The Parish of Manaton lies wholly within Dartmoor National Park, on the South-Eastern side of the moor. It is contained in the triangle formed by three main roads – the B3212 Moretonhampstead to Princetown, the A382 Moretonhampstead to Bovey Tracey and the B3387 Bovey Tracey to Widecombe. The commonest access to the village of Manaton, which lies in the East of the Parish, is by road from Bovey Tracey, a distance of 5 miles and a climb of 220 metres.
The parish contains a cross section of all the geographical features for which Dartmoor is famous, from high moorland, through rocky tors, cultivated uplands, broadleaf woodland to steep river valleys. The lowest elevation of the parish is on the River Bovey at 75m and the highest on Hameldown at 530m. The village of Manaton is renowned as a starting point for some of the best walks on Dartmoor.
Interesting Literary Connections
Manaton has claims to serious literary connections, such as John Galsworthy, Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, but it was Sir Anthony Trollope who described the parish best:
"The prettiest scenery in all England - and if I am contradicted in that assertion, I will say in all Europe - is in Devonshire, on the southern and south-eastern skirts of Dartmoor, where the rivers Dart , and Avon and Teign form themselves, and where the broken moor is half-cultivated, and the wild-looking uplands are half-moor. In making this assertion I am often met with much doubt, but it is by persons who do not really know the locality. Men and women talk to me on the matter, who have spent a fortnight in Torquay, and perhaps have made an excursion from Tavistock to the convict prison on Dartmoor. But who knows the glories of Chagford? Who has walked the parish of Manaton? Who is conversant with Lustleigh Cleeves?.....Gentle reader, believe me that you will be rash in contradicting me, unless you have done these things."
