Pathwinds Outdoors
Supportive outdoor experiences for women and mixed groups, encouraging everyone to experience freedom, confidence, and connection.
As a female guide and tutor, I bring lived experience of some of the barriers women can face in outdoor spaces.
This helps me create a more understanding, supportive environment where confidence can grow at a comfortable pace.
About Pathwinds Outdoors
Pathwinds Outdoors was created for everyone who feels drawn to wild places and wants to explore Dartmoor’s open moorland with confidence.
Led by a knowledgeable and qualified Hill & Moorland Leader and camp leader, offering tailored guided walks to suit your ability being thoughtfully planned for small private groups of up to eight, including families, couples, and solo individuals. Whether you're visiting Devon, gathering friends for something meaningful, or wanting to explore on pathless terrain, visit historic tin mines ancient settlements, explore tors or learn about the myths and legends of Dartmoor.
Each walk is intentionally paced and tailored to your interests. From half-day explorations to full-day adventures, the aim is simple, enjoy the moor in a way that feels personal, meaningful and grounded.
Dartmoor navigation courses and skills workshops
Dartmoor can feel vast and untamed, that's part of its magic. But navigation in open moorland can be daunting. Improving self confidence, knowledge and self sufficiency grows through understanding the land, reading the terrain, and trusting your judgement. Pathwinds Outdoors offers that growth in a calm, inclusive environment where questions are welcomed and learning happens naturally through experience.
Many capable people from a variety of backgrounds including hillwalkers or those returning to the outdoors after a break quietly doubt themselves. These sessions gently rebuild that trust. The focus is about practical skills, building self improvement, resilience, and feeling at home in the wild.
I believe in everyone having access to open spaces, outdoor activities and workshops, being inclusive embracing all women groups and encourage solo individuals as well as offering mixed adult groups of the same level of fitness and experience.
Throughout the year, I offer engaging and accessible workshops for anyone eager to learn navigation and moorland skills, with complimentary spaces provided available to make participation possible for all.
Whether joining a guided walk a wild camping experience or a skills-based workshop, you can find further information above or by using the contacts form.
I provide outdoor skills for adults. Focusing on women while welcoming mixed groups. All workshops, including wild camp experiences, can be booked as female-only sessions. These are also open to women's walking groups, individuals, and organisations. Upcoming dates are listed on the workshop calendar or you can book a date to suit you, check back regularly for updates.
These group workshops are universal to suit your experience, beginners are greatly encouraged and are designed to give you confidence for hill walking in remote areas. Navigation, along with the overnight Dartmoor camp experience days between April and October can be combined, this is valuable if you want to plan your own routes and camp solo, hiking new areas by map and compass.Some of the workshops are in house but each have a element of practical and theory skills, being very hands on, mastering the basics is a key skill for experiencing Dartmoor in its finest surroundings.
Dartmoor a timeless landscape of wildlife and rich history
Dartmoor is a national park one of the wildest and most remote areas in the southwest of England, covering about 368 square miles of rugged upland designated as open access land combining 50,000 hectares of open country including the crow act 2000. These areas are largely open moorland, and is a place of careful managed conservation, biodiversity while providing space for recreation. This allows visitors to have the freedom to explore, Dartmoor's extensive footpaths and unique terrain.
The landscape here is at high altitude acting like a big sponge absorbing rainfall, feeding the extensive river systems that surrounding the moorland's before eventually flowing out to sea. In some areas the high moor in some areas absorbs this rainfall forming deep peat deposits and blanket bog, some of which are several metres deep. This creates a diverse range of flora and fauna: vast expanses of purple heather, yellow gorse, bog cotton and bilberries, can bloom throughout summer. Sphagnum moss is vital to the wetter blanket bog environments, helping retain water and preventing carbon from escaping into the atmosphere by protecting the acidic peat from erosion. Dartmoor peatlands alone store an estimated 10 million tonnes of carbon, equivalent to the annual c02 emissions from roughly 2 million cars.
It’s dominated by large granite outcrops dating back to the Carboniferous period around 60 million years ago. The area is steeped in history, dotted with ancient standing stone circles, cists, cairns, and Bronze Age and stone age settlements. Over the centuries, hunter-gatherers, tin miners, and farmers have all left their mark, shaping the landscape we see today. Rich in culture and archaeological treasures, Dartmoor remains a place of timeless beauty and heritage.
Native to Dartmoor are the Dartmoor ponies, cattle, and sheep, all owned by working farmers and commoners. They roam freely, creating a biodiverse environment by grazing on rough vegetation and various grasses which encourages new growth. The ponies are untamed and congregate in herds, so it’s best to watch them from a distance. without interference or approaching them.
Many rare species live on Dartmoor. Equally important for wildlife are the blanket bogs, upland heaths and oak woodlands, all of global significance. Temperate rainforests here provide some of the rarest and most delicate mosses and lichens, which are of scientific site of interest due to the clean air quality. Wistman’s Wood is one such SSSI, where “string of sausages” lichens slowly thrive, creating the wispy, dangling fruticose features over the characteristic Pedunculate oak trees. It is estimated that the oldest specimens are roughly around 400-500 years old, although legends suggest they are thousands of years old.
There is something here for everyone vast valleys, hidden waterfalls, miles of walking trails, picnic spots by a river, scenic views, birdwatching, cycling, or a cream tea in a quaint village.
Meet your guide Becky
My connection to Dartmoor began long before I ever imagined leading others across it.
As a child visiting family in Devon, I was introduced to a landscape that felt vast, strange and slightly otherworldly. I remember Widecombe, Princetown, the ponies grazing, and being warned about pixies, legends and the sudden fog that could roll in without notice. Dartmoor felt eerie and alive, a place to respect.
Originally from Kent, I relocated to Devon in 2012, drawn by the coastline and the wild spaces I had loved since childhood. For many years I was an equine enthusiast and kept my horse on Dartmoor for a time, learning first hand how quickly the weather can shift and how deeply grounding life outdoors can be.
In 2017, after seeing photographs of the Lake District, I felt an undeniable pull to explore further. What began as curiosity grew into a commitment to hillwalking. I travelled across the UK the fells of the Lakes, the mountains of Wales, the Peak District, Exmoor, Bodmin, and the Highlands of Scotland, steadily building experience and confidence.
Wild camping became a turning point. My first night on Dartmoor in 2021 was restless, every sound felt amplified, and at one point I was convinced a sheep had broken into my tent (thankfully, it was only a dream). But I kept going. Every fortnight I returned to the moor, hiking and camping somewhere new. With each trip, I became more confident and knowledgeable.
In 2024, after completing a solo three-day walk along the Archangels Way, I realised I wanted to build a life centred around the landscapes that had shaped me. Soon after, I began training as a Hill & Moorland Leader, a journey that took me across England, Wales and Scotland during my consolidation period. I qualified in February 2026.
Becoming a Hill & Moorland Leader and qualifying as a Camp leader with Outdoor first aid formalised what I had already learned through experience, wild places build resilience, clarity and self trust.
Through Pathwinds Outdoors, I now guide others across Dartmoor's open moorland, lead navigation workshops, and offer carefully structured wild camping experiences. My approach is calm, steady and inclusive — rooted in the belief that confidence outdoors grows through understanding the land , helps with well being and a sense of freedom and connection.
Wild places have shaped my life.
Upcoming Events and workshops