Dartmoor Driving Tour: 10,000 Years of Human History

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Dartmoor Driving Tour: 10,000 Years of Human History

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Dartmoor audio tour: Dartmoor Driving Tour: 10,000 Years of Human History
This is a 56.6mi driving tour.
It takes an average of 120 mins to complete.
$19.99
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About the Tour

Dartmoor’s granite was forged 280 million years ago. On this driving tour, you’ll trace 10,000 years of human history across one of Britain’s most extraordinary landscapes, from Bronze Age settlements to Napoleonic prison walls.

The tour starts at the Haytor Dartmoor National Park Visitor Centre, where you can climb one of Dartmoor’s most iconic granite tors before setting off. You’ll wind south through the villages of Widecombe in the Moor and Ponsworthy, their very names encoding the Old English and Latin of early settlers.

From Merrivale’s Bronze Age hut circles and stone rows, to the ancient oak woodland of Wistman’s Wood and the twin granite rings of Grey Wethers, you’ll encounter a landscape that was once densely settled and then gradually abandoned as the climate turned colder. You’ll continue through Moretonhampstead and down to Bovey Tracey, passing Kelly Mine and the industrial story of ball clay extraction along the way. The last stop before heading back up to Haytor is at the House of Marbles in Bovey Tracey, a working glass and marble studio housed in the original Victorian pottery buildings.

On this two-hour driving tour, you’ll have a chance to:

  • Walk through Merrivale Prehistoric Settlement, one of Dartmoor’s best-preserved Bronze Age landscapes
  • Explore Buckfast Abbey, rebuilt by Benedictine monks in the 1880s on foundations dating to 1018AD
  • Discover the story of the Dartmoor Massacre of 1815, when guards fired on unarmed prisoners of war
  • Visit the Dartmoor Prison Museum, where inmates once carved intricate model ships from bone to trade for food
  • Learn how pollen preserved in peat bogs revealed how Dartmoor’s ancient forests were cleared for farming
  • See Bennetts Cross, a medieval waymarker that guided packhorse trains carrying tin across the moor
  • Hear the folklore of Wistman’s Wood, a rare fragment of ancient Atlantic rainforest tied to legends of ghostly hounds

If you want to visit all the stops, please allow a full day, you can drive the tour in two hours without getting out the car or you can make this tour a full day or even two day tour. i suggest picking two walks and one attraction.

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Tour Producer

Hi, I’m Becky Frost, a proud Cornish storyteller and founder of Penelewey Tours and Penelewey Audio Story Tours, also known as PAST. I create immersive walking audio tours and GPS guided audio experiences on the VoiceMap platform, bringing history, culture, and place vividly to life across Cornwall, the South West of England and beyond.

I specialise in historical walking audio tours, indoor audio guides, and place based storytelling for heritage sites, cultural organisations, cities, and coastal towns. My work covers research, scriptwriting, narration, and delivery of audio tours from concept through to launch, ensuring each experience is authentic, accessible, and thoughtfully paced.

As a fisherman’s daughter raised by the sea, storytelling has always been part of my world. My work is rooted in landscape, memory, and the voices of ordinary people, those whose stories are often walked past rather than truly heard. Through carefully researched and locally voiced audio tours, I invite listeners to slow down and connect with the layers of history beneath their feet.

My greatest fascination lies in the Celtic period, shaped by the movement of people, ideas, trade, and shared culture, alongside Cornwall’s long history of resilience and its ongoing fight to retain identity and land. These themes run quietly through my work, blending local history with wider European narratives in a way that feels grounded and human.

I have been commissioned to create audio interpretation for one of Cornwall’s most significant historic religious buildings, alongside developing audio tours for towns, cities, and coastal places across the region. Accessibility and inclusivity sit at the heart of everything I do, audio tours allow people to explore independently, at their own pace, using their own devices, supporting different learning styles and access needs.

My narration is delivered in a clear English accent with a soft Cornish tone, warm, calm, and welcoming, designed to feel like walking alongside a local rather than being lectured. I write, research, and voice my tours myself, ensuring clarity, care, and authenticity from start to finish.

We don’t walk past history with audio tours, we walk through it.

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Preview Location

Location 25

Buckfast Abbey

Find yourself a parking spot. I highly recommend the Abbey as a stop to get out and stretch your legs and go explore the Abbey and grounds. There’s often markets or festivities going on especially in the summer months. Last time I was here there were Alpacas in the grounds! Th... Read More

How VoiceMap Works

Major Landmarks

  • Haytor Rocks

  • Buckfast Abbey

  • Venford Reservoir

  • Combestone Tor

  • Dartmoor Prison Museum

  • Merrivale Prehistoric Settlement

  • Wistman's Wood

  • Postbridge Clapper Bridge

  • Bennett's Cross

  • House of Marbles

Getting There

Route Overview

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a set starting point. It’s how we give turn-by-turn directions and tell a story greater than the sum of its parts.
  1. Total distance
    91km
  2. Distance back to start location
    144.09m

Directions to Starting Point

The Tour begins at Haytor National Park Visitor Centre carpark situated on the B3387. You will see a small visitor centre in the car park. Don't worry about paying for parking here, we will be moving on to the next car park where Haytor is easier to access.

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Tips

Places to stop along the way

There are so many places to stop along this tour! These are my recommended stops, but you may want to pick 3 or 4 stops, or split the tour into two days to do them all.

Haytor – Tor Walk approx. 45 mins
Hemsworthy Gate – Walk approx. 20 mins
Tavistock Inn – Refreshments
Buckfast Abbey – Free entry and free parking – average time 60 mins
Venford Reservoir – Walk approx. 60 mins
Combestone Tor – Tor Walk approx. 10 mins
Dartmoor Prison Museum - £5 adults £4 children
Monday to Thursday - 09:30 - 16:30 last entries 16:00
Friday and Sunday - 09:30 - 16:00 last entries 15:30 – Average time 60 mins
Merrivale Prehistoric Settlement – Walk approx. 20 mins
Wistman Woods – Walk approx. 60 mins
Postbridge – Walk approx. 10 mins
Bennetts Cross – Walk approx. 15 mins
House of Marbles – Attraction - Monday – Saturday: 9am – 5pm
Sunday: 10am* – 5pm – Free parking and free entry – average time 60 mins
Haytor Dartmoor Visitor Centre - Free
5th November to 31st March 10am-3pm Thursday to Sunday
1 April – 31 May 10:00am – 4:00pm daily
1 June – 31 August 10:00am – 5:00pm daily
1 September – 31 October 10:00am – 4:00pm daily

Best time of day

It is always best to drive Dartmoor in daylight hours, if you are planning on walking some tors please make sure you have ample daylight and adhere to safety precautions. If visiting attractions please check opening hours and last entry times.

Precautions

There are narrow single track roads and narrow bridges along the route, the smallest being Ponsworthy Bridge at 2.3m wide.
Dartmoor is a naturally dangerous environment, the weather can change within minutes, if you are planning to walk any of my recommended stops please make sure that you have the right provisions, clothing and footwear, always check the weather and let someone know where you are if walking alone. If you do get into difficulty you can reach Dartmoor Rescue Team by calling 999 or 112 for mountain rescue.

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“This app has become my go-to app for audio tours. I pretty much use it for every trip and it works wonderfully. I highly recommend VoiceMap for travelers to truly experience cities.”
App Store Review
“Great app. walk around at your own pace, stop where you want, move on or speed up when you want. Read the script before you go or during the commentary, speed it up or replay it. Repeat the tour whenever you like.”
Google Play Store

Last Updated

7 Apr 2026

Questions and Reviews

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