Deep Time and the Neolithic Mind:
Dartmoor Spring Residency –
Monday March 9th to Thursday March 12th 2026
This residency invites artists to explore the “Neolithic mind” through the unique landscape of Dartmoor, one of Britain’s richest prehistoric terrains, marked by stone rows, cairns, hut circles, and the enduring presence of deep time. The Neolithic on Dartmoor reflects a shift toward settled life, new relationships with land and weather, ritual gathering, and the crafting of meaning through material and place.
We invite artists to join us to respond to, reinterpret, or interrogate this early layer of human consciousness as it resonates through Dartmoor’s moorland, geology, ecology, and ancient structures. How might Neolithic ways of knowing—cyclical time, material sensibility, animistic worldviews, communal ritual offer new perspectives on our contemporary relationship with landscape, memory, and environment?
Artists working in any medium are encouraged to use Dartmoor itself as catalyst, collaborator, or provocation in exploring the Neolithic mind.
Residency Location
We reside in a beautiful centre with direct access to the high moors. Bernard’s Acre is a self-catering chalet-style accommodation near the village of Belstone in Devon. Less than ten minutes from the A30, yet at the foot of some of the highest and wildest parts of Dartmoor, Bernard’s Acre has an unrivalled setting.
After crossing the stream at the bottom of the garden you are at the foot of Cosdon Hill (Cawsand Beacon), one of the highest points on the moor.
There is plenty of shared space with a large kitchen/diner area plus a garden room with wood burning stove. The property runs down to the River Taw in the valley, with direct access onto the moors.
Residency Leaders:
Dr Joanna Mayes made her practice-based PhD Research on Dartmoor, making creative research actions to consider the way in which spending time in a landscape changes us, especially in relation to different ways of thinking about how we relate to our environment and our place within our environment. Joanna specialises in bringing the environment into a film container, using plants to develop and colour 16mm and 8mm film. We will be making a participatory film as part of the residency.
As part of the residency, participants will also engage with archaeoastronomy through walks and stargazing sessions led by experienced archaeoastronomer and Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society Carolyn Kennett. Her expertise in this field and Dartmoor’s celestial alignments (its solstitial markers, lunar rhythms, and sky-oriented monuments) will offer artists a deeper understanding of how Neolithic communities perceived and inhabited cyclical time. Working with the ancient skies above Dartmoor, artists can attune to deep time, exploring how long-term patterns of light, shadow, and seasonality shaped the Neolithic human experience.
Outcomes
Participants are invited to showcase their work on our networking channels and contribute to our social media.
Planned Residency Schedule:
Monday – Belstone and Tors Inn
13:00 – 15:00 walk - Walk to 9 stones circle, Belstone with time to research outdoors – analogue pinhole photography and 8mm group filmmaking at the circle (weather dependent)
17:00 – Arrival at accommodation and welcome meeting, shared supper
Tuesday – High Moors and ancient pathways
From 9:00 Longer Walk to onto the high moors and visit Codson triple stone row
13.00 lunch
14.00 optional outdoor swim or personal research time
17:00 – drinks and optional supper at the Tors Inn, Belstone (we all pay for ourselves)
19:00 Group creative response/reflection time
- Evening – stargazing
Wednesday – Scorhill Stone Circle and Oxenham Arms
9:00 Morning meeting at Church House
10:00 Carshare to walk to Scorhill Stone Circle on the high moors
13:00 Optional lunch at Oxenham Arms. Ancient monastery (haunted...) with a prehistoric menhir built in the walls and piratical connections! (we all pay for ourselves)
14:00 Afternoon - personal research time/ cameras and processing
18:00 Evening – own/shared food. End of residency reflection time.
Thursday -
10.00 pack up and leave accommodation
Dartmoor walk – Merrivale Ancient Landscape
13:00 finish
The schedule may change due to weather :)
All residency activities are optional to allow for flexible artist research time.
Pricing
Residency Space/Accommodation
Bernard’s Acre is a self-catering chalet-style accommodation near the village of Belstone in Devon. The property has 6 bedrooms for between two and five people in a mixture of single and bunk beds. Accommodation is in same sex shared rooms as standard - please get in contact for different needs or queries. Five of the six bedrooms are en-suite with Belstone designed with access and an en-suite able to accommodate wheelchairs. Included in the rebuild are wheelchair accessible facilities, wider doors and an accessible shower/wet room.
Inside there are seven washrooms with showers and heated floors, a further WC, a living and dining area, large entrance lobby with drying racks and a garden room. The well-equipped kitchen includes two large ovens.
Early summer 2020 saw the completion of a 5-year project to update and refurbish the building, with a complete internal rebuild. Bernard’s Acre is now fully insulated, every room has radiators, bathrooms have heated floors, and warm air from the lounge is pumped throughout the building. 2023 saw the addition of solar panels and a battery.
Originally purchased in memory of a Church Youth Worker in the 1970’s and set up as a Christian Charitable Trust, Bernards Acre is a non-profit making charity with every penny being ploughed back into improving facilities and making sure the centre is fit for the next 50 years.
Practicalities
Despite its secluded position, Bernard’s Acre is only about 2 miles from the A30 dual carriageway which in turn connects with the M5 just outside Exeter. The nearest village is Belstone, and the town of Okehampton is about 10 minutes drive away.
Bernard’s Acre is reached by a narrow road, which ends as a track with space in Bernard’s Acre to park several cars.
For more information about Dartmoor, please visit www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk. Bernard’s Acre is ideally suited to walking on the Moor but please do not lead groups onto moorland without relevant experience or qualifications.
Join Us
Whether you’re an artist, researcher, or enthusiast, this residency is an opportunity to connect with Dartmoor’s rich heritage, explore your practice, and join a community of like-minded creatives.
Apply now to secure your place by emailing this application form to [email protected]
If you have any further queries, please email us or phone Carolyn on 07415 123156
Dartmoor Spring Residency –
Monday March 9th to Thursday March 12th 2026
This residency invites artists to explore the “Neolithic mind” through the unique landscape of Dartmoor, one of Britain’s richest prehistoric terrains, marked by stone rows, cairns, hut circles, and the enduring presence of deep time. The Neolithic on Dartmoor reflects a shift toward settled life, new relationships with land and weather, ritual gathering, and the crafting of meaning through material and place.
We invite artists to join us to respond to, reinterpret, or interrogate this early layer of human consciousness as it resonates through Dartmoor’s moorland, geology, ecology, and ancient structures. How might Neolithic ways of knowing—cyclical time, material sensibility, animistic worldviews, communal ritual offer new perspectives on our contemporary relationship with landscape, memory, and environment?
Artists working in any medium are encouraged to use Dartmoor itself as catalyst, collaborator, or provocation in exploring the Neolithic mind.
Residency Location
We reside in a beautiful centre with direct access to the high moors. Bernard’s Acre is a self-catering chalet-style accommodation near the village of Belstone in Devon. Less than ten minutes from the A30, yet at the foot of some of the highest and wildest parts of Dartmoor, Bernard’s Acre has an unrivalled setting.
After crossing the stream at the bottom of the garden you are at the foot of Cosdon Hill (Cawsand Beacon), one of the highest points on the moor.
There is plenty of shared space with a large kitchen/diner area plus a garden room with wood burning stove. The property runs down to the River Taw in the valley, with direct access onto the moors.
Residency Leaders:
Dr Joanna Mayes made her practice-based PhD Research on Dartmoor, making creative research actions to consider the way in which spending time in a landscape changes us, especially in relation to different ways of thinking about how we relate to our environment and our place within our environment. Joanna specialises in bringing the environment into a film container, using plants to develop and colour 16mm and 8mm film. We will be making a participatory film as part of the residency.
As part of the residency, participants will also engage with archaeoastronomy through walks and stargazing sessions led by experienced archaeoastronomer and Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society Carolyn Kennett. Her expertise in this field and Dartmoor’s celestial alignments (its solstitial markers, lunar rhythms, and sky-oriented monuments) will offer artists a deeper understanding of how Neolithic communities perceived and inhabited cyclical time. Working with the ancient skies above Dartmoor, artists can attune to deep time, exploring how long-term patterns of light, shadow, and seasonality shaped the Neolithic human experience.
Outcomes
Participants are invited to showcase their work on our networking channels and contribute to our social media.
Planned Residency Schedule:
Monday – Belstone and Tors Inn
13:00 – 15:00 walk - Walk to 9 stones circle, Belstone with time to research outdoors – analogue pinhole photography and 8mm group filmmaking at the circle (weather dependent)
17:00 – Arrival at accommodation and welcome meeting, shared supper
Tuesday – High Moors and ancient pathways
From 9:00 Longer Walk to onto the high moors and visit Codson triple stone row
13.00 lunch
14.00 optional outdoor swim or personal research time
17:00 – drinks and optional supper at the Tors Inn, Belstone (we all pay for ourselves)
19:00 Group creative response/reflection time
- Evening – stargazing
Wednesday – Scorhill Stone Circle and Oxenham Arms
9:00 Morning meeting at Church House
10:00 Carshare to walk to Scorhill Stone Circle on the high moors
13:00 Optional lunch at Oxenham Arms. Ancient monastery (haunted...) with a prehistoric menhir built in the walls and piratical connections! (we all pay for ourselves)
14:00 Afternoon - personal research time/ cameras and processing
18:00 Evening – own/shared food. End of residency reflection time.
Thursday -
10.00 pack up and leave accommodation
Dartmoor walk – Merrivale Ancient Landscape
13:00 finish
The schedule may change due to weather :)
All residency activities are optional to allow for flexible artist research time.
Pricing
- £375: Full price, includes shared accommodation for three nights.
- £325: For participants arranging their own accommodation.
- £250: 1 x Subsidised artist place for those in need of support (competitive, limited availability).
- £200: 1 x Subsidised local artist place (selected by need and enthusiasm, limited availability).
Residency Space/Accommodation
Bernard’s Acre is a self-catering chalet-style accommodation near the village of Belstone in Devon. The property has 6 bedrooms for between two and five people in a mixture of single and bunk beds. Accommodation is in same sex shared rooms as standard - please get in contact for different needs or queries. Five of the six bedrooms are en-suite with Belstone designed with access and an en-suite able to accommodate wheelchairs. Included in the rebuild are wheelchair accessible facilities, wider doors and an accessible shower/wet room.
Inside there are seven washrooms with showers and heated floors, a further WC, a living and dining area, large entrance lobby with drying racks and a garden room. The well-equipped kitchen includes two large ovens.
Early summer 2020 saw the completion of a 5-year project to update and refurbish the building, with a complete internal rebuild. Bernard’s Acre is now fully insulated, every room has radiators, bathrooms have heated floors, and warm air from the lounge is pumped throughout the building. 2023 saw the addition of solar panels and a battery.
Originally purchased in memory of a Church Youth Worker in the 1970’s and set up as a Christian Charitable Trust, Bernards Acre is a non-profit making charity with every penny being ploughed back into improving facilities and making sure the centre is fit for the next 50 years.
Practicalities
Despite its secluded position, Bernard’s Acre is only about 2 miles from the A30 dual carriageway which in turn connects with the M5 just outside Exeter. The nearest village is Belstone, and the town of Okehampton is about 10 minutes drive away.
Bernard’s Acre is reached by a narrow road, which ends as a track with space in Bernard’s Acre to park several cars.
For more information about Dartmoor, please visit www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk. Bernard’s Acre is ideally suited to walking on the Moor but please do not lead groups onto moorland without relevant experience or qualifications.
Join Us
Whether you’re an artist, researcher, or enthusiast, this residency is an opportunity to connect with Dartmoor’s rich heritage, explore your practice, and join a community of like-minded creatives.
Apply now to secure your place by emailing this application form to [email protected]
If you have any further queries, please email us or phone Carolyn on 07415 123156
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