Moorland Guides was created in 2012 by the former guides of the Dartmoor National Park volunteer guides service as a small co-operative sort of group comprising existing and qualified guides who, for many years, have been working with the Dartmoor National Park Authority in providing and leading guided walks and also supporting the educational programme by guiding school groups from both this country and abroad. During the run-up to 2012 and the austerity measures imposed by central government, many organisations have had to review their work and rationalise their manpower and services. The Dartmoor National Park Authority has not been immune from that challenging situation and had to make some very difficult decisions to move forward into a future with a much reduced income. One of the various ways identified to reduce expenditure by the Authority was to look closely at the provision of the guided walk service. To that end, on 1st April 2012 the Authority stopped providing the existing public guided walks programme and also relinquished the international student guided walks involvement, thus handing that engagement over to Moorland Guides.
The Park Authority will be retaining responsibility for the educational walks service for UK schools and colleges and nothing changes there. This gave a great opportunity for the guides themselves to look at the guided walk programme and take it forward as a private entity. It gives us the chance to really expand the variety of walks available and to listen to our clients and customers and provide a new and innovative programme of walks aimed at all abilities and groups. Many of the guides (who had previously been engaged in the work of the Dartmoor National Park Authority) have now become self employed, freelancing to Moorland Guides a small group being run and administered by one of the guides – Simon DELL. We will also take on the international student guiding as well as providing voluntary guides to the National Park to help with their retained responsibility of leading guided walks and educational visits for UK schools, which is what we have done for years.
Simon Dell MBE
Simon Dell is currently the Director and Co-ordinator of Moorland Guides. He has since retired as a full-time and volunteer…
Adrian Partridge
Adrian holds the Mountain Leader (summer) award and has completed the training for the winter award. He has been walking…
Amanda Head
Amanda was born and grew up in London, but caught the hill walking bug after taking part in Ten Tors…
Chris Bourne
Chris Bourne has been involved with outdoor activities since a young age when his dad would take the family camping,…
Colin and Heather Ridgers
After settling in Plymouth in the late 1970s, Heather and Colin discovered the many interests and the satisfaction of moorland…
David Glenny
Walks with David are always both fun and informative. A former primary school head teacher he is an experienced provider…
David Payne
Although Dave was born in London, he became a local man when his parents moved to the West Country in…
Dawn Williamson
Dawn was brought up in Somerset and spent many days walking the paths of Somerset and Dorset. She studied geography…
Debbie Jenkin
Debbie Jenkin was born and raised in Yorkshire, moving to Devon in the 1970s where she formed an immediate attachment…
Ian Johnstone
Ian was born at Hampton Court in Surrey and grew up in west London near Heathrow airport. Whilst at school…
Inge Page
Inge has recently joined Moorland Guides and gained her Walk Group Leader qualification. She lives in Ashburton and has spent…
Liz Miall
Born and brought up on Dartmoor Liz became a Dartmoor National Park Guide in 2008. Liz gains great pleasure from…
Mike Jeffery
Mike was born, bred and lives on Dartmoor, he has just retired as a boiler engineer. He holds Walking Group…
Mike Rose
Mike retired from the police service in 2012 and lived in Princetown for many years. He has a long connection…
Nigel Grist
Nigel Grist is a biologist by training specialising at university in moorland ecology and marine studies. A further research period…
Paul Rendell
Paul Rendell, also known as ’Dartmoor Paul’, was born in Plymouth and became enthusiastic about Dartmoor from an early age…
Peter Challiss
Peter Challiss is a qualified Mountain Leader since 2002 and this qualification enables him to lead groups over all the…
Peter Glanville
Peter was born in Tavistock and has walked Dartmoor and the local area extensively from a young age – an…
Phil Watson
Phil’s mountain experience began, as did so many others, with the Duke of Edinburgh award schemes. Serving as a musician…
Richard Gooding
Hi, my name is Richard Gooding and I am both a Moorland Guide and a Dartmoor National Park Guide. I…
Richard Ware
Richard moved to Tavistock in 1985 from the wilds of North Cornwall and immediately started exploring Dartmoor. The remoter the…
Sue Goodfellow
Sue is passionate about bringing people and wildlife closer together for their mutual benefit and has spent many years showing…
Tony Burges
Tony Burges was born and bred in Devon and his passion for Dartmoor was inspired while he went through his…
Willem Montagne
Willem Montagne was born in the Netherlands and grew up and was educated in England. He has a degree in…