- C31, C20, C30 -

Belstone A Village With Moor Skaigh Wood Nick Atkinson writing in The Beacon November 2012 writes Perhaps surprisingly the only area of true Ancient Seminatural Woodland that is land that historically has been under continuous tree cover since the year dot in the whole of South Tawton parish is Skaigh Woods immediately to the south of Sticklepath. These mixed oak ash rowan and hazel woodlands cover only about 10 acres of ground above and beside the River Taw. We owe much for their continuing existence to the people of Belstone who clubbed together in 1956 and raised 600 to purchase 77 acres of Skaigh Warren which included these woodlands in order to save the area from coniferous afforestation. Ancient Seminatural Woodland is of immense importance for all sorts of wildlife and for the wonderful atmosphere created by the wealth of ferns mosses and lichens growing on every bole and branch.