Dartmoor
Dartmoor is a stunningly beautiful area of moorland accented with wooded valleys and wind swept Tors (the old celtic word for “tower”). A wide-open expanse covering 369 square miles, the area features some of the wildest and bleakest country in England. The setting for the Sherlock Holmes’ novel ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles,’ based upon a local legend, this isolated landscape with weather conditions (mist, rain and snow) that can change in minutes, creates a truly natural spectacle – ‘nature’ at its best.
Dartmoor was designated as one of the National Parks of England and Wales in 1951. The National Park is named after the River Dart, whose source rises on the moor, with the West and East Dart rivers merging to form the River Dart at Dartmeet.
Though the majority of the Dartmoor National Park lies over a granite plateau – 600m above sea level, rising to a height of 621m (High Willhays), the park also includes some of the beautiful surrounding Devon countryside. Rich fertile lands to the north and south of the moor, known as the “Hams”, have been formed over older marine sediments and volcanic rocks from the Devonian and Carboniferous age; contrasting sharply with stark landscape of the upland granites.
