Dartmoor Vacations

Dartmoor accommodation includes vacation Hotels and Cottages from the quaint and unbelievably old to the luxury vacation only dreams are made of.

Take a vacation with on Dartmoor safe in the knowledge that our hotels, cottages and B&Bs have the very best facilities to offer. Exclusively Dartmoor prides itself on giving customers the best possible choice when it comes to booking a vacation in the stunningly beautiful and often overlooked Dartmoor National Park. Vacations and weekend breaks, whether it is for a family Vacation, a school break or a romantic getaway Dartmoor fits the bill.

A vacation on Dartmoor should be able to fulfill the requirements of every type of visitor, from the quiet, pastime of bird watching, to the more energetic activity of Tor Walking, Letterboxing, white water rafting, canoeing, cycling or climbing. You will almost certainly find an activity to inspire you, your family and friends, and all in a remarkable un-spoilt environment and surroundings unsurpassed in Britain, stunning beautiful scenery, fantastic views and history around every corner.
If you wish to find some vacation accommodation , choose a category and select a sub-category from the list. You should be able to find a range of potential options from the luxurious to the less expensive way of getting away on vacation to Dartmoor.

There are different levels of camping which can be explored from the four star full amenity camping sites to backpacking and sleeping wild on Dartmoor is tremendous under clear skies. Camping for one or two nights on the open land on Dartmoor is perfectly acceptable vacation activity provided that you choose your spot sensibly and don't pitch your tent on farmland, on moorland enclosed by walls, within 100 metres of a road, on flood plains or on archaeological sites.

This followed by a stay at an ancient farm for a possibly needed dry out and having freshly made Dartmoor cured sizzling bacon, sausage and egg breakfast, extends the Dartmoor experience. If you are with your family a visit to a youth hostel might suit you and to keep everyone happy then trying one of the local organised activities may help these include canoeing, climbing & white-water rafting down the river Dart or you could go and learn the ancient art of Falconry or  fly fishing the vacation experience seems endless in the varied landscape of Dartmoor. More sedately and vastly popular on Dartmoor you could go pony trekking across the moors from one of many riding centre’s.

Traditional Dartmoor Bed and Breakfast establishments are ideal for a short break and having moved with the times, most are often offering en-suite rooms and day facilities cosier than a Hotel and more practical for a short break than a stay in a self catering vacation cottage. For a longer break you can choose one of Dartmoor’s converted barns for fantastic locations with and old oak beam bedrooms to wake up to in the heart of the countryside.

Présentation du Parc National du Dartmoor

Le développement des Parcs Nationaux au Royaume-Uni

Le développement des Parcs Nationaux au Royaume-Uni a débuté il y a 150 ans et s’est poursuivi
sous l’impulsion de trois facteurs principaux. Le premier de ces facteurs était l’intérêt considérable pour
la nature exprimé avec force par les poètes romantiques. William Wordsworth, tout en regrettant que
des hordes de visiteurs puissent se rendre dans le District du Lac par le chemin de fer, a exprimé en
1810 l’opinion, devenue célèbre, selon laquelle les Lacs constituaient «une sorte de propriété nationale,
sur laquelle tout homme ayant un oeil pour percevoir et un coeur pour apprécier avait des droits et des
intérêts». C'est à partir de là qu’ont commencé à se développer les concepts modernes de beauté
naturelle et de conservation de la nature, de nombreuses sociétés de conservation étant alors créées
pour assurer la protection et l’accès du public aux régions sous leur contrôle. En 1895, le National Trust
for Places of Historic Interest and Natural Beauty (aujourd'hui, le National Trust) a été établi à des fins
semblables à celles que poursuivent de nos jours les Parcs.
Le deuxième facteur est lié à la révolution industrielle et à l'exode rural qui l'a accompagné. En 1851, la
moitié de la population de l’Angleterre et du Pays de Galles vivait déjà dans un cadre urbain, et il était
très en vogue d’aller à la campagne pour profiter de «loisirs sains de plein air». Ce facteur a pris une
importance particulière, d’un point de vue politique, entre la première et la seconde guerre mondiale,
avec l'intensification des revendications pour un accès libre aux zones de montagne et de campagne.
La marche illégale organisée en 1932 sur le plateau de Kinder Scout (dans le Peak District) a constitué
un évènement pivot à cet égard. Le troisième facteur était le mouvement international de création de
Parcs Nationaux, qui a vu le jour aux Etats-Unis, en grande partie sous l’impulsion d’un écossais
visionnaire, John Muir.
En 1872, une Loi* était adoptée afin d’établir le premier Parc National au monde dans la région de
Yellowstone, tandis qu’en 1890 le Congrès américain approuvait la création du Parc National de
Yosemite. Bien que le concept américain de protection de la nature sauvage diffère quelque peu du
modèle des parcs nationaux anglais, une même volonté de protéger des ressources naturelles
précieuses se trouve à leur base. Nationaux, à savoir la protection de sites présentant un intérêt historique ou des beautés naturelles.Au début du 20ème siècle, ces trois facteurs associés ont acquis un réel dynamisme. En 1929, la Commission Addison fut la première commission d’enquête à mener des travaux en vue d’établir des Parcs Nationaux en Grande Bretagne, et la Commission Permanente des Parcs Nationaux (aujourd'hui devenue le Conseil des Parcs Nationaux) fut établie en 1935. Après la seconde guerre mondiale, alors que la Grande Bretagne planifiait sa reconstruction, John Dower, architecte, randonneur et membre de la Commission Permanente des Parcs Nationaux, se vit confier la mission de préparer un rapport. En 1945, le Rapport Dower à l’intention du Gouvernement recommandait l’établissement de Parcs Nationaux et la création d’une nouvelle agence de l’état: la Commission des Parcs Nationaux. La Loi de 1949 sur les Parcs Nationaux et l’Accès à la Campagne* prévoyait l’institution de Parcs Nationaux en Angleterre et au Pays de Galles. Dix Parcs Nationaux furent confirmés entre 1951 et 1957. Plus récemment, une autre zone, les «Norfolk and Suffolk Broads», a acquis le statut de Parc National en 1989. En 1999, le Gouvernement a annoncé son intention d’instituer deux nouveaux Parcs Nationaux en Angleterre (dans les South Downs et la New Forest).

A la différence de nombreux parcs nationaux dans
d’autres pays, comme aux Etats-Unis, les Parcs
Nationaux d'Angleterre et du Pays de Galles
n’appartiennent pas à l'état. Le terme «national»
indique que les sites ont été identifiés comme des
zones revêtant une importance au sein de notre
patrimoine national, qui méritent par conséquent une
attention et une protection spéciales. Au sein de
* Il s’agit d’une Loi du Parlement (une Loi
du Congrès aux Etats-Unis), d'un texte ou
d'une loi adopté par un pouvoir législatif.
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chaque Parc National il existe de nombreux propriétaires fonciers, dont des organismes publics et des
particuliers. Les Parcs Nationaux sont des territoires où des personnes vivent et travaillent. Les
objectifs des Parcs Nationaux stipulés dans la Loi sur l’Environnement* de 1995 sont les suivants:
• conserver et mettre en valeur la beauté naturelle, la vie sauvage et le patrimoine culturel des
Parcs Nationaux.
• promouvoir les possibilités offertes au public de comprendre et d’apprécier les qualités
spéciales des Parcs Nationaux.
Les Autorités des Parcs Nationaux ont également la tâche de chercher à promouvoir le bien-être
économique et social des communautés locales au sein des Parcs Nationaux.
Le Dartmoor est l’un des Parcs Nationaux d’Angleterre et du Pays de Galles, en raison de
l’exceptionnelle beauté de sa nature. Couvrant une superficie de 954 km carrés, le Dartmoor abrite la
zone de campagne la plus étendue et sauvage de tout le Sud de l’Angleterre.
Topographie
Point le plus élevé High Willhays – 621 mètres au dessus du niveau de la mer
Point le plus bas Doghole Bridge – 30 mètres au dessus du niveau de la mer
Terres au-dessus de 300 mètres – 51 % du Parc National
Terres au-dessus de 460 mètres – 13 % du Parc National
Géologie
Une grande partie du Dartmoor (65%) est constituée de granite, une roche éruptive dont l’intrusion
remonte à quelques 295 millions d’années.
Ce vaste coeur de granit est entouré de roches sédimentaires comprenant des calcaires, des schistes
et des grès qui datent du Carbonifère et du Dévonien. Les roches les plus proches de l’intrusion
granitique ont été altérées (métamorphosées) sous l'effet d’une chaleur et d'une pression intenses ainsi
que de réactions chimiques.
Tors
Il existe plus de 160 tors (des empilements naturels de rochers) dans le Dartmoor. Les principaux sont
les suivants:
Tor Hauteur au-dessus du niveau de la mer
High Willhays 621 mètres
Yes Tor 619 mètres
Great Links Tor 586 mètres
Fur Tor 572 mètres
Great Mis Tor 539 mètres
Great Staple Tor 455 mètres
Haytor 454 mètres
Hound Tor 448 mètres
Sharpitor 402 mètres
Sheeps Tor 320 mètres
Vixen Tor 320 mètres
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Climat
Le climat du Dartmoor, dominé par les
vents du sud-ouest, est frais et humide.
Les hautes landes au Nord-Ouest et dans
le Centre-Sud, où l'altitude dépasse les
450 mètres, connaissent les conditions
climatiques les plus sévères.
• Pluviométrie Princetown – moyenne de 2150 mm
• Pluviométrie Widecombe-in-the-Moor – moyenne de 1581 mm
• Chutes de neige Basses terres – moins de 5 jours par an
• Chutes de neige Hautes terres – 15 à 20 jours en moyenne
• Chutes de neige Sommets – 30 jours en moyenne
• Ensoleillement 3 à 4 heures par jour en moyenne
Villages
Les principaux villages qu’abrite le Parc National sont les suivants: Ashburton, Buckfastleigh,
Moretonhampstead, Princetown, Yelverton, Horrabridge, South Brent, Christow et Chagford.
Population totale du Parc National: environ 33000 personnes.
Population d’Ashburton (principal village) : environ 3500 habitants.
Utilisations principales des sols
% de la superficie totale du Parc National
Landes (y compris pacages) 48450 hectares
Terres cultivées 33041 hectares
Sylviculture/forêts naturelles 11152 hectares
Réservoirs 209 hectares
Autres (dont les villages) 2577 hectares
Communaux Environ 34878 hectares
Le Duché de Cornouaille (Prince Charles) possède 28328 hectares
Superficie approximative des terres détenues par le Duché de Cornouaille constituée de communaux
20000 hectares
Réserves et Zones Protégées
Réserves Naturelles Nationales
East Dartmoor Woods & Heath, 366 hectares comprend Bovey Valley, Yarner Wood & Trendlebere
Down
Dendles Wood, 29 hectares
Black Tor Copse, 29 hectares
Wistman's Wood & Longaford Newtake, 170 hectares
Sites d’Intérêt Scientifique Spécial (SISS)
En anglais - Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
Un Site d’Intérêt Scientifique Spécial ou SISS est un site classé qui constitue une zone protégée au
Royaume-Uni. Les SISS représentent les «unités élémentaires» du système de conservation de la
nature, et la plupart des définitions naturelles/géologiques légales sont basées sur ces unités, y
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compris les Réserves Naturelles Nationales, les Zones de Protection Spéciales et les Zones de
Conservation Spéciales.
Le processus de désignation d’un site comme Site d’Intérêt Scientifique Spécial s’appelle un
classement; il comporte un certain nombre d’étapes, dont une concertation avec le propriétaire du site.
Lorsqu’un site finalise ce processus et devient un SISS, il s’agit dès lors d’un site «classé». Les sites
classés en raison de leur intérêt biologique sont appelés des SISS Biologiques tandis que ceux qui sont
classés en raison de leur intérêt géologique sont appelés des SISS Géologiques. Un petit nombre de
sites sont classés pour leur intérêt tant biologique que géologique.
«Natural England» est l’organisme désigné par l'état pour la gestion des SISS en Angleterre.
Le Parc National du Dartmoor compte plus de 40 sites couvrant 26169 hectares. Les deux sites
principaux dans le North Dartmoor et le South Dartmoor totalisent plus de 20000 hectares.

Réserves fauniques du Devon
Dart Valley 290 hectares
Lady’s Wood 3 hectares
Dunsford Wood 57 hectares
Mill Bottom 6 hectares
Blackadon 37 hectares
Lower East Lounston 2,5 hectares
Propriété des Terres
Zones du National Trust
Holne Woods 69 hectares
Lydford Gorge 48 hectares
Plym Estate 237 hectares
Teign Valley 165 hectares
Trowlesworthy Warren 1 349 hectares
Hembury 163 hectares
Castle Drogo 308 hectares
Milfordleigh 7 hectares
Wheal Betsy 1 hectare
Woodcock Wood 8 hectares

Le Ministère de la Défense utilise 12906 hectares à des fins d’entraînement sur des zones en
propriété franche, tenues à bail et d’occupation temporaire. Sur ce total, 10871 hectares sont utiliséspour des tirs réels.

La société South West Water possède 4421 hectares de terre comprenant 8 réservoirs.
La Commission Forestière possède 1359 hectares tenus à bail et 381 hectares en propriété franche.
Le Duché de Cornouaille (Prince Charles) possède 28328 hectares.
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L’Autorité du Parc National du Dartmoor possède 1451 hectares, comprenant les zones suivantes :

Holne Moor & Woods 783 hectares
Haytor 421 hectares
Wray Cleave 31 hectares
Sanduck Wood 12 hectares
Casely Wood 8 hectares
Dendles Waste 80 hectares
Whiddon Scrubbs 8 hectares
Blackingstone Rock 5 hectares
Plasterdown 93 hectares
Trendlebere 10 hectares

Monuments Historiques

Au Royaume-Uni, un Monument Historique est un site archéologique ou un bâtiment historique
«d’importance nationale», qui bénéficie d’une protection contre toutes modifications non autorisées. La
protection accordée aux monuments historiques ne rentre pas dans le cadre du Système d'Urbanisme
et d'Aménagement des Campagnes. Les Monuments Historiques sont également désignés parfois
comme des bâtiments

Le paysage du Dartmoor présente un intérêt archéologique considérable, avec plus de 10000
inscriptions au Registre des Monuments et Sites du Comté. Il existe plus de 1000 Monuments
Historiques et ce chiffre ne cesse d’augmenter. Plus de 2500 bâtiments sont également «classés» en
raison de leur intérêt historique ou architectural.
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Choose one of the many Dartmoor Vacation cottage locations within towns or villages for a more convenient wander to the local restaurant or pub. For the more luxurious vacation find a country manor retreat, character cottage property or beautifully converted barn, you are sure to find Dartmoor accommodation where you can relax and un-wind in your chosen location in or around Dartmoor’s famous and beautiful villages.
 North Bovey, Chagford, Widecombe in the Moor, Lustliegh, Ashburton and many more. Come and roam free, where you can enjoy the freedom of the open country along the ridges to the Tors or the footpaths along the roaring rivers.
Dartmoor offers a range of stunning Hotels indulge yourself, either in a town, village or out in the open countryside. In an area of unrivalled natural beauty there is a wide choice of Dartmoor Hotels, to suite all needs and vacation budgets. Whether nestling in the heart of the Dartmoor hills or alongside the fast running Dartmoor rivers there will always be a warm welcome in a Dartmoor Hotel.
Whether you are looking to stay in the smaller family owned and run Hotel or large and luxurious Country House retreat with swimming pool and leisure facilities and golf courses they all here in Dartmoor. Family friendly or dog friendly Dartmoor Hotels pride themselves on the warm welcome they extend to each and every visitor, proud of the hospitality for which the people of Dartmoor are renowned.
Dartmoor is synonymous with quiet, beauty and space to breath, and what better way to enjoy the stillness of the morning than to wake up amidst the green fields or vast moors of Dartmoor. To make toast and wander outside to enjoy your breakfast with a cup of hot tea, Vacation cottages provide this remote and peaceful addition to a Vacation over the hustle and bustle of a hotel break.
Of course you have to make your own tea and toast, but its made the way you like it and it replenishes body and soul. The cottage accommodation properties of Dartmoor are varied in type and size from the small cosy remote cottage to the large luxury open plan cottage barn conversions. You may prefer olde worlde cottages refurbished with oak beams and plenty of character. The position of the cottage is also important, if you don't want to use your car and require superb walking from your door, you may like a cottage on the high moors. These can often be found within walking distance of the many Dartmoor Pubs to refuel, eat fine food and experience fine real ale after a long hard day hiking over the moors. Whichever type of Vacation cottage you favour they are on Dartmoor. Made to relax in after a hard days walking, with log burners or open fires to warm up by, and space outside for the children to play with views to savour. Delight in your new home for a week or more, rise late, relax. The cottage Vacation is made for those of us who are constantly harassed by the crowded worlds we have to work in.
Some cottages are designed for the luxurious romantic break in mind if venturing out is not on the agenda, these quiet warm cottages excel in providing the ideal environment to unwind with your partner, away from the daily grind and chores that are never far away when at home.
No matter what sort of cottage you choose are the position of the cottage on Dartmoor you are never far way from peace, quiet, real ale and fine food.

During your vacation on Dartmoor you will find the ancient villages and towns a real treat, with their fine antique shops, cafes, restaurants and pubs.

Enjoy your Vacation  in Dartmoor the most un-spoilt of National Parks.

An American View By Jim Hargan

When my wife saw Dartmoor for the first time, she exclaimed in awe, "It looks like the American West." Indeed, Dartmoor is remarkably like an oversized mesa, an oval 20 miles by 30 miles whose steep sides rise nearly 1,000 feet above the quaint vales that surround it. It's a long, rugged drive up those sides, along narrow lanes tightly confined by stone walls and hedgerows, and when you suddenly crest out onto its top, the views are startling. "Look at the way grassy prairies roll as far as you can see, completely empty," my wife continued. "And look at the way the rock spires stick up, like the hoodoos back in the Rocky Mountains." A Dartmoor innkeeper had once made the same comment to me. "I like to go pony trekking through the center of Dartmoor and pretend I'm in the Old West," he said.

Alike, yet not alike; as soon as you start looking for differences, you find them. Unlike the dry grassy basins of the Rockies, Dartmoor is soaking wet. Its verdant grasslands are painted in every shade of green that can be generated by environments ranging from damp to swampy to sink-and-disappear. Unlike the bowl-lands of the Western basins, Dartmoor's swales and hills roll in odd and unpredictable directions, weirdly random, like a poem that won't quite make sense. And those spires--while Western hoodoos and mesas are sharp-edged layer-cakes of warm colors, Dartmoor's tors are gray and grainy, strange lumps of granite with odd, bulbous shapes.

Dartmoor's granite tors are only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The sparsely populated heath that dominates western Devon is a tableland with a granite top that protects the rocks underneath from eroding away. Water sits on the granite bedrock, pooling and puddling into swamps called mires, low points marked only by a sudden proliferation of sphagnum moss and the white, fluffy tops of marsh-loving cotton grass. The oddly disorienting curves of Dartmoor's surface, as well as the tots crowning its hills, reflect the amount that the granite bedrock has dissolved. When the granite ends, rich patchwork fields suddenly spring to life, postage stamps lined by stone walls topped with hedges, their horniness contrasting wonderfully with the wilderness above them.

Of course, the granite lands of Dartmoor are no more "wilderness" than any other part of England, and their emptiness is only apparent. Dartmoor has been the scene of human activity for 6,000 years; 150 generations of humanity have filled it with things to see and places to explore. Post-Ice Age climate fluctuation has been the main controlling factor. In most centuries Dartmoor's climate was too damp and cold for farming. During these cold centuries Dartmoor would be used as it is now, as managed common grazing, which keeps the land in grass and prevents the growth of trees. Then the warming would begin again, growing seasons would stretch and pioneers would once more enter the granitic uplands, creating the farms, fields and monuments typical of whatever culture was current. After a few centuries, the cold and wet would return, the settlements would be abandoned and the mosses would smooth their remains to forgotten lumps--cycles of humanity in deep time, preserved for our viewing.

The last Ice Age rendered human life in Britain extinct for 10,000 years. As the ice receded, around perhaps 10,000 BC, low sea levels exposed a land bridge where the English Channel is now, and the ancestors of the British simply walked across, following game herds into the newly formed grasslands. When these Late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers reached Dartmoor, they found it covered with an open, glade-lake forest, a fine hunting ground. Then, as agriculture became common in the Neolithic Period (c. 3000 Be), farmers removed all of Dartmoor forest, creating the unobstructed views we see today. These folk were but the country cousins of the great Neolithic builders of Stonehenge and Avebury 100 miles to the east. They erected no great monuments--except, of course, for the landscape itself, that "Western" style openness, a cultural feature maintained generation after generation for 5,000 years.

Monuments came to Dartmoor as metallurgy entered northern Europe. The Bronze Age gets its name from its most common and useful alloy, common copper hardened with rare tin so it could keep an edge. Dartmoor had tin, and lots of it, formed in veins at the places where granite extruded through the older rocks. When the rock around a tin vein weathered, tin dust would wash down the streams to form placer deposits, much like the gold deposits of the West. This Dartmoor tin was commercially mined on a large scale and shipped overseas, starting no later than 1750 BC (when a Phoenician ship full of ingots sank in the River Dart), and continuing past AD 1800. Flush with wealth, Dartmoor's Bronze Age tin-mining residents built a series of megalithic monuments, roughly contemporaneous with Stonehenge's last phase, when bluestones allegedly imported from Wales were erected.

The Grey Wethers is a set of two large stone circles hard by each other, beautifully complete after an 1898 restoration, sitting on a wide, empty expanse of grassland a three mile hike north of Postbridge; the approach path is a spectacular (if difficult) wander through open moor, along the River Dart, and past other, lesser Bronze Age remains. Easier to reach, and stunningly evocative, are the two stone rows at Merrivale just off the B3357, each a double line of standing stones almost 900 feet long, plus a 12-foot standing stone and a stone circle in ruinous shape.

A second period of Bronze Age settlement, around a short warm spell (c. 1300 BC), left behind entire settlements, including extensive sets of field walls called reeves. Built of stone in the deforested plateau and abandoned around 1100 BC, they preserve an entire culture. Mostly they are low mounds of moss and grass, impossibly straight and going on for miles; other mounds, running off at right angles, are the stone walls of fields, and have circular mounds in their corners, the remains of houses and barns.

Villages of circular houses also exist, Grimspound (near Post-bridge) being the most famous and impressive after its 1894 restoration--a set of 24 hut circles within the low remains of an impressive wall. You can see another hut settlement as you approach the Merrivale Stone Rows, and a set of farms appears uphill on your right as you hike towards the Grey Wethers. One of the largest sets of field boundaries appears along the Venford Reservoir Road, and can be viewed by looking westward across the valley from the Dartmeet B3387.

Until the modern age, the medieval period was Dartmoors busiest time. Not only did the era's booming international trade bring wealth to Dartmoor tin miners, up to about 1300, its climate was as warm as our own today. Agriculture once again crept high atop the plateau, only to retreat after 1400 under an onslaught of cold weather. The best preserved of the lost medieval settlements sits below Hound Tor, itself one of the largest, most easily reached and most interesting of the moor's tors. The village, excavated in the 1960s, now consists of exposed foundations that clearly delineate its form, with impressive views beyond.

Villages farther down from the moor top did better than Houndtor (as it was known), as wool and tin exports expanded. Medieval wealth built a series of churches, none more stunning than St. Pancras at Widecombe-in-the-Moor, a tiny village set in a pocket of quiet beauty in the midst of the moorlands; known as "the Cathedral of the Moors," St. Pancras' 120-foot tower can be seen for miles around.

The most ubiquitous of the medieval monuments, however, are the great stone bridges, built by the tinners so that the floods, increasingly frequent after the end of the warming, wouldn't stop their trade. These are long and graceful multi-arched structures, built wide enough for wagons and used by automobile traffic today. You'll cross two of them on the road between Ashburton and Two Bridges, with three more in the Drewsteignton area.

Other stream crossings of the era used clapper bridges made of giant slabs of granite; when a flood washed one of these away, the tinners would simply haul the stones back and re-erect them. As the clapper bridges are impossible to date, some people speculate that they could date to the earliest days of tin mining, deep in the Bronze Age. Several clapper bridges survive, mostly as ruins, but the Postbridge clapper is kept in repair and is open to foot traffic. Between the bridges, stone crosses led travelers through the midst of the moors, guiding them around the dangerous mires, and many of these crosses survive as well.

The postmedieval period brought one of Dartmoor's most characteristic features: the thatched farmhouse below the moor's edge. Thatch remains particularly common along the farmlands of the eastern edge, and your chance of coming across a quaint old cottage is good as soon as you drop off the plateau into the rich lands below. Such survivals are mainly a matter of luck. These are the buildings that still had thatched roofs when the region came under historic preservation laws in the early 1950s; their large numbers show that the Dartmoor freeholders had been too poor to modernize their roofs before government planners entered the picture. Of course, thatch today is a highly desirable symbol of both cultural identity and wealth, but back then, it was an expensive, short-lived, mouse-infested nuisance.

One of the finest concentrations of thatch can be found along the narrow lanes that radiate from Widecombe-in-the-Moor. Here the tiny Webburne River has carved a notch of lush farmland deep into the moor, and small, rich fields, lined with stone-based hedgerows, fill its narrow valley and climb its sides to the edge of the granite. The valley's many thatched farmhouses, mostly dating from the 17th or 18th century, add to its charm, among them Upper Venton Farm, a half mile south of Widecombe and easily visited. Its large stone farmhouse is clad in rich, thick thatch, and bears a date stone from 1733. The one-time home of early 20th-century romantic novelist Beatrice Chase, it is now a bed and breakfast inn. Its fine old stone barn and stable is now converted into two luxury cottages. The high fields around the farmstead give a stunning view over the valley, with the tall tower of Widecombe's church standing like a lighthouse.

Modern times have, of course, added their layers to Dartmoor. Most visually impressive are the open pit kaolin (or "China clay") mines at Dartmoor's southwest corner. These massive holes, bone white and still in operation, scrape up to the very edge of the moor, an amazing (if dismal) sight. Although unsightly, the mines are at least limited; not so the large tracks of green-black conifers, planted in regimented rows. Established during World War I to counter the Kaiser's blockade of Norwegian lumber, these government-owned tracts have long since become an end in themselves, surviving any number of Tory and Labour administrations. They are missing only on the northern third of Dartmoor, a region given odd protection as a military training base, its edge marked with lines of tall posts that stretch to the horizons. This vast area is pathless, yet open to the public on most days and all weekends. It is here that you can best experience the old emptiness of the moors. Here you find the highest tots (topping 2,000 feet, the highest points in England south of the Pennines), and the deepest, wildest gorges.

Still, the 20th century's greatest contribution to Dartmoor was the decision to leave it be. In 1951 Dartmoor became one of Britain's first national parks--not a government owned reserve as in America, but rather a planning designation more akin to zoning, and aimed at protecting its scenic beauty. It is due to this that Dartmoor greets its visitors with patchwork fields, thatched cottages, quaint villages and open vistas. The final act of the modern era so far has been to prevent the erasure of previous eras, to preserve deep time in Dartmoor.