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Given countrywide Park status in 1951, Dartmoor sits in the south of county Devon, southwest England, and covers an area of 365 square miles.  Nearly 1/2 of the park is swampland, a paradise for wildlife and those wanting to escape the rigours of town life. 

Dartmoor Forest, owned by the Duchy of Cornwall since 1307, is a former royal hunting ground and makes up the overwhelming majority of the region.  The grass and heather moors are scattered with large granite boulders scattered amongst the rolling hills.  Wild ponies graze among the barren hills ; in spite of running wild, all have human owners and are gathered annually each autumn. 

roughly ten percent of the moor is wood, much of it running along the tranquil river valleys.  Stone circles and burial chambers are testament to Dartmoor’s consequential and enigmatic past.  Indeed, Dartmoor is famous not only for its beautiful landscapes.  It was within the tiny village of Grimspound that Sherlock Holmes found himself digging into the hound of the Baskervilles. 

Dartmoor was one of Europe’s largest tin mining areas back in the 12th century.  The stone built houses of the miners can still be found along many of the regions streams and rivers. 

abbot’s Way runs across the southern part of the moor, racing across wild country and moorland bogs.  The area is assumed to be named after the monks who are thought to have used this trail when travelling between Buckland Abbey and Buckfast Abbey.  Man’s presence over the ages is clear in this barren land.  Hut circles all the way back to the Bronze and Iron ages remain today. 

South of monks Way sits Harford Moor.  The Middle Ages drew tin miners from far and wide looking for riches under the surface.  Today visitors are drawn by the huge wilderness and wildlife.  A medieval cross adorns Harford Church, one out of many in the area which once served as signposts for those travelling across the moors. 

Becky Falls wood Park first opened to the public in 1903.  Some of the most pleasurable walks in England’s southwest can be had here amongst the pleasant waterfalls and big granite. 

To the west is Upper Plym Valley and a stunning array of plants and wildlife.  The tracks in these parts are somewhat better to navigate than many others in the moors and provide much of interest along the way.  The spectacular moorland landscape is interspersed with abandoned tin mines dating back over a century and diverse prehistoric relics including stone and shed circles.

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