The water murmurs over the rocks below, the skylarks warn high above and the wind whispers promises in my ear. I lie back in the water and feel the strain of the walk up to the river float away from me. Dartmoor is rarely silent, but its joyous breath is always a balm to my soul. I relax. But just for a moment; conditions change quickly up on the high moor and it will soon be time to pitch my tent.
Ask any number of people to describe Dartmoor National Park and you’ll get a different answer. Within the bounds of the park you’ll discover a multi-faceted landscape, shaped not just by the natural elements but by the people who have lived and worked there. Whether you’re balancing across tussocks on the sweeping grasslands of the high moor, exploring green, wooded river valleys or enjoying pastoral farm and village scenes, you’ll discover intriguing signs of human occupation wherever you turn.
Although it’s impossible not to marvel at Dartmoor’s magnificent granite tors and open spaces, for me it’s the manmade treasure that give this special place its endless sense of fascination. Where else can you sit in a Bronze Age hut circle, locate an ancient stone cross, cross a river via a medieval clapper bridge, explore 20th-century tin workings and admire the view from a huge stack of rocks? And all on the same walk.
Dartmoor isn’t just about places, it’s about communities. Contrary to popular belief, most of the land within the 368 square miles of Dartmoor National Park isn’t owned by the National Park Authority but by a series of landowners. This diversity of ownership brings both blessings and challenges. Balancing the needs of visitors with those of other stakeholders has, since the national park’s designation in 1951, been a full-time job for many dedicated people – increasingly challenging work in today’s budget-cutting climate.
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The tors of Dartmoor
One of the most striking features of Dartmoor’s landscape is its distinctive granite tors. You can’t walk or even drive far without spotting one, and suggested numbers range from 160 to over 900 (it depends on how you count them). Wild and craggy, they rise above the open moor like crumbling castles. It’s hard to believe these weathered rocky outcrops were once molten. They’ve been solid for millions of years now and today are popular with tor collectors (known as baggers), view-seekers, climbers and artists.
Dartmoor tors have wonderful appellations. Wild and Steeperton Tors live up to their names but I’ve yet to spot goats at Higher Dunna Goat or bears at Beardown Tor. Some tors are obvious from any direction, but others are sunk into the hill on one side, making them more tricky navigation-markers. If you’re new to tor spotting or are walking with children, Haytor and nearby Hound Tor are both easy to reach and fascinating to explore. There are even greater rewards to be found on some lesser-known tors. Rippon Tor is taller than its neighbour, Haytor, and offers a trig pillar as well as stone cairns and a lovely view towards the sea at Tor Bay.
If I was asked to take you to my favourite Dartmoor tor, we might end up gazing at the hefty stacks that make up Great Links Tor or stroking Watern Tor’s delicate layers. But unless I knew you well, I wouldn’t take you to my best-loved tor. It’s a secret. If you keep exploring long enough though, you’ll find it without my help.
Ancient relics
I’d also find it difficult to tell you about my favourite historical location on Dartmoor, but not because I want to keep it quiet – there are just too many to choose from. Look at the map and you’ll see the moor is littered with the ruined remains of human occupation. Finding these remnants is what I love doing most. To me a boundary stone missing from the map, or a long row of super-short stones, are just as rewarding as more obvious finds such as the wonderfully atmospheric stone circles at Grey Wethers.
An estate agent would have a hard time selling some of Dartmoor’s older properties but relish the thought of taking on others. ‘Lonely ruin with a tree growing up the chimney’ or ‘Roofless building with gunpowder stains’ probably wouldn’t cut it with the buyers. But show them the gardens at architect Edwin Lutyens’ magnificent Castle Drogo or the Bronze-Age stone huts at Grimspound and they might have more luck.
Dartmoor’s occupants have left us with more than a treasure hunt of artefacts. Many of the walking and riding routes that circumnavigate and cross the moor have had transport significance for hundreds if not thousands of years. The Templer Way’s tramway follows the route stone took from the Haytor quarries down to the sea at Teignmouth; the Abbot’s Way crosses remote moorland between Buckfast Abbey and Tavistock Abbey; and the Lych Way was once used to carry coffins from central Dartmoor for burial at Lydford church.
Dartmoor’s human occupation is still vibrant and exciting today. With farms, villages, market towns and even a brewery and distillery, you’ll never be short of cream teas, hearty breakfasts and a good pint. Visit Princetown for its famous Jail Ale, Widecombe-in-the-Moor for a cream tea and Ashburton for its independent shops.
And don’t forget the fascinating churches. Brentor St Michael de Rupe church sits on top of its very own tor; St Peter’s at Buckland has replaced the numbers on its clock face with an unusual message; and the south porch of St Winifred’s at Manaton has views towards a stone giant.
Waterways of Dartmoor
Dartmoor’s valleys are just as beautiful as its high points, and they are home to the many rivers that rise from the moor’s ecologically important upland peat bogs. The River Dart is Dartmoor’s most famous waterway, but its higher reaches can confuse. This is a river with two sources. West Dart Head and East Dart Head are only separated by two-and-a-half miles, but they are rough, boggy miles and few people venture up to visit. Easier to reach, and well worth the hike up from Postbridge, is the East Dart Waterfall. You can cross the river here to head up on to the north moor, but if you have waterproof boots and a compass make your way over to the lonely ruin of Brown’s House, where it is said jealous Mr Brown hid his beautiful wife away from the world.
Further downstream the River Dart becomes more accessible and Dartmeet, where the twin rivers make friends, is a delightful picnic and paddling spot. If you arrive later in the season you may spot kayakers setting in here before they take on the challenges of the Dart Gorge. With grade-four rapids, you can see why only the brave try this, but the lower Dart Gorge does hide a few once-secret outdoor swimming spots, most of which are now too busy to visit in summer but perfect in autumn if you’re cold-water acclimatised.
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Lesser known than Dartmoor’s rivers are its leats. These manmade waterways carry water to local properties as well as the reservoirs that supply many South Devon towns. I especially enjoy walking along the Devonport Leat from Nun’s Cross Farm to Burrator Reservoir. Just too wide for me to jump, the leat here has stone sides and runs fast. It flows so closely with the hill contours that in places it appears to run uphill. A sharper look at the flowing water-weed soon proves this wrong. Along this section alone you’ll find stone crosses, a tunnel, sluices, slab bridges, a wonderful aqueduct and a kink known affectionately to anyone who has ever earned their Dartmoor navigation stripes as ‘Kink-in-Leat’.
Peatland restoration
It would be wrong to discuss Dartmoor’s rivers without giving a mention to the peatbogs that birth them and give the area such a fearful reputation. There’s nothing quite as disconcerting as walking across the jelly-like landscape of a quaking bog, or quite as smelly as ending up thigh deep in one. Peat, after all, is decomposing vegetable matter. And it is this that makes it such an important holder of both carbon and water. Sadly, Dartmoor’s peatland area has shrunk to 1% of its former size, causing damage to wildlife and increasing the risk of downstream flooding, which is why there are now peat restoration sites right across the moor.
You don’t have to fall in a peatbog to appreciate it, but a map will help you hover just around the edge of one. Follow the army tracks to Okement Hill then continue south towards Cranmere Pool. Your wet feet will tell you when you’ve reached a bog. While you’re there, look and listen for skylarks or groups of golden plover and keep your eyes open for sphagnum mosses, fluffy cotton grass and, if you’re lucky, carnivorous sundews.
Native woodlands
The most obvious of Dartmoor’s woodlands are its forestry plantations. With their hard edges and prominent positions, these coniferous areas are strikingly recognisable features on the moor’s soft landscape. Dartmoor’s native broadleaf woodlands are more secretive. Concentrated on steep river valley sides, the twisted branches, deep green mosses and fascinating lichens of these ancient upland oak woods give them a fairytale quality. In truth, however, these delicate environments need our protection.
Wistman’s Wood is perhaps the most well-known of Dartmoor’s native temperate rainforests, but in the last decade this beautiful place has been over publicised with larger visitor numbers putting its delicate mosses and lichen at risk. The good news is you don’t have to visit the high moor to experience Dartmoor’s woodlands. Climb over boulders and dip under lichen-hung trees along the shady paths of Belstone Cleave, or follow a section of the Dartmoor Way through Bovey Valley Woods to paddle at beautiful Hisley Bridge.
It’s impossible to visit Dartmoor without feeling drawn into its stories. Whether historical or modern day, it is these tales, legends and happenings that give this unique landscape the place it has in so many people’s hearts. You’re unlikely to become pixie-led in the mist, but you will be writing your own chapter of Dartmoor’s history.
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Main image: Fi contemplates the route across the moor to Sittaford Tor, a 5.5km walk from Fernworthy Reservoir. Credit: Justin Foulkes
