Wistman’s Wood is a remote high-altitude oakwoods on Dartmoor, England. While obviously not a rock, the forest is actually situated on top of a large bank of exposed granite boulders where pockets of acid have formed, and loamy brown earth soils have accumulated. It is home to a surprising amount of poisonous adders as well. (Maybe this is where all our hag stones come from?)
The Wood has been mentioned in writing for hundreds of years, but has existed since 7000 BC and was partially cleared in 5000 BC by Mesolithic hunter/gatherers. It’s thought the name derives from the dialect word “wisht” meaning eerie, uncanny, or “pixie-haunted,” and some legends tell that the Heath Hounds (aka – hellhounds) originate from these woods, and are set loose to chase the region’s sinners or the unbaptized into hell.
This story is itself a distinctly British offshoot of the Wild Hunt legend that pervades many Northern European cultures, and describes a gathering of ghostly or supernatural hunters who streak the sky in dogged pursuit of something. The identities of the hunters vary and can be elves, fairies, or simply the dead; and the leaders of the hunt are typically Gods or Heroic figures of some kind. Seeing the hunt is said to presage a catastrophe, or at best the death of the person(s) who witnessed it. Witnesses may also be dragged to the underworld or a fairy kingdom, or their souls could be dragged from their bodies to join in the hunt.