On the last Saturday of March, we joined Plymouth and West Devon Sabs and Hunt Audits Southwest to pay another visit to the Dartmoor Hunt at their meet at Cornwood Common (Heathfield Down). Huntsman Harry Gosling was accompanied by Spooners & West Dartmoor huntsman Charlie Andrews and South & West Wilts huntsman Archie Clifton-Brown (ex Stevenstone), as well as about 40 field riders and 2 equipped quadbikes.
The hunt entered the moor at West Rook Gate and proceeded to briefly draw the Ford Brook valley, before heading up over Penn Beacon where the pack split, with some heading down into Cholwich Town in cry and the rest running down the near vertical slopes of the flooded quarry pits of the nearby China Clay Works.
After faffing about here for a while, the hunt made their way north where they proceeded to trespass through the National Trust land on Lee Moor, where they hunted the valley at Hentor Meadow. Hounds briefly picking up on a line here before everyone moved off eastwards, across Langcombe Hill and into the valley at Erme Plains.
Our sabs caught up with the hunt lurking in the valley, with the equipped terrier quadbikes looking down from the top of the valley to the east. Hounds quickly picked up on a line and were witnessed chasing a fox westward, shortly before they caught up with, mauled, and killed the fox in full view of sabs from across the valley. This was all whilst Gosling was blowing his hunting horn to encourage the hounds in their pursuit.
As stated in our Facebook post, 3 riders, including 2 of the redcoats rushed to the scene of the kill, with a rider stuffing the body of the fox in their jacket before riding off north to hide it somewhere. Sabs found the kill site and documented the scattered remains of what was left behind by the rider.
We couldn’t stick around, as by this point the hunt was already nearly out of view, so we set off in pursuit. Huntsman Harry Gosling sent the hounds into Dendles Waste where they quickly picked up on a line and with encouragement from the huntsman via his horn, rampaged into Dendles Wood Nature Reserve, which unsurprisingly the hunt isn’t allowed in, so no trails laid here.
After struggling to gather the hounds from the nature reserve, Gosling took the hounds through the dense gorse at High-house Waste, where the hounds again picked up a scent and shot off west in full cry, down into Rook Wood, and Newpark Waste.
Hounds were seen running backwards and forwards through the wood here, through dense bogs, and downed trees in the plantation of Newpark wood. After spending an age attempting to bring the hounds out, one of the redcoats remarked how they wouldn’t want to go through there, which is understandable given the dangerous conditions of the woods, but then would anyone in their right mind “lay a trail” through there? I very much doubt it.
We all know that ‘Trail Hunting’ is a smokescreen for the continued pursuit and killing of foxes, and unfortunately this day was just that. Hunt staff, riders, and hounds trespassing on land they are not allowed to be on, a fox killed by hounds in the open for all to see, and hounds rampaging through a nature reserve. All in a day’s work for the Dartmoor Hunt.
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