Belstone Tor

The walk up Belstone Tor is short but proper steep, and you'll know about it when you reach the granite crown at 1,454 feet. It's one of those moorland peaks that looks modest from a distance until you're actually climbing it, huffing past the gorse and heather. The views across Dartmoor open up dramatically once you're up there - on a clear day you can see right across to the tors beyond, with Exeter visible far off to the south.

This isn't a long trek. Most walkers reckon forty minutes to an hour from the car park near Sticklepath village, depending on fitness. The tor itself is a jumble of weathered granite boulders that you can scramble around, and the wind at the top is usually fierce. Bring a windproof.

Families with reasonably fit kids will manage it fine, though the final push is genuinely steep. History buffs will appreciate the Bronze Age remains scattered across the moor, though you need to know what you're looking for. On a grey Dartmoor day it can feel atmospheric; on a hot one it's exposed and relentless. Summer weekends get busy with locals, which is telling in itself.

If you're based at Woodland Springs Touring Park, five miles away near Exeter, this makes a solid morning mission before heading back for lunch. It's not a destination in itself, but it's a proper Dartmoor experience - proper bleak, proper windswept, and that matters.