A WEEK-long festival to celebrate the heritage of the Blackdown Hills National Landscape is taking place next month.

The Blackdown Hills Partnership, which is based in Hemyock, has arranged nine events across the week from September 7 to 14.

It is aimed at encouraging people to become involved in conserving and enhancing the natural beauty of the Blackdowns.

Among the festival events is an open day at Hemyock Castle on September 8 from 2pm to 5pm.

Visitors will be able to take self-guided tours of the surviving ruins of the moated medieval castle, including the remains of the gatehouse archway, towers, curtain walls, and moat which surround the older manor house.

The castle dates to 1380 when King Richard II effectively granted ‘planning permission’ to crenellate the older fortified manor house.

On the same day there is a ‘tombs and gravestones’ talk and tea with Devon archaeologist Charlotte Coles explaining how people can ‘read’ a cemetery.

It will be held at 4pm in Hemyock’s Blackdown Healthy Living Centre, where Ms Coles will teach visitors about monuments found in local churchyards, from the tombs and headstones to catacombs and vaults, and what they say about the dead.

South West Airfields Heritage Trust chairman Brian Lane-Smith will give a guided tour of historic RAF Upottery airfield, known as Smeatharpe, on September 10, at 10am.

He will explain the role of the base during the Second World War when it was used by the Royal Air Force, United States Army Air Forces, and United States Navy until its closure in 1948.

Other activities include a walking tour of Coldharbour Mill, Uffculme, with Bryher Mason exploring the industrial history of the River Culm, guided tours of Dunkeswell Abbey to learn about the Cistercian monks who lived there, and a St Mary’s Church, Hemyock, open day.