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Dartmoor National Park Dartmoor takes its name from the river Dart and was designated one of the National Parks of England and Wales in 1951. It's a beautiful moorland landscape with wooded valleys and windswept Tors. 368 square miles in area, it's rich in habitat for wildlife and has a wealth of archaeological remains. Initially, it looks a barren wilderness, but delving further reveals its history - nowhere in Europe has greater evidence of prehistoric remains. Man has left his mark everywhere on the Moor in Neolithic tombs like Spinster's Rock and the ceremonial stone rows at Drizzlecombe. Inhabitants of the Bronze Age lived in huts at Grimspound, Celtic tribes built Cranbrook Hillfort, and Saxons founded Dartmoor's towns and villages and gave them their names. There are medieval longhouses to visit and the more recent ruined relics of the mining industry. Dartmoor's most notorious place is Princetown prison, constructed in 1806 for French and American prisoners of war from the Napoleonic wars. It became a criminal prison in 1850 and remains so to this day. The famous Dartmoor ponies are still there though, and about 40% of Dartmoor is common land in which 'commoners' have the right to graze their animals. Trails across the heights and in the valleys reveal unique sights like the clapper bridges - simple constructions of huge slabs of granite supported by piers used by tin miners and farmers to cross the streams and rivers. The valleys once rang out with the sound of mills, foundries, claypits, quarries, tramways, waterwheels, railways, and miners and quarrymen gouging tin and copper from the face of the Moor. It's all gone now but the remains are fascinating to explore and help to understand the history of Dartmoor. |
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