Dartmoor Places

  Every day numerous cars, vans and buses thunder across the cattlegrid at Hemsworthy Gate as they travel between Widecombe-in-the-Moor and Bovey Tracy or come up from Ashburton. Today one could easily remark that there is nothing special about the place especially as there is in fact no gate to …

PLEASE NOTE – Bullaton Farm is on private land and the only access is the public footpath running above the farm. There are numerous farms dotted around Dartmoor so why this page on Bullaton. It may sound sad but it is because of two very special features that can be …

If tors have feelings then Yes Tor must be pretty despondent, for centuries this majestic granite outcrop had been hailed as the highest place in Devon only, thanks to improved surveying techniques, to be relegated into second place by its close neighbour High Willhays. What made matters worse was that …

“Few of the Dartmoor heights are so situated as to show themselves to such advantage. On the right, a spur well clothed in dark fir plantations comes down from Brimpts; and on the left is a clitter of bold granite rocks. The time to visit this is certainly the evening, …

  “Scarce hoarier seems the ancient Wood Whose shivered trunks of age declare What scath of tempests they have stood In the rock’s crevice rooted there; Yet still young foliage, fresh and fair, Springs forth each mossy bough to dress, And bid e’en Dartmoor’s valleys share A Forest-wilderness“. Sophie Dixon …

If you visit Widecombe in the Moor the chances are that the first thing you will come across is the village green with it’s metal bench and what is probably the most famous of Dartmoor’s village signs. I would suggest that the majority of tourists will take home a photograph …

  Having posted a page on ‘Black Dartmoor‘ it only seems logical to compile one on ‘White Dartmoor’ which once again poses a few variations. William Crossing wrote; “The occurrence of the name White, as in White Tor, White Lake, White Barrow, and in other connections, is supposed, with excellent …

I think when anybody visits an area they always like to see the highest, longest, shortest, deepest or oldest features that are on offer. In this light, the longest waterfall in Devon is the White Lady falls which can be found at the southern end of Lydford Gorge. The main …

Having recently completed a webpage on the Okehampton medieval deer park  it only seems logical to do the same for the later Tudor deer park at Whiddon as these are the only two examples to be found on Dartmoor. The medieval deer park would have served as a status symbol …

High up on the north moor lies what was probably one of the remotest of the old Dartmoor tin mines. Today all that remains are some ruins, spoil heaps, and if you look very carefully a small, overgrown, reedy, gully that slopes down from the side of Okement Hill. Nearby …