Dartmoor Audio Driving Tour: 10,000 Years of Human History

Overview

Dartmoor’s granite was forged 280 million years ago. On this audio driving tour, you’ll trace 10,000 years of human history across one of Britain’s most extraordinary landscapes, from Bronze Age settlements to Napoleonic prison walls. The tour starts at the Haytor Dartmoor National Park Visitor Centre, where you can climb one of Dartmoor’s most iconic granite tors before setting off. You’ll wind south through the villages of Widecombe in the Moor and Ponsworthy, their very names encoding the Old English and Latin of early settlers. From Merrivale’s Bronze Age hut circles and stone rows, to the ancient oak woodland of Wistman’s Wood and the twin granite rings of Grey Wethers, you’ll encounter a landscape that was once densely settled and then gradually abandoned as the climate turned colder. The last stop before heading back up to Haytor is at the House of Marbles in Bovey Tracey, a working glass and marble studio housed in the original Victorian pottery buildings.