The Dartmoor National Park is one of the largest National Parks in Devon and contains some of the best walking and hiking locations across the UK and offers walkers fantastic countryside, moors and even challenging mountains in the area that offer event the most experience climber a challenging hike across Devon. The area is also home to some of the longest walking routes across the UK and whilst the area is famous for it’s Tor’s (Hills Topped with an Out-Crops of Bedrock), it’s also famous for it’s Ten Tors Challenge where each year up to five-thousand people try and cover the 100mile route across this area.
The Dartmoor National Park was created in 1951 and covers over 400 square miles of moorland across Devon and consists grass moorlands, bog land and mountains that are topped with Bedrock. The area is one of the best locations across the South UK for challenging walks and offers hiker everything from flat day walks to challenging mountains passes.
The highest point across Dartmoor is the High Willgays point which offers several different ascent options to its 2,037Ft summit. If you want more than one summit to climb during your trip, Yes Tor could be another option as it rises to above the two thousand feet and given it ‘s contour can easily be combined with a walk to High Willhays. Other high points across Dartmoor include Ryder's Hill at 1,690 ft, Snowdon at 1,624 ft and Haytor at 1,499 ft.
The geology of the region is generally grassland with granite topped hills that have been exposed by the weather conditions over the years, however the vast majority of the lowland area is peat bogs which can be as thick as ten meters and hold a great deal of water meaning that this area can be particular difficult and dangerous to walk across.
It’s highly recommended that you don’t walk in this area alone even if you bring with you a full rucksack of mountaineering equipment. As with most National Parks, there are hundreds of miles of signposted pathways, however if you’re planning to explore the area, you need to make sure that you take navigation equipment.
If you do not want to visit this area solely to hike across it, the area is home to some fantastic archaeological areas that are of great importance both to the UK and the area. These include over 10,000 County Sites and Monuments Register, over 1,000 Scheduled Ancient Monuments, mines dating back to the 18th centaury and even examples of 19th century farming.
The Dartmoor area is also home to a resident population of about 30,000 however this increases rapidly during the summer with incoming tourists to this area with the major town being Ashburton, Buckfastleigh, Moretonhampstead, Princetown, Yelverton, Horrabridge, South Brent, Christow, and Chagford.
