Please Note: This is a Military Training Area on which live firing and other pyrotechnics may be used. The area is generally open public access. One of the safety rules for public access is:- Do not, (and ensure that children do not) approach, touch or pick up any metal objects lying on the ground. Please obey all bylaws and locally posted information concerning times when the area may be closed. These may be physical barriers, marker posts, flags, lights or manned control posts.
The twenty first event in a series of monthly events taking place in different squares of the Dartmoor 365; the square the event is chosen at random by raffle at each event. The square pulled out for this month is D8 Pixies Pool. The event will start at around 10am at the given co-ordinates for geo-chat, TB exchanging etc. People are free to come and go as they please. Skittles and I will be there until around 11am, but depending on the weather/attendees it may go on for longer.
Pixies' Pool, AKA Dinger Pool, lies under the evening shadows of High Willhays and Yes Tor, not far from the source of Red-a-ven Brook. When first named the pool would have been much larger than it is now. The valley bottom is filled with peat and the area around the pool is miry. One of the plants to be seen here during much of the year is Hare's-tail Cottongrass. This is daintier than the Common Conttongrass (it only has one boll of cotton on each stem).
There are numerous references to the piskies to be found in Dartmoor place-names,there is; Pixeycombe, Pixey Well, Pixie Glen, Pixies Cave (two of those), Pixies Cross, Pixies Holt, Pixies House, Pixies Parlour (two of them), Pixies Pits, Pixies Pool (two of them), Pixies Rings and Pixies Wood to name but a few. On Dartmoor the bog cotton plant (eriphorum) is also known as Pixie Grass and can be found on the margins of bogs and mires. It was into these that piskies were known to mischievously lead unwary travellers and in some cases they would never be seen again. Quite often on Dartmoor you can come across a delightful bright red cup-shaped lichen growing on the rocks called Cladonia coccifera which due to its colour and shape is locally known as Piskie Cups. It was said that the tiny cups were used by the piskies as drinking vessels at their nighttime revels. There can be found on the moor a mysterious opaque jelly-like substance whose origin attracts several theories, one rather modern tongue-in-cheek idea being that it’s piskie snot. There is even a theory that the famous 1933 Disney tale about ‘The Three Little Pigs’ being adapted from a Dartmoor piskie story of ‘The Fox and the Piskies‘ first recorded in 1853.
Traditionally the Dartmoor piskies are regarded in general as being amiable and helpful to the moor-folk. That is provided that any work or favours they do is duly rewarded and under no circumstances must they be; cheated, spied upon, slandered or stolen from. To keep on their good side people would leave small dishes of cream outside their houses at night and in some cases small plates of food. It was said as long as one fed them they would view favourably upon the household and help when needed in times of trouble. On the other hand should anyone ever cause them offence then their retribution would be swift and drastic. They would be known to steal babies, at night ride horses to the point of exhaustion, spoil any milk, cream and cheese during its manufacture, pinch people during their sleep and generally cause chaos and mayhem. Probably one of the most feared mischievous practice the piskies had was the ability to totally confuse travellers so much that they would wander around not knowing where they were or what they were doing. There are tales of folk aimlessly wandering around all night until in the morning they found themselves miles away from where they were going. This phenomena is locally known as being Piskie Led and believe it or not there still are reports of this happening today and of visitors being concerned about it happening to them. We can probably blame the local beer ;)