Dartmoor has been called the last great wilderness in England largely due to the fact that it is possible to get further from roads and civilisation than anywhere else in the country. It is generally wild and lonely, with remote areas of uplands and mountains that even in holiday periods it’s possible to get away and walk all day without seeing a soul.

Unlike many upland areas, it is possible to walk anywhere you like on Dartmoor because it is still countryside. You don’t have to follow ridges or valleys like you would do in mountainous regions. However, Dartmoor is a deceptive country for walking because, as it isn’t a true mountainous region and looks like rolling undulating landscape, many people think it is easy to finish walks in a fast time. This is just not possible because walking on Dartmoor will take you over tussocks of grass, heather (bracken in the summer months), peat hags, marshy areas, gorse bushes, and rocky slopes all within a few miles of each other, which will inevitably slow you down.

The walks in this guidebook are grouped into four large areas of Dartmoor: South Moor, Widecombe Walks, North East Moor and North West Moor. Furthermore most of the walks in this guidebook are circular and are graded by length: long - 12km (7.5 miles) or more; medium - 4km to 12km (2.5 to 7.5 miles) and short - under 4km (2.5 miles).

Each walk is also classed as hard, moderate or easy, depending on the difficulty of the terrain, any necessary climbing and the map reading and navigation skills involved. With nearly all the routes in Walking on Dartmoor, it is possible to shorten them by cutting off corners and leading back onto the route at another place. It is also easy to link walks together in order to create a longer walk if you so wish.