A SIMPLE granite memorial to former Poet Laureate Ted Hughes has been discovered on an isolated hill in the heart of Dartmoor ? placed there after the poet?s death five years ago.
Ted Hughes, who lived at North Tawton, had a deep love of Dartmoor and Devon rivers and requested the memorial be placed on a spot between the sources of the rivers Teign, Dart, Taw and East Okement.
The flat granite stone was put in position on November 21, 2001, with special permission of the Prince of Wales ? the Duchy of Cornwall does not normally permit the placing of memorials on Dartmoor, but an exception was made in the case of Mr Hughes, due to his position as Poet Laureate and the fact he was a close friend of Prince Charles.
Liz Sigmund, of Callington, a friend of the poet and his first wife Sylvia Plath for many years, said: ?I knew he had left this in his will, that he wanted his name on a rock on Dartmoor ? he did specify exactly where he wanted it and that?s where his ashes are too.
?The lovely thing to me is it?s where Sylvia used to go riding. She used to get a horse from the stables at Belstone and that?s exactly where she went.?
Mrs Sigmund said the remote spot suited the ?very private, quiet person? that was Ted Hughes, a man who would have hated the idea of ?busloads of tourists? visiting his memorial.
She said she was not sure how the poet would have reacted to the fact the memorial, hidden until now, had suddenly become public knowledge.
?I don?t think he would have wanted the publicity, but on the other hand, a person who writes like he did would have to accept the fact that people would be incredibly interested. I think he would have understood that people, in the best possible spirit, will want to know where his memorial lies.?
John Weir, spokesman for Dartmoor National Park Authority, said the authority was first made aware of the wish for a memorial in 1998.
The site chosen, after consultation with the Duchy and English Nature, is outside an identified ground nesting area and permission was granted as a ?rare exception? to DNPA policy.
Mr Weir said: ?It was deliberately kept a low-key operation. I think the authority recognises the sensitivity of the area. We accepted the serendipity principle, that people would come across it and value it for what it is, it wasn?t promoted as a distinct shrine. I think we also recognised that the memorial stone itself is part of the cultural heritage of Dartmoor.?
The very isolated position of Ted Hughes? memorial means walkers will need to be determined to find it. It lies well away from formal roads, about an eight-mile hike into the moor from Belstone.