An updated version of this profile is online at nationalcharacterareas.co.uk. This pdf is retained for historical and completeness purposes.
Dartmoor’s extensive upland moorland core rises above the surrounding small-scale, enclosed, predominantly pastoral landscape. Granite unites and characterises the entire National Character Area (NCA). On the moors the distinctive tors create key landscape features, interrupting otherwise unbroken skylines and ridges, and provide focal points for visitors. Isolated farmsteads and scattered villages utilise granite for buildings and walls; and the area’s strong time depth and rich cultural heritage are visually evident because of the granite, which includes the largest concentration of prehistoric stone rows in Britain.
The high moors are overlaid with thick deposits of peat and support internationally important blanket bogs surrounded by large expanses of upland heathland and grass moorland. The bogs and valley mires absorb and store significant amounts of water, as well as carbon, released into the 16 rivers and 8 reservoirs that supply the surrounding urban and rural populations and industry. As rivers leave the high moor they flow through deep-cut valleys steeped in woodland – both semi-natural broadleaved and coniferous plantation. The fast-flowing rivers, strewn with granite boulders, are popular for recreation, both passive and active.
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