Published on 9 June 2025
Blog post by: Em Squire, RENEW PhD Student
This four-day visit was organised for RENEW’s early career researchers as an opportunity to explore Dartmoor, learn about the environmental land management scheme of the Central Dartmoor Farm Cluster (set up by local farmers) and take part in stakeholder facilitation training.
East Shallowford Farm is a medieval working hill farm nestled deep in Dartmoor National Park, offering a range of wildlife and farming experiences for both young and old. It was the perfect base for our RENEW ECR training event. After a picnic lunch, we made our way up the road to Challacombe Farm, where we were enthusiastically greeted by two friendly Finnish Lapphunds and fearless little Lady (all working dogs, though not your typical sheepdogs). And, of course, Naomi Oakley, who runs the farm with her partner, Mark Owen. Naomi kicked things off with a farm introduction using a large map cleverly stuck to the side of our minibus with fridge magnets.
Above: Naomi Oakley briefs the team for a day on Dartmoor.
We set off up the hillside behind the farm, pausing often to hear Naomi’s passionate stories about the land they love and care for. One highlight was learning about the threatened Marsh Fritillary butterfly—described by Naomi as a “flying stained glass window.” The farm with the highest butterfly count receives a coveted cup, and this initiative sparked their “farm cluster”: a local network of farmers supporting each other and championing sustainable land management through their own CIC. They are applying for funds from DEFRA for a 20-year land recovery project.
As we walked, we passed hand-built dry-stone walls that defied gravity, remnants of ancient settlements, and old enclosures once used to keep out predators, evoking images of a time when bears and wolves once roamed the landscape. We wandered into a hidden quarry rich with rare mosses and lichens and admired an ancient tree from which seeds had been collected to be replanted—helping with shade, biodiversity, and carbon capture. Bluebells carpeted the fields around us.
Above: The winter months on Dartmoor can be tough, but signs of ancient human endurance punctuate the landscape.
Above: Not your average sheep dogs; Naomi’s faithful Finnish Lapphunds.
Above: To understand Dartmoor you must get closer to it and perhaps, in it.
Naomi sees her role as a guardian of the land and animals she looks after, always working with—not against—nature. The idea of guardianship as a way to help people understand and redefine their relationship with the land is an emotive topic. It is currently being explored by members of the RENEW team, and spending time with Naomi helped reinforce their enthusiasm for this subject.
Above: On Naomi’s farm, everything is connected.
Above: Em Squire with other members of the Early Career Research community.
After warm goodbyes, we returned to Shallowford along the ridge, where we joined local farmers and the Dartmoor Landscape Recovery Team for a delicious BBQ and an evening of sharing stories. Jo Furtado, a RENEW PhD student working with commoners in Cumbria, shared her conversations with Laurie and Wendy (Farm and Commons Coordinators with the Dartmoor Landscape Recovery Team):
Above: A marsh fritillary hiding from sight. Image credit: Kelly Stevens
We discussed the challenges of moorland restoration on common land, particularly the complexities of coordinating nature recovery agreements across multiple graziers with varying needs and timescales. The team is trialling practical solutions such as increased shepherding, maintaining mixed grazing with cattle, sheep, and ponies, and planting trees to control invasive species like European gorse. Including payment for farmers’ time in their Landscape Recovery bid has also made the initiative more appealing. It was encouraging to hear ideas that resonate with work happening in Cumbria, and I’m hopeful they secure the funding to take this forward.
The next day, we began a day and a half of stakeholder participation training with Dialogue Matters, learning skills and approaches for running inclusive, meaningful conversations with diverse groups:
I found the facilitation training by Dialogue Matters to be thoroughly engaging and purposeful in shaping an understanding of what good facilitation means. I hope to apply these learnings and techniques in Explore Framework (Natural England) facilitated workshops with local governments. Jamie McCauley RENEW Theme 2 Research Fellow
The Dialogues Matters training was really helpful in teaching us different techniques, and a safe space to practice them. For me, it was also valuable for consolidating previous learning and skill development, and for gaining confidence in applying these skills. I’m sure the learning and techniques will be useful (with some adaptation) for various aspects of stakeholder engagement work I’ll be doing in future. Carolyn Petersen RENEW X3 Knowledge Broker Impact Fellow
I really learned a new appreciation for some of the small and easy steps that can be taken to smoothly run a workshop, that seem simple at the time but really make a difference in practice. Sophie Stenson RENEW PhD student
I found the facilitation training valuable, even for those unlikely to lead such activities. It provided insight into how conservation decisions are made in practice and will help shape our nature recovery land use decision models to better support deliberative processes. David Baker Theme 3 Research Fellow
After training, a few of us climbed the hill across the valley, taking in the views from a couple of Tors before descending along the West Webburn River—where a few brave souls took a refreshing dip or paddle. We returned to a hearty meal from our wonderful caterers (thanks Michelle at i-Cater!), who kept us well-fed with wholesome food and (most importantly) irresistible puddings and cakes.
Above: Ponds, bogs & rivers provide essential habitats for salmon, trout, dragonflies, mosses & ferns, as well as Caleb Parkin. Image credit: Caleb Parkin
Above: Discovered on Dartmoor, the privet hawk moth, the UK’s largest moth species. Image credit: Kelly Stevens
Members of the RENEW team: From the back: Siddarth Kumar, Marcus Rhodes, Becca Short, David Baker, Kelly Stevens, Jo Furtado, Ryan Shum, David Bavin, Em Squire, Anqi Liu and Caleb Parkin. Image credit: Caleb Parkin.
On our final morning, we reconnected with the Dartmoor Landscape Recovery Team to learn more about their work and to share updates from the RENEW project. This exchange led to new ideas for the RENEW ExCASES missions, including grazing myth-busting and exploring the interaction between the public and livestock on the commons. It was a fitting end to a fantastic event full of learning, idea-sharing, and connection.
Now, back home, it feels strangely quiet without the morning chorus of farm animals, birds—and the elusive cuckoo—to wake us.
For a full sensory exploration of the visit check out poet and PhD student Caleb Parkin’s beautiful poem ‘On the wing’ below:
On the Wing
Challacombe Farm
Naomi gazes over the tin pits, hidden
in the heather. This landscape written,
overwritten, peatbog topography smudged
across moochy swamps. How Tarmac
bisects what could be the blueprint
for a beaver’s home: conifer road,
redline, constraint. A road which sinks
into the marshes, where the stained-
glass fritillary wings are shattered visions
of landscape. A valley, viewed from above.
Look closer into that yellowing mosaic
and you can see the microscopic cattle,
Naomi’s giant pets; the no-bother magic
mushroomers, gathering in visions;
the lines on these wings, miniscule dry-
wall shiners, the odd dropped corner
still standing, centuries later; all the obvious
tessellations of time: tin-mine time,
chrysalis time, farm time. Don’t be a
marsh fritillary, says Naomi, they are rubbish
at having sex. But they do inspire affection,
competition: a golf cup repurposed as
award for shares of metapopulation. So much
heavy lifting on such slight wings: of loneliness,
connection, delivered door-to-door along lanes,
restorying figures in this landscape, on the wing.
The hillside weeps water, light green through
inorganic bracken. And hillside recalls when
wolves trod within the pawprints of bears; time
scribed by more than just toes, cloven hoofs.
Walls remember warrens they once hemmed
in for tin-miner protein. How humans move
through the open works of ourselves, camp
on the mosses and lichens in our temporary
lives, lighting sparks of blame and leaving
embers of truth. We are a bluebell blip
on the grazed glaze of this meadow. We
are aggy, spitty, spongey alpacas, peering
over fences – out of place, settled in.
How do you get a signal up here?
On the wing of one of nine fritillaries,
in a meadow slowly dusking into shadow.
How do you get a signal? Here, us flecks
between stone walls, flimsy as pigment.
How do you? One of ten now. How?
One of twelve, hard to spot: so small
and adrift in this brief beam of sun.
– Caleb Parkin, RENEW ECR Visit to Dartmoor, May 2025
