Things To Do near Haytor National Park Visitor Centre
Battle of Bovey Heath Battlefield, Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 4 miles away)
Near the eastern border of Dartmoor National Park, on the outskirts of the gateway town Bovey Tracey, is Bovey Heathfield Local Nature Reserve. In the seventeenth century, during the English Civil War, this was the site of the Battle of Bovey Heath. There's an information board on site that reads:...
Church Way, Widecombe in the Moor, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 4 miles away)
The Lichway/Lych Way is a well known and reasonably well signposted long distance walking route that runs from the heart of Dartmoor across a section of its high moorland to Lydford St Petroc's Church on the National Park's western boundary. People who lived in the heart of Dartmoor were required to...
Bearacleave Wood (National Trust), Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 4 miles away)
Wray Brook flows through the Wray Valley, roughly speaking, between Moretonhampstead and Lustleigh. The valley is lined with steep-sided wooded valley walls. On the north side of the Wray Valley, these woods push past the Lustleigh area down to Bovey Tracey. The colours are extraordinary in Autumn....
Shaptor Woods, Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 4 miles away)
Shaptor Wood is a chaotic, boulder strewn wood cloaking a valley wall as it tapers down towards Bovey Tracey on the eastern border of Dartmoor National Park. In the upper section of the wood is Shaptor Rock with its massive views across the National Park and South Devon. Shaptor Down is the oak...
Bovey Tracey Parish Church of SS Peter, Paul & Thomas of Canterbury, Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 4 miles away)
On 29th December 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. According to the guide to 'Bovey Tracey Parish Church', there is 'a dramatic link with our small town and its Parish Church through one of the perpetrators of that dreadful crime, Sir William de Tracy. The suggesti...
Bearacleave Wood, Shaptor Wood and Shaptor Rock Circular Walk, Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 4 miles away)
This is a beautiful woodland walk on the eastern border of Dartmoor National Park near the gateway town Bovey Tracey. It starts at the edge of the National Trust's Bearacleave Wood and climbs through Shaptor Wood to the viewpoint on top of Shaptor Rock before crossing farmland back to where you star...
Shaptor Rock, Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 4 miles away)
Shaptor Rock is well known in the Dartmoor climbing community. You'll often see people bouldering on its chunky rock face with padded mats on the woodland floor below. For walkers, the views from the top of Shaptor Rock are exceptional. To the west and north west are the National Park's high moors....
Wind Tor, Widecombe in the Moor, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 4 miles away)
A section of the Two Moors Way runs along the spine of Hamel Down and then descends to Dunstone Down and Bittleford Down before moorland meets a mosaic of small fields. At the southern end of this moorland, where Dunstone Down merges into Bittleford Down, is Wind Tor. It's one of Dartmoor's flat out...
Hameldown Beacon, Widecombe in the Moor, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 4 miles away)
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a beacon as 'a fire or light set up in a high or prominent position as a warning, signal, or celebration’. There is a chain of beacons on Dartmoor running from the edge of the north moor down to the edge of the south moor. Hameldown Beacon is, roughly spe...
Figgie Daniel, North Bovey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 4 miles away)
Bowerman's Nose is, arguably, the most famous stack of granite in Dartmoor National Park. It rises from a jumble of rock at the north west side of Hayne Down. Hayne Down is one of a number of islands of moorland surrounded by farmland and fields near the main mass of Dartmoor's high moo...
Berry Pound, Widecombe in the Moor, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 4 miles away)
'On the Widecombe side of the little stream, which runs through a hollow, is the enclosure known as Berry Pound ... The area covered is very much smaller than that occupied by Grim's Pound, and the vallum is low and not of great width'.
Easdon Hill, North Bovey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 4 miles away)
Easdon Down is, roughly speaking, a circular island of moorland. It rises to a broad, flat ridge. Easdon Tor and Whooping Rock are to the west of the ridge. The granite stack of Figgie Daniel is to the east. The Ordnance Survey Explorer OL28 'Dartmoor' map marks the east side as Easdon Hill. As such...
Whooping Rock, North Bovey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 4 miles away)
Explore the moors and coastline of South West England and you'll come across plenty of 'whooping' or 'hooting' rocks. Some are associated with fantastic stories. Our favourite is the 'Hooting Cairn' on The Land's End Peninsula/The Penwith Peninsula of West Cornwall which you can read about in R...
Hamel Down, Widecombe in the Moor, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 4 miles away)
Drive along the A30 that skirts the northern boundary of Dartmoor National Park and you'll see the unmistakable dome of Cosdon Hill topped by Cosdon Beacon. Further south, towards the heart of the National Park is the equally vast Hamel Down topped by a tor, barrows and its own beacon. The views fro...
Two Barrows, Widecombe in the Moor, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 4 miles away)
There's a display cabinet in Postbridge National Park Visitor Centre which contains a replica of the Hameldon Dagger or Hamel Down Dagger. The display reads: 'Hameldon dagger. In 1872 the original dagger was found with a burial of burnt human bones in a cairn or barrow at Hameldon. It cons...