DARTMOOR ponies are being drafted in to help conserve an Iron Age hill fort.

The ponies are making a return to the Killerton estate again this year as part of a major parkland restoration project by grazing on the fort.

Having proved popular with visitors last year, the ponies are returning from January 14 to eat invasive scrub, brambles and grass.

The Killerton project aims to improve management of 100 hectares of ecologically and historically important parkland and protect the scheduled monument of the Iron Age hill fort.

Trees have been removed from the area known as the clump and the ponies will graze there, helping to clear scrub and keep down re-growth.

Ed Nicholson, Killerton, head ranger, explained: ‘The Dartmoor ponies are perfectly suited to sites such as the Clump because they are robust and nutritionally adapted to grazing scrub.

‘It is high in fibre and low in protein, the best diet for ponies.

‘They make excellent conservation grazers for sites too sensitive for heavy machinery.’

Their trampling of the ground will provide an added benefit of allowing more sunlight to reach the woodland floor, encouraging a variety of flowering plants, especially bluebells.

Andy Bramwell, visitor services officer, said: ‘It’s hard to believe but Dartmoor ponies are endangered as a breed so the National Trust consciously chooses them for its conservation grazing work.

‘We want to support the work taking place across the south west to preserve the breed and have been lent this small herd from the Dartmoor Pony Training Centre.’

They will be free to roam to graze until March.