My mother's family has traced its history in South Devon to the 13th century, and most of my early memories belong to its beaches. I didn't get to know Dartmoor until I moved from London to an ancient market town nearby three years ago. Since then, this lonely upland region, 2,000 feet above sea level, has taught me that bright, beautiful places can also brood.
Dartmoor covers 368 square miles and is often described as “England’s last wilderness”, but it is actually a carefully managed palimpsest that has been reimagined for agricultural use since the Bronze Age. Once, gazing over its whaleback ridges from Bone Hill at sunset, a friend compared the landscape to an open wound, the trees long cleared by swaling, an age-old practice that involves burning land each winter for grazing.
In 2026, the national park celebrates its 75th anniversary with festivals and events, though the region’s history stretches back at least 12,000 years, when early humans stripped bilberries from its dripping rainforest. The remnants of that rainforest cling on in areas such as Wistman’s Wood and Shaugh Bridge. One of the moor’s most distinctive features are the granite tors that crest its outer edges. They formed when rock broke up due to freezing and thawing during the Ice Age, which also gouged out the valleys. These tors serve as the moor’s waymarkers, and their companions under the enormous skies are ponies, buzzards, skylarks and ghosts.
Unsurprisingly, they play a starring role in many folktales. Old Crockern, the spirit of Dartmoor, slumbers uneasily beneath Crockern Tor, waking occasionally to wreak revenge on humans who pillage his resources for profit alone. About a mile from Hound Tor, some see the outline of a giant called Bowerman, who was petrified for disturbing a witches’ coven while hunting. And of course, the moor is also the setting for the most famous story in the Sherlock Holmes series, The Hound of the Baskervilles, which is inspired by rumours of a pack of “wisht” (uncanny) hounds said to haunt the region.
Although 90 per cent of the land is managed, it would be a mistake to think of Dartmoor as tame. The oozings of the hills around Princetown and Fox Tor Mire are so dangerous that only locals who know the route dare cross. As I watched the Perseid meteor shower last summer, a fog swallowed my tent so completely that I struggled to find it, though the granite boulder I lay on was scarcely 30 feet away. The temperature plummeted and I awoke shivering the next morning to find I could see nothing beyond the pony standing sentinel over my camp.
However someone chooses to discover Dartmoor, they will feel the texture of this place in their bones. Those who prefer a bed of organic linen to moss will be pleased to hear that several world-class hotels have sprung up in recent years. The cultural scene is thriving as cosmopolitan makers have relocated to the region, reimagining heritage crafts for a tech-sick generation increasingly curious about the old ways. There are also a host of options for engaging interactively with the landscape. WildWise teaches traditional navigation using natural landmarks, and Emma Cunis, author of Dartmoor Myths and Legends, offers guided hikes to sacred sites under the name Dartmoor’s Daughter.
In his 1900 tome A Book of Dartmoor, Sabine Baring-Gould described the moor as the nursery of many Devon rivers: “And what a mother! She sends them forth limpid and pure, full of laughter and leap, of flash and brawl.” Nowhere is this more evident than at Olga Polizzi’s extraordinary Hotel Endsleigh, housed in the Duke of Bedford’s former hunting lodge amid Humphry Repton-designed gardens where running water can be heard in every corner. Cream tea with home-baked scones, served daily on the lawn, is a delight. Near Ugborough, Fowlescombe Farm has 10 nature-inspired suites, many with custom-made furniture. Its regenerative farm supplies an exceptional restaurant overseen by Elly Wentworth that serves heritage breeds such as Manx loaghtan sheep, as well as unusual vegetables including sea kale.
For a classic Dartmoor outing, it’s worth drinking in the view from Haytor before heading to The Rugglestone Inn for ales from Dartmoor Brewery. To really feel the landscape, Wilder Sauna at Dartmeet offers a plunge into the River Dart’s numbing waters, or else there’s Chagford’s swimming pool, a heated lido also fed by the river. Established in Saxon times, this stannary town has a stolid exterior, belied by hand-scrawled flyers advertising pagan ceremonies and full-moon circles. In its market square, visitors can find The Dartmoor Shepherd’s dreamy sheepskin homewares, as well as Astor’s Bookshop & Art Materials, which has a secret room filled with magazines. Chagford is also a jumping-off point for the Dartmoor Artisan Trail, which links the workshops of craftspeople, including tanner Jessie Watson Brown and wood turner Sharif Adams, who offers classes in using a traditional pole lathe to make bowls.
Devon’s Underrated Moor: Wild Swimming, Legends and Luxury