartmoor faces. In an event entitled “Nature Recovery on Dartmoor – is it too late?’ – a panel including representatives from the Dartmoor Commoners’ Council, Dartmoor National Park, and the Dartmoor Nature Alliance will discuss how biodiversity loss can be tackled.
A packed festival programme has now been released, with a number of events which are free to attend (although booking may still be required to keep track of numbers). We’re excited to offer a Mindfulness Walk at the Dewerstone, led by Hannah Durdin of Moorland Guides and facilitated by DPA Comms Officer Helen Bruce. Alongside this, we will be helping to lead the spectacular parade and well dressing ceremony, which invites participants to help revive local practices around sacred water and make personal pledges to do their part in preserving the unique Dartmoor landscape. We’re looking forward to seeing many of our members and allies across the festival weekend, which has events to engage a huge range of interests.
Image: Emma Stoner