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Welcome to the Moors

Covering 368 square miles, Dartmoor is a place of beauty, mystery and diverse ecology. As well as still being home to thousands of people, it also contains ancient remains of settlements reaching back to prehistoric times. With a national park as large as Dartmoor with so much to learn and enjoy, you may prefer, as many visitors do, to walk the moors in the company of a knowledgeable guide who can explain the moorland in as much detail as you want. Our expert guides run a vast range of activities all across the moors and beyond. Join us and find out why the only way to really discover the real Dartmoor is to join the Moorland Guides on one of our walks.

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Moorland Guides provide walks for all levels from a quick ramble to an all day trek, across a wide range of themes, you are sure to find an activity that suits your needs

Moorland Guides provide walks for UK and international school groups. Our experienced guides can provide your group with a unique experience.

Moorland Guides provide a range of activities for dog walkers. Enjoy the moors with us and your dog.

Our experienced Guides provide talks to groups across the south west across a wide range of local subjects

Our knowledgable guides have written a number of books on the moors, it’s history and some of it’s characters

Upcoming Activities

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23/10/2017: Walk & Watercolour – with John Christian

John Christian is one of Dartmoor’s foremost watercolour landscape painters. He ‘paints to feel love. And to become part of the landscape’. He is profoundly inspired, both emotionally and visually, by . . . the landscape of Dartmoor, of which he has an intimate knowledge.
Join us for a day of gentle walking and sitting with invitations to sketch and paint along the way. John will teach and offer technique suggestions as much as you individually want or the group needs. We will stroll along the Taw River in Skaigh Woods, one of John’s favourite painting locations, up past the weir, over Tarka bridge, what he calls ‘the cathedral’ canopy of trees, ‘red gate’, ‘Impy’s pool’, and more secret spots. There are many places to choose to sketch and paint along the way so watercolour tuition will be for all levels – you will learn to enhance the artistic skills you already have or learn new techniques and media.
Painting has been running, like a thread, through John’s life for over 60 years. Inspired by Wesson, Seago and Merriott among others, he is rooted in their distinct tradition. Like them, John is driven by an immediacy of response to a deeply felt sense of place which necessarily involves fast sketching. He works swiftly, with spontaneity and a sense of quiet passion, preferably out-of-doors and is known for his fast, wet-into-wet approach. He has contributed to ‘Leisure Painter’ and is a popular demonstrator. He organised his own residential courses for 16+ years and tutored too in Scotland, the South of France, Tuscany and Majorca. He has also exhibited with the Pure Watercolour Society.
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25/10/2017: Ancestors & Art – For Children (Half-Term)

Bring your children on a fascinating meander through ancient and modern history. We will walk through the ruins of Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements and ritual complexes (stone circle, rows, and a . . . standing stone) to explore how people lived 4-5,000 years ago. And we will sit together in nearby hut circles to make a clay pinch pot like our Neolithic ancestors may have done or a simple woven bracelet made from Dartmoor sheep wool.
Option: Depending on the pace and interest of the children, we can also cross a stream and walk further up to King’s Tor to learn more about the industrial history of the area including granite quarrying and the old Princetown-Yelverton tramway/railway.
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26/10/2017: Dowsing for Earth Energies at Drizzlecombe

Dowsing has been used for thousands of years to find water, archaeological remains, missing people, and allergy testing. Together with a member of ‘Devon Dowsers’, we will walk and dowse for ‘earth . . . energies’ and archaeological remains at the impressive Drizzlecombe ceremonial complex which includes the tallest standing stone on Dartmoor as well as stone rows, barrows, Neolithic cairns and cists, and the remains of Bronze age settlements with hut circles.
Layers of later history can also be seen nearby including open cast tin mines near the river, and rabbit warrens.
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About Dartmoor

Find out more about the moors with interactive content and media. Discover it’s history, geology and what makes it so special.

Useful Links

Go to our useful links page for information about Dartmoor, where to eat, visit and stay.

Walking Festival

Find out more about our walking festival with information about upcoming events and images from previous festivals.

About Us

Find out more about the Moorland Guides and read our staff’s biographies.