Dartmoor was probably Britain's first major environmental disaster.  It is a high moorland area formed on a bed of granite. Most of Dartmoor is now a national park. It forms a plateau 956 sq Km in area. But the moor has changed much over the last few thousand years.  Like most of the British Isles, Dartmoor was once no moor at all but dense woodland. 

About 7,000 years ago people in Britain started to clear the wildwood to make way for farmland.  They grew crops and kept domestic animals including pigs, sheep, goats and cattle. Some of these animals must have been brought from mainland Europe as they are not native to Britain. By this time the last land bridge with the continent was gone,  so people, their animals and seed corn must have travelled across the seas in boats. By the Bronze Age our farming ancestors had settled Dartmoor.

The moor is rich in ancient settlements, going back well over three thousand years.  The best preserved is probably Grimspound, where the remains of stone huts can still be seen set within a huge perimeter wall.  It is clear that an agricultural community one lived and thrived here.  It must have been a much more hospitable environment than it is today.  So what happened?

The climate of Britain changed.  It became much colder and wetter. Turning forests to field upset a delicate balance.  Dartmoor was set for a disaster. With no trees to hold the soil in place it was just washed away.  Forest had been changed to farmland and farmland had been changed to moorland. With their farms gone these Bronze Age farmers moved away and we are left as custodians of the much bleaker, although very beautiful Dartmoor, we know today.

Over half the region is around 300 meters above sea level making it the highest and largest of the moorland areas in southwest England. The moor is noted for its wild aspect. Its tors are the rugged blocks of bare granite which crown its loftier points

Purple Ling Heather Calluna vulgaris and Yellow Gorse Ulex gallii are the dominant ground cover plants on the open moor.

Sheep graze freely , preventing regeneration of trees (if more than a handful of trees could still grow on these thin soils) and keeping the moorland open. The Dartmoor sheep  is a hardy breed with the ability to thrive on exposed pasture.

There are in fact two different breeds bearing the name Dartmoor - the White Face and the Greyface. Both are descendants of the native heath sheep, which grazed Dartmoor in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Both types were popular around Dartmoor and Exmoor but changing market demands led to their decline from the 1940s onwards. The Dartmoor Sheep Breeders' Association was formed in 1909 and the White Face breed society was founded later in 1950.

The White Face sheep have a broad white head, that of the ewe being free of wool and a black nose. The rams can have horns but the ewes are polled. The wool is long and crimped. The Greyface is somewhat heavier in stature with a long curly fleece. The face is spotted or mottled and fringed with wool in both the ram and ewe, both sexes are polled.

But the best loved by visitors are without a doubt the Dartmoor ponies.