A Devonian's response to the article regarding the proposed sale of Sheepstor:
I would have thought that a nature-loving person such as Sir Paul McCartney would not be in favour of shooting on his land, but unless he plans to live in the area, I can't quite see the point of buying it. Maybe he has another kind of shooting in mind - a video shoot in the stone circles?!
We have already been denied access to Vixen Tor, near Merrivale stone rows and their complex, because a nearby lady farmer who bought the surrounding land has fenced it off. (This was due to the mad compensation culture of our times, when everyone lives in dread of being sued for damages - in this case, should anyone fall from the rocky tor and hurt themselves, she would be liable! That's the story I heard.) This has already caused a lot of aggro, with protests from angry ramblers, and she was taken to court recently for spreading fertilizer on the land around it. The court gave her a hefty fine for doing that, because it went against the rules of the National Park Authority, altering the nature of the vegetation. For some reason, this court case will delay the re-opening of that site!
Please don't let the same thing happen to Sheepstor, as it is one of the most beautiful areas on Dartmoor. As part of the National Park, all those rugged tors should be freely accessible to the public. Maybe, if someone has to buy it, then Sir Paul would be the best conservationist? His late wife Linda certainly seemed to have a lot of respect for nature, which I believe he shared. I can certainly imagine the scenery giving him plenty of inspiration for his music.
I've just looked up Yellowmead (which I haven't visited, despite living near the SE of Dartmoor - typical - I visit all these far-flung places like Brodgar and Callanish, and what's on my own doorstep.......!! - though I have been to Drizzlecombe twice...) in the wonderful 'Circles of Stone', and to quote Aubrey Burl:
"Sheepstor has nothing to do with sheep. The name derives from the Celtic 'syth', 'steep', and the tor is indeed a 1210-feet height of stone-slithering steepness, one of the most prominent on Dartmoor. From the east its outline looks like a resting lion, and from its crest there is a marvelling panorama of moorland, wooded valleys with sycamores and hazels, trickling streams and the eroded pyramids of other tors, 'Leather', 'Down' and 'Coombeshead'."
He also says of Yellowmead:
"It lies a mile east of Sheepstor hamlet on Yellowmead down. The area is one of many antiquities, "for the Saxons were a superstitious race, and were afraid of the settlements of the people they conquered." "
In these more modern times, anyone coming down here shooting on our open moorland, or fencing off a large part of Dartmoor would have some pretty irate Devonians to reckon with!!!
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road