Dartmoor: one of England’s most hunted and shot-over pieces of real estate

Dartmoor National Park is largely privately-owned and riddled with hunts and shoots

As the cubbing and hunting 'season' starts again in earnest, we are also getting ever closer to the beginning of another few months of gunning down pheasants and partridges. Protect the Wild is looking at key regions of the UK that attract both tourists who want to enjoy the wildlife and landscape, and hunters and shooters who have an altogether less healthy relationship with the countryside around them. In this post we are looking at a place famed for "its distinctive, rugged granite tors, wild ponies, and ancient historical sites"...Dartmoor

Dartmoor National Park is a major tourist attraction, popular with visitors from all over the world. However, many of the hotels and pubs on Dartmoor are deeply enmeshed with the hunting and shooting industry. As Protect the Wild has said before, Dartmoor is one of England’s most hunted and shot-over pieces of real estate.

Image: Who owns Dartmoor, via Guy Shrubsole

Dartmoor is home to many large estates, which use their land for hunting and especially bird shooting. One example is the 4,000 acre Blachford Estate owned by hedge fund manager Alexander Darwall. Darwall gained notoriety in recent years when he brought a case against the Dartmoor National Park Authority trying to restrict people's right to wild camp on the moor. The Supreme Court ruled this year against Darwall and upheld the right to camp within the National Park.

Estates like these breed birds for shooting, releasing them into the countryside every year to be massacred. Cornwood Shoots, which operates on Blatchford Estates, advertises that customers can take a shot at a massive 250 to 400 birds a day.

Over 50 million pheasants and 11 million partridges are released for shooting each year. Most of them are bred for the purpose in inhumane factory farm conditions. The introduction of such an unnatural number of birds (only a fraction of which are shot) into the National Park takes a devastating toll on Dartmoor's natural environment too.

By far the largest landowner in the National Park is Prince William, who owns the Duchy of Cornwall Estate (roughly one third of Dartmoor). The Royal Family are the most well-known pro-shooting advocates in the UK. It will come as no surprise then that Dartmoor is a magnet for shooters.

Sadly, the moor is regularly frequented by hunts too, including the Dartmoor Hunt and the Mid Devon Hunt. In 2023, to give just one example, Spooners and West Dartmoor Hunt terrierman Mark Harris was found guilty under the Protection of Badgers Act after wildlife defenders from Devon County Hunt Saboteurs caught him and other terriermen digging out a badger sett.

Still want to visit Dartmoor?

Dartmoor is a unique landscape that Protect the Wild thinks is best enjoyed without slaughtering its wildlife. Still want to visit, but don't want to be complicit in bloodsport?

Here's a list of some of the hotels, pubs and venues in the national park to avoid, from our Blood Business database of businesses that support hunting with dogs or the commercial shooting of birds or mammals.

Dartmoor hotels and bed & breakfasts:

East Dart Hotel, Postbridge, Devon

As Devon County Hunt Sabs explained in a Facebook post in February 2024, the Two Bridges Hunt Club, formed by four Dartmoor hunts (the South Devon, Mid Devon, Dartmoor, and Spooner’s & West Dartmoor) meet every year in late winter to mark – and stick two fingers up at – the Hunting Act. The club was named after the Two Bridges Hotel but after a backlash the eponymous Two Bridges booted the Club out. The East Dart Hotel is the Two Bridges Hunt Club's new venue. The hunts park horse trailers and unbox their horses nearby, meaning its unlikely the hotel's owners don't know what's going on.

White Hart Hotel, Moretonhampstead, Devon

A historic hotel dating back to 1775 which, unfortunately, promotes shooting on its website. The hotel boasts that “Dartmoor is famous for its wild adventure and country sports…it offers a landscape envied worldwide…The White Hart Hotel is the ideal base for any party looking to enjoy shooting on the Moor.”

Mill End Hotel, Chagford, Devon:

This Four Star hotel advertises how its guests can get involved in shooting during their stay in Chagford.

Tor Royal B&B, Princetown, Devon:

A regular meet venue for the notorious Dartmoor Hunt as a number of reports from (especially) Plymouth and West Devon Hunt Sabs (PWDHS) prove.

Two Bridges Hotel, Yelverton, Devon

The Two Bridges Hotel, owned by Warm Welcome Hotels, “in the heart of Dartmoor National Park has been welcoming weary travellers for centuries”. It is, it says, “a Dartmoor oasis” – a strange term to use for a part of the country so unlike a desert it’s hard to imagine. However it describes itself, the owners of the Two Bridges appear not to be in favour of the ban on hunting brought in by the Hunting Act 2004. Not only is the pub a regular meet for local hunts, but as Plymouth and West Devon Hunt Sabs noted in February 2024 in a Facebook post the Two Bridges had organised a supper involving four local hunts to mock the anniversary of the Act.

Lavender House Hotel, Ashburton, Devon

Hotel and wedding venue that hosted the Dartmoor Hunt's Ball in 2023 and the South Devon Hunt's Masquerade Ball in December of the same year.

Prince of Wales Bunkhouse, Princetown, Devon:

PWDHS reported in November 2024 that the Prince of Wales Bunkhouse hosted a dinner for the Spooners and West Dartmoor Hunt after their opening meet where “a fight broke out involving the landlord and several members of the hunt. Police were called and hunt members were breathalysed and also later charged with Actual Bodily Harm and theft!” Violent hunters and alcohol: never a good mix.

Fox and Grapes, Lifton, Devon

B&B and pub which hosted a ‘Car Treasure Hunt’ fundraiser for the Lamerton Hunt in October 2024.

Gidleigh Park, Chagford, Devon

Gidleigh Park is featured in the GoodShootHotel guide which says that “With secure gun storage, a number of dog-friendly bedrooms and onsite kennels, Gidleigh Park can comfortably accommodate shooting parties. Unwind in the oak-panelled lounges after a long day’s shooting with a glass of something warming beside the roaring log fire…”

A mass trespass on the Duke of Somerset’s land in Devon, via Eliza Egret

Venues

Great Fulford Estate, Dunsford, Devon

The Great Fulford Estate is owned by the Fulford family. The property is rented out as a venue for weddings, yoga retreats, festivals and for use as a film set. It is also a 3000 acre estate specialising in partridge and pheasant shoots. They boast that the Estate is "situated on the edge of Dartmoor National park… The shoot benefits its [sic] own comfortable shoot lodge and great chef…The normal bag is between 200 and 350 birds.” The Estate has two distinct identities, advertising itself duplicitously for shooting and non-shooting customers alike complete with two separate Instagram accounts.

Pubs

Copper Penny Inn, Chipshop, Devon

The Copper Penny Inn on the edge of Dartmoor is “a traditional English restaurant based near the historic town of Tavistock” and is run by farmers Peter & Marion Baker. Mr Baker runs the nearby Gulworthy Shoot and hosts shooting parties at the pub.

Duke of York Inn, Iddesleigh, Devon

Devon County Hunt Sabs (DCHS) found the notorious Eggesford Hunt (who they described as “convicted wildlife criminals” and are kenneled at Wembworthy, a short drive to the east) meeting at the Duke of York on Christmas Eve 2024.

Peter Tavy Inn, Tavistock, Devon

Like so many pubs in this part of the world, the Peter Tavy Inn extends a welcome to walkers, cyclists – and hunts. As noted by Plymouth and West Devon Hunt Sabs in a Facebook post, the Inn hosted a joint supper for the Spooners and West Dartmoor Hunt and the notorious Wynnstay Hunt (the latter clearly fancying a change from breaking the law in Cheshire) in March 2024.

Ring O' Bells, West Alvington, Devon

The Ring O’ Bells is a “traditional thatched Dartmoor inn. Our friendly staff are always ready to make your stay with us a memorable one. Enjoy a relaxing getaway with home comforts and attentive service.” It looks lovely. That ‘attentive service’ ethos was on full display, incidentally, at the tail end of 2024 when the Bells was very keen to help out the South Devon hunt, allowing it to leave from their premises on Boxing Day because South Hams District Council wouldn’t give permission to the hunt to gather in the Quay car park as it had done for many years. The pub told visitors to its social media feed that hunting is ‘an old tradition’ – like badger baiting and shoving kids up chimneys perhaps…

Walkhampton Inn, Walkhampton, Devon

Country inn which allowed the Spooner’s and West Dartmoor Hunt to meet in their car park on New Years Day 2025.

There are plenty of ways to enjoy Dartmoor without supporting bloodsports.

We can visit the National Park and exercise our right to roam and wild camp in this beautiful area. We need to reclaim the UK's wild regions from landowners, hunters and shooters once and for all.

If you have info about more businesses on Dartmoor or elsewhere that are supporting hunting and shooting, you can tip us off here.

• Check out Protect the Wild's explainer on pheasant shooting.

• Read ''National Parks' in Name only', our recent article on how the shooting industry is running wild in Britain's national parks.

Images of Dartmoor via Nick Fewings and Sue Winter on Unsplash.

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