I've been a Dartmoor guide for six years; before that I was a member of the local mountain rescue team for over 20. Dartmoor is a beautiful National Park of 368 square miles and it is circular — perfect for walks. The north is very rugged, rising to over 2,000 feet above sea level, so you can go on some wild and tempestuous walks on those moors, while the southern moors are more rolling hills. If you want to get away from the whole world, all you need to is walk for half an hour into Dartmoor and you can find a complete wilderness. Here are some of the best ways to experience it:
1. Wistman's Wood
Wistman's Wood is one of the oldest woods in the country; the small, knarled oak trees date back to the Bronze Age and Neolithic period. It is the spiritual home of many Dartmoor legends, including those of the Whist Hounds, the devil on horseback and the Druid's Stone. An afternoon stroll here takes advantage of the sun, which penetrates the thick woods. If you are lucky you might even spy a heron fishing in the West Dart river.
2. Grimspound Bronze Age village
Situated on the eastern side of Dartmoor, Grimspound is the best-preserved Bronze Age village on Dartmoor. There are hut circles and a wall enclosure and it has a beautifully remote and isolated location.Visiting in August affords the most glorious views across the heather-clad moors where purple heather and the yellow of the gorse mingle with each other as far as the eye can see.
3. Ditsworthy Warren House
People who have seen the War Horse film will have seen the lovely village of Sheepstor — that's where a lot of the views over Dartmoor were filmed. If you park your car there, you can take a 30-minute stroll along the track to Ditsworthy Warren House, which is where Albert's family home is at the start of the film.
4. Lydford village
This Saxon village has the oldest prison in the country — older than the Tower of London. The nearby Castle Inn is one of the great haunted pubs of Dartmoor; in bedroom six is said to be the ghost of a prisoner. A poet of the time called Browne wrote a poem which starts, 'I've often heard of Lydford law / How in the morn they hang and draw / And sit in judgement after.' It's verse upon verse of how awful it is in Lydford prison. But the village is lovely.
5. The Abbot's Way
For a look at the southern side of Dartmoor, this footpath goes from Buckfast Abbey to Tavistock — it takes all day to walk it. Tavistock is a market town and though I'm completely biased about it, living there, it is the Western gateway to Dartmoor and a lovely, vibrant, friendly town.
6. Warren House Inn
The Warren House Inn lies east of Postbridge and is one of the highest public houses in altitude in the country, sitting at well over 1,000 feet above sea level. There are no houses or villages nearby. It was used in the opening scene of the film An American Werewolf in London, and it has a peat fire that has never gone out in hundreds of years. Try a pint of Jail Ale, brewed locally in Princetown.
7. Merrivale stone row
Sitting between Tavistock and Princetown, this is the best-preserved stone row on Dartmoor. Nobody knows for sure what it was built for 3,000 years ago, but on the 21 of June (summer solstice) and the 21 of December (winter solstice), the shadows of the stones all link up. It could be a calendar or something to do with sun worship. There are Bronze Age burial chambers all along its several hundred metres — very interesting.
8. Teign Valley
The best place I've ever known in 40 years of walking all over Dartmoor is the Teign Valley in the autumn. The Teign Gorge lies beneath Castle Drogo on the northeastern side of Dartmoor, and when the deciduous trees there start to change in the first week of October it is the most beautiful autumnal walk. With the vibrant reds, oranges and burnt colours of the trees, it's just like New England in the fall.
For more information on Simon Dell's guides and specialist War Horse tours, visit moorlandguides.co.uk. For more on Dartmoor visit dartmoor.co.uk.
