Okehampton in Devon

26 March 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Kicior99/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Kicior99/cc-by-sa-4.0

Okehampton is a town and civil parish in West Devon in the English county of Devon. It is situated at the northern edge of Dartmoor, and had a population of 5,922 at the 2011 census. Okehampton is 21 miles (33 km) west of Exeter, 26 miles (42 km) north of Plymouth and 24 miles (38 km) south of Barnstaple.   read more…

The Dartmoor National Park in Devon

4 July 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  12 minutes

Dartmoor from Hay Tor © Steinsky/cc-by-sa-3.0

Dartmoor from Hay Tor © Steinsky/cc-by-sa-3.0

Dartmoor is an area of moorland in south Devon, England. Protected by National Park status as Dartmoor National Park, it covers 954 square kilometres (368 sq mi). Dartmoor is managed by the Dartmoor National Park Authority, whose 22 members are drawn from Devon County Council, local district councils and Government. Parts of Dartmoor have been used as military firing ranges for over 200 years. The public are granted extensive land access rights on Dartmoor (including restricted access to the firing ranges) and it is a popular tourist destination. Dartmoor is known for its tors – hills topped with outcrops of bedrock, which in granite country such as this are usually rounded boulder-like formations. More than 160 of the hills of Dartmoor have the word tor in their name but quite a number do not. Dartmoor has a resident population of about 33,000, which swells considerably during holiday periods with incoming tourists. The largest settlements within the National Park are Ashburton (the largest with population about 3,500), Buckfastleigh, Moretonhampstead, Princetown, Yelverton, Horrabridge, South Brent, Christow and Chagford.   read more…

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