Our holy trinity of truly wild open land is there for the milking. Like the three musketeers, each moor wields its own special spell.
Dartmoor
Status: The UK’s 9th biggest National Park Square miles: 368
Picnickers top 3: Wistman’s Wood (above) where disfigured oaks form ace tables, Hound Tor (after Sherlock Holmes), Fatherford viaduct
Distinguishing marks: 5,000 Bronze/Iron Age hut circles, HM Prison Dartmoor Party trick: Gibbet Hill, where baddies once died in Middle Ages’ cages
Link: https://www.dartmoor.gov.uk/
Tip: Watch out for double-barrels between Two Bridges in the middle and Nine Stones in the north – it’s a military zone
Exmoor
Status: The UK’s 10th biggest
National Park Square miles: 267
Picnickers top 3: The Valley of Rocks, Tarr Steps, Dunkery Beacon
Distinguishing marks: Sheer cliffs of 1,420ft, Britain’s oldest nag – the Exmoor pony Party trick: Shunts shiploads of shingle at Porlock Ridge by the magic of longshore drift
Link: www.exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk
Tip: Don’t try to bareback ride the ponies, they pack a mean bite
Bodmin Moor
Status: Cornwall’s ‘National Park’
Square miles: 80
Picnickers top 3: The Cheesewring (any sandwich welcome), Golitha Falls, Stripple Stones
Distinguishing marks: Brown Willy (no jokes – it’s the summit), Jamaica Inn of Du Maurier clout
Party trick: On a clear day with a clear head, gaze at half the north coast, then pile on down there in the afternoon to bathe your aching limbs in the surf
Link: http: Bodmin Moor
Tip: If the weather closes in, and boy it moves fast, head for Blisland Inn, not Jamaica Inn, when you get there, you’ll see why
