With its heather-covered moorland and deep wooded gorges, beautiful lake-like reservoirs and tumbling rocky rivers, thriving market towns and villages, patchwork farmland and craggy granite tors, the Dartmoor National Park covers an area of 368 square miles - the largest and wildest area of open country in southern England. Nearly half of this is open moorland, with a further 11% covered by forests and woodland. The National Park Authority looks after the moor’s natural beauty, and the economic and social well-being of the 32,000 people who live and work on Dartmoor.
Dartmoor isn’t just wild, it’s special too. There are nature reserves and sites of Special Scientific Interest, endangered birds and rare plants, and thousands of ancient monuments and archaeological sites, including burial chambers, stone circles and menhirs - more than anywhere else in Europe. There are the remains of mines and quarries, and on the fringes of the moor, you’ll find ruined castles, pretty villages, medieval abbeys, ancient churches and bridges.
You can blaze your own trail or join one of many guided walks, and for the more adventurous, there are stables offering horse rides for all ages, cycle routes and bikes for hire, angling on reservoirs and rivers, and challenging rock climbs. And if all this sounds too exhausting, then take time out at one of Dartmoor’s fascinating museums, stately homes and gardens, heritage centres and vintage railways.