Dartmoor National Park Authority

Did You Know?

Dartmoor is about the same size as London - it is 20 miles (32 km) from top to bottom (or north to south) and 20 miles across (west to east). How many football pitches do you think would fit into an area the size of Dartmoor?

a. 200 b. 2,000 c. 20,000 (answers at the bottom of the page)

About 33,400 people live in the National Park, but millions of people visit every year. The population of greater London is 7,430,000 people.

There are still signs of people who lived on Dartmoor 3,000 years ago. For comparison, if a 30 cm ruler = 3,000 years then 1mm = 10 years.

The highest point above sea level on Dartmoor is High Willhays 621m (2037ft). It is as tall as 6 and a half London Big Ben clock towers stacked on top of each other.

There are nearly 450 miles of footpaths/ bridleways on Dartmoor. If you walked them all it would be like doing the London Marathon 18 times, or travelling by car between Portsmouth to Glasgow (from the bottom to the top of the UK). Can you fill in the missing gaps? On footpaths marked with yellow spots you can only _ _ l _ . On bridleways marked with blue spots you can w_ _ _ , c_ _ _ _ , and ride a _ o _ _ _.

All the land is owned by somebody – just like the houses and gardens down your road. HRH the Prince of Wales (the Duchy of Cornwall) is the most famous landowner on Dartmoor.

Most of the open moorland is common land where people are allowed to walk and ride horses.

Local farmers have ‘commoners rights’ on the common land, which means that they can let their animals graze there (feed off the grass and plants). There are over 50,000 sheep, cows and ponies grazing on the common land of Dartmoor. That means there are more animals living on Dartmoor than people!

Dartmoor ponies are wild animals – they might look cuddly and friendly, but they can bite or kick. Ponies are killed on the roads on Dartmoor because people feed them and so the ponies gather by the road waiting for food.

Can you fill in the missing gaps?: P_e_s_ do not f_ _ d the p_ _ _ _ _.

Answers

c. 20,000 football pitches On footpaths marked with yellow spots you can only walk. On bridleways marked with blue spots you can walk, cycle, and ride a horse. Please do not feed the ponies.