Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
DARTMOOR NATIONAL PARK
Dartmoor is an ancient, compelling landscape, so different from the rest of Devon that a
visit feels like falling straight into Tolkien's
Lord of the Rings
trilogy. Exposed granite hills
(called tors) crest on the horizon, linked by swathes of honey-tinged moors. Streams
tumble over moss-smothered boulders in woods of twisted trees. The centre of this 368-sq-
mile national park is the higher moor; a vast, treeless expanse.
On sunny, summer days Dartmoor is idyllic. With ponies wandering at will and sheep
grazing beside the road, it's a cinematic landscape that prompted Steven Spielberg to film
the WWI epic
War Horse
here. But Dartmoor is also a mercurial place where the urban il-
lusion of control over our surroundings is stripped away and the elements are in charge. So
it's also the setting for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's
The Hound of the Baskervilles
, and in
sleeting rain and swirling mists you suddenly see why: the moor morphs into a bleak wil-
derness where tales of a phantom hound can seem very real indeed.
Dartmoor's settlements range from brooding Princetown, picturesque Widecombe-in-
the-Moor, and tiny Postbridge, to genteel Chagford and Ashburton. In between lies a natur-
al breakout zone offering superb hiking, cycling, riding, climbing and white-water kayak-
ing, rustic pubs and fancy restaurants, wild camping nooks and cosy country-house hotels -
perfect boltholes when the fog rolls in.
