Dartmoor
Dartmoor: the largest remaining wilderness in southern England. Not more than a dozen miles inland from the tropical palm trees of the south Devon coast, the roads rise a few hundred feet and you are transported abruptly to an altogether different terrain. This is a breathtakingly beautiful, wild land, sometimes bleak and inhospitable, characterised by sweeping expanses of moorland, high granite tors, plunging wooded river valleys and an evocative atmosphere of antiquity and mystery. On its softer eastern and southern fringes, Dartmoor National Park has picturesque villages and thick woods cloaking steep valleys. The many faces and moods of Dartmoor would be more than enough to occupy an entire holiday, but also within easy reach are the vibrant cities of Plymouth and Exeter and the beautiful coast and estuaries of south Devon.On the northern edge of the moor, the Trust owns the fabulous twentieth-century fortress-home of Castle Drogo, in a dramatic position above the Teign Gorge. On the western edge is the spectacular Lydford Gorge, with waterfall and whirlpools, which has been a tourist attraction since Victorian times. In the heart of the moor at Widecombe, there is a Trust shop adjoining the sixteenth-century Church House.

National Trust places nearby: Parke estate, Brafley, Compton Castle, The Church House, Castle Drogo. Shop and pub: Bovey Tracey 1 mile. Tea-room/café/restaurant: Bovey Tracey. Other attractions: Designers Guild, Becky Falls, Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor, Teignmouth and Teign estuary. Activities: Walking, birdwatching, horse riding.

Ordnance Survey Landranger Map 192

Castle Drogo & Dartmoor
Drogo was the last castle to be built in England. An imposing granite edifice on a spur high above the rushing River Teign, it has dramatic views over Dartmoor. This unusual home was the dream of businessman Julius Drewe, designed by the famous architect Edwin Lutyens and built between 1910 and 1930. Designed as an austere fortress, the interior combines the stark granite grandeur of a medieval castle with the comfort, stylistic flourishes and latest ‘mod-cons’ of the early twentieth-century. The castle has a beautiful formal garden (the highest garden owned by the Trust!), which is noted for its rhododendrons and magnolias, herbaceous borders, rose garden, shrub garden and circular croquet lawn. Footpaths throughout the Drogo estate and the Teign Gorge make for some marvellous walking. Nearby Chagford is a popular and unspoilt historic town, and Drewsteignton, close to Castle Drogo on the northern edge of the estate, is a picturesque old village with a shop and a famous thatched pub.

National Trust places nearby: Teign Valley. Shop and pub: Drewsteignton, Chagford, Bovey Tracey. Tea-room/café/restaurant: Castle Drogo, Chagford, Drewsteignton, Bovey Tracey. Other attractions: Chagford village centre, Dartmoor, Designers Guild, Bovey Tracey, Becky Falls. Activities: walking, birdwatching, horse riding.

Ordnance Survey Landranger Map 191