Outdoors & Nature in Dartmoor National Park
Spinster's Rock, Chagford, Dartmoor National Park
Neolithic burial chamber erected around 3500-2500 BC Explore high moor across the Westcountry and you’ll come across plenty of dolmens or burial chambers (see below). These distinctive structures consist of standing stones topped by a large capstone. Spinster’s Rock in Dartmoor’s National P...
West Devon Way, Dartmoor, Dartmoor National Park
One of the best ways to get to know the north west, west and south west of Dartmoor National Park is to walk the West Devon Way. At 37 miles, you'll either have to make a holiday of it or break the walk down into smaller chunks. The following describes the route running north to south from Okeham...
Tarka Trail in Dartmoor, Dartmoor, Dartmoor National Park
The Tarka Trail, named after Henry Williamson's novel 'Tarka the Otter', is a circular 180 mile long distance footpath running from North Devon down to the fringe of North Dartmoor. The team behind this website live in the north east and east sections of Dartmoor. We tend to describe routes start...
Amicombe Hill, Lydford, Dartmoor National Park
Dartmoor specialises in vast, shallow domed hills that stretch for miles across high moorland. Amicombe Hill is one of the biggest and potentially boggiest. It's not a destination in its own right. You tend to cross, or skirt, it to visit places such as Fur Tor, Great Kneeset and Black Ridge Peat Pa...
Rattlebrook Hill, Lydford, Dartmoor National Park
Rattle Brook is a relatively small waterway flowing from high moor down to the River Tavy. Amicombe Hill curves east of Rattle Brook. Rattlebrook Hill rises steeply to the west of the brook. It's topped by a small granite outcrop called Chat Tor. It's fringed by much larger and more impressive...
Metheral Hill, Belstone, Dartmoor National Park
Metheral Hill isn't on most people's list of hills and tors to visit in Dartmoor National Park. Located at the south eastern end of Taw Marsh in the northern section of the Park, Metheral is in the shadow of the impressive conical of Steeperton Tor. It's a shame people don't visit as...
Erme Plains, Harford, Dartmoor National Park
Today, Erme Plains is remote moorland in the heart of Dartmoor's south moor. It's bisected by the River Erme. The eastern side of Erme Plains is easily accessible. The western side of Erme Plains is more difficult to access. The moorland here is packed with points of interest including the...
White Hill and White Hill Settlement, Belstone, Dartmoor National Park
Marked White Hill on the Ordnance Survey Explorer OL28 'Dartmoor' map, and Big Whit Hill on the Harvey British Mountain Map 'Dartmoor' map, when visiting, this hill appears to be an extension of the much larger, and higher, Cosdon Hill. For example, as you approach White Hill across...
Devil's Tor, Princetown, Dartmoor National Park
Devil's Tor is a small rocky outcrop in a superb location next to the extraordinary Beardown Man Standing Stone. Go for the views, the standing stone and the evocative name. Devil's Tor is situated in boggy, rough cut moorland on Dartmoor's north plateau. Whilst it's relatively ea...
Beardown Man Standing Stone, Princetown, Dartmoor National Park
The River Cowsic rises in a particularly boggy area of Dartmoor's north plateau close to the source of the River Tavy and West Dart River. The river cuts a deep valley that runs down to the Two Bridges area. If you walk the moorland west of this river, you'll see a tall, thin object breaking the sky...
Belstone Great Green, Belstone, Dartmoor National Park
There's a car park on the right as you enter Belstone. Walk from this car park towards The Tors Inn and Belstone Church and you'll see a small village green with stocks to the left. There are two roads. Follow the left hand road and you come to a pub garden and a large grassy area that drops steeply...
Lydford Tor, Princetown, Dartmoor National Park
The Lichway/Lych Way runs, roughly speaking, between Bellever Forest in the heart of Dartmoor to Lydford on the western border of the National Park. For centuries, people working the moors had to carry their dead across the moors to bury them at Lydford Church. Lydford Tor is situated by the Lichway...
Hookney Down, Moretonhampstead, Dartmoor National Park
This is an area of moorland between, roughly speaking, Hookney Tor and Hameldown Tor and King Tor on the edge of the high moor near English Heritage's Grimspound. It's particularly beautiful in late summer when the heather flowers. It runs into the vast whale's back of moorland that is Hamel Down...
Cowsic Head, Princetown, Dartmoor National Park
The River Cowsic is a short river that flows into the West Dart River at Two Bridges in the heart of Dartmoor National Park. The River Cowsic rises at Cowsic Head on a very boggy section of moorland on Dartmoor's north plateau. The Cowsic Head is close to Beardown Man Standing Stone and Devil's Tor....
King Tor, Moretonhampstead, Dartmoor National Park
Dartmoor's high moorland rises from rolling countryside. The edge of the moor is lined with tors. For example, among others, Belstone Tors, Sourton Tors, White Tor, Pew Tor, Trowlesworthy Tors, Haytor Rocks and Hound Tor all overlook gentler landscapes. King Tor is another. Located to the ea...