Dartmoor

Plateau of southwest Devon, England; mostly a national park, 956 sq km/369 sq mi in area. Over half the region is around 300 m/1,000 ft above sea level, making it the highest and largest of the moorland areas in southwest England. The moor is noted for its wild aspect and the tors, rugged blocks of bare granite, which crown its loftier points. The highest are Yes Tor, rising to 619 m/2,030 ft, and High Willhays, which climbs to 621 m/2,039 ft.

At Princetown, 11 km/7 mi east of Tavistock, is Dartmoor Prison, a high-security long-term institution. The region provides grazing for sheep, cattle, and Dartmoor ponies, a semi-wild breed probably descended from animals turned out on the moor in the Dark Ages. Dartmoor was the setting for Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles.