Category × County
5 Best National Parks In Devon
This category is doing two different jobs in Devon and they are worth separating. Dartmoor National Park is the real article — high granite moorland across a large part of the county's middle, open to walk on, and unlike anything else on the list. The other four are country parks and beauty spots that have landed under the same heading: Lydford Gorge on the moor's western edge, Burrator Reservoir up on the moor itself, and Decoy Country Park and Rock Park down among the towns. Five records, one national park, so plan accordingly.
Top national parks in Devon
Showing 1–5 of 5
National ParksLydford Gorge
National ParksDecoy Country Park
National ParksBurrator Reservoir
National ParksRock Park
National ParksDartmoor National Park
The moor is not a venue and does not behave like one. There is no arrival, no route laid out for you and nobody to ask, which is liberating with confident walkers and unnerving with a four-year-old. Weather changes fast at that height and the ground holds water long after the rain has stopped. For the landscape without the commitment, take the edge of it — a gorge walk, a reservoir circuit — and keep Decoy Country Park and Rock Park as the fallback when nobody has the legs.
National Parks in Devon: FAQs
Is Dartmoor a day out or a backdrop?
Both, and deciding which you want before you leave saves a lot of friction. As a backdrop it is easy — drive up, stop somewhere with a view, let everyone out for half an hour and come back down. As a day out it needs a target, a map and a plan for turning round, because open moor gives children nothing to aim at and they lose interest quickly without one. Dartmoor National Park is recorded as free to access, so a short first attempt costs you nothing but the trip.
Which of the five suits the youngest children?
Decoy Country Park and Rock Park are the town-scale entries here, and that is what a toddler wants: somewhere to arrive, something to play on, and no obligation to walk to reach it. The moor and the gorge both ask for effort before they give anything back, which works from roughly school age upwards. There is no shame in using the small parks as the everyday option and saving the moor for when everyone can manage a proper walk.
What should we take onto the moor?
More than you think for the forecast you have. Waterproofs for everyone regardless of the sky, boots rather than trainers because the ground stays wet, food and drink because there is nowhere to buy any, and something warm even in summer since the temperature drops noticeably with height. Agree a turning point before you set out, and be willing to use it — a short walk everybody enjoyed beats a long one that ended in a carry.
Why are only five places listed for a county with this much protected landscape?
Because the category is narrower than the countryside it describes. A national park is a single record covering an enormous area, so all of Dartmoor counts once here, while the coast paths, woods, estuaries and commons that make up much of Devon's open ground sit under other headings entirely. Read this page as a pointer to the moor and its edges rather than as an inventory of everywhere green in the county.