With more than 450 miles of public rights of way, Dartmoor in South Devon is a walkers' and cyclists' paradise. It is also rich in prehistory with some of the best archaeological sites in Western Europe. New sites are uncovered regularly. In the summer of 2010, when Tottiford Reservoir in the park was drained for maintenance, a new prehistoric complex with stone circles was revealed. Burial mounds going back 6,000 years have been discovered and their are more than 1,500 burial cairns, 3,000 to 4,000 years old are all over Dartmoor.
Like Exmoor, Dartmoor has its own ancient breed of native ponies. Archeologists have found their hoof prints in Bronze Age digs. Owned and marked by local farmers, they nevertheless live and graze wild on the moor.
Dartmoor has a variety of landscapes, valleys, bod and wetlands, ancient forests, castles and ruins. Because of mists that sometimes cover the moors, Dartmoor has many myths and eerie legends associated with it. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" was said to have been inspired by Dartmoor. And today, stories of a big wild cat on the moor, perhaps a black panther, abound. Never proven, the stories of the beast of Dartmoor are a bit like the stories of the Loch Ness Monster and the Abominable Snowman.
Dartmoor Firing Ranges
While the landscape of Dartmoor has natural dangers of its own - particularly bogs and mires - a man-made hazard adds another frisson for walkers in the park. A large part of Dartmoor National Park has been used by the military as a live firing range since the early 1800s. This area is open to the public when firing is not going on and its borders are marked. Red flags during the day and red lamps at night notify the public when firing is going on. But walkers wishing to use these areas are warned not to touch any odd metal objects they may find, as unexploded ordinance can be anywhere in the park.
