Discover: Dartmoor through the millennia

Dartmoor has been worked and reworked over thousands of years. Emma Pearcy tells the story of this historic landscape through four remarkable places.

Dartmoor is an internationally important archaeological landscape with human activity leaving permanent reminders of the people who have lived here over thousands of years. It is a palimpsest – a page that has been reused and rewritten on but still bears traces of its earlier inscriptions.

Dartmoor is so densely packed, it can take years to see everything. You go somewhere, think you get to know it well, and later discover there was something you’ve missed. Not that it’s a hardship; it means is making a return trip.

You might want to focus on a particular period of history – say, Bronze Age, medieval or Victorian – and take it from there.

Or you might want to zero in on an activity: cycling, tor-bagging or walking are just three ways of getting to know Dartmoor, which in 2026 celebrates its 75^th anniversary of being designated as a National Park.

Here we take a walk through history, visiting a range of landmarks from different eras of Dartmoor – each telling their own story of how this landscape has been inhabited, worked and experienced.

Bronze Age: Follow in their footsteps  

The prehistoric monument complex at Merrivale, where a Bronze Age settlement stands alongside an earlier Neolithic ceremonial site, is one of the most impressive.

Dating from the late Neolithic period (3000–2300 BC), the site features two double stone rows, a stone row, a stone circle, standing stones, and burial cairns. Close by lies a cluster of more than 50 roundhouses, characteristic of a typical Bronze Age settlement where people lived and farmed more than 3,000 years ago.

Merrivale is where you’ll find one of the longest ancient field boundaries, known as a reave, which are distinctive features of the moor.

Medieval: Look inside a longhouse

Dartmoor is famous for its longhouses. Medieval, yeoman farmers’ houses, they were made from Dartmoor granite, were low and rectangular shape and usually built into the slope of a hill. People lived in the upper end and animals in the lower ‘shippon’ end.

This way of living can be explored through a visit to the Grade One listed Higher Uppacott. It’s owned by Dartmoor National Park Authority. Inside, you get a real sense of what life would have been like for these medieval farmers.

Tours are held throughout the year but do need to be booked in advance.

Early Modern: Dartmoor as a resource

When we think of Dartmoor we think of wild, untamed landscapes: granite-strewn and bog-ridden. Yes, it is that; but closer inspection reveals a long history of being worked. Alongside farming, tin mining is one of Dartmoor’s best-known industries. Evidence for tin extraction on Dartmoor extends back to the medieval period and probably into prehistory.

Every valley, every hillside, every open space bears witness to this: ruined tinners’ huts, gulleys, watercourses, abandoned buildings, shafts – it is all around. Towns such as Ashburton, Chagford, Tavistock and Plympton were designated as ‘stannary towns’ with their own laws and parliaments for assessing and assaying tin.

In the heart of the moor Crockern Tor – also known as Parliament Rock – was where these four these four stannaries met: evidence shows at least ten assemblies met here between 1494 and 1703. This magical place is also said to be home to Old Crockern who, on dark stormy nights, mounts his skeleton horse, releases his hounds and sets off in pursuit of lonely travellers…

Victorian: A new age dawns

The Victorian period witnessed profound changes in the way in which Dartmoor was viewed. Before this time, the region was seen as a forbidding fastness; a place from which to make a living through farming, industry or a combination of both.

In the early 20^th Century new perspectives emerged: more appreciation was afforded to its aesthetics and health benefits; archaeological excavations became more studied and scientific; artists, poets and writers found inspiration in its places – and the railways arrived.

The result was the development of Dartmoor as a tourist destination. People flocked from all over and cars made it even easier, soon replacing the railways. Some have been transformed into cycle tracks with expansive views of open moorland, deep wooded valleys, pastoral countryside and quiet villages.

Emma Pearcy is communications and PR officer for the Dartmoor National Park Authority