About
The Museum of Dartmoor Life occupies a beautifully converted nineteenth-century mill building in the heart of Okehampton, the market town that sits at the northern gateway to Dartmoor National Park. Across three floors of carefully curated galleries, the museum tells the complete human story of Dartmoor — from the Bronze Age farmers who built the stone rows and burial cairns that still punctuate the moor, to the mining families who worked the tin and copper lodes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the farming communities whose patterns of life shaped the distinctive Dartmoor landscape we see today.
Dartmoor is one of England's last great wildernesses, a granite upland of tors and blanket bog, rushing streams and ancient woodland. The museum explores how people have lived with and on this challenging landscape across the centuries. The geology and archaeology galleries examine the Bronze Age monuments for which Dartmoor is internationally famous — the Grimspound enclosure, the stone avenues of Merrivale, the clapper bridges that cross the moorland streams — and the evidence they provide for early farming and ritual practice on the moor.
The working life galleries document the distinctive agricultural traditions of the moor: the Dartmoor longhouse, where humans and animals shared a building separated only by a central drain; the practice of 'newtaking' — enclosing new land from the open moor — that gradually pushed cultivation higher up the hillsides; and the ancient commons grazing rights that shaped community life. Visitors can learn about the Dartmoor pony, the native breed that has roamed the moor for thousands of years and faces an uncertain future, and the Whiteface Dartmoor sheep whose wool was prized across medieval Europe.
The industrial heritage section covers the remarkable history of Dartmoor's extractive industries: the tin and copper mining that reached its peak in the nineteenth century and left behind dramatic engine house ruins across the moor; the granite quarrying industry that supplied building stone for London's bridges and streets; and the peat cutting that provided fuel for moorland communities. A dedicated gallery covers Dartmoor's military history — the prison at Princetown (built for Napoleonic prisoners of war), the army training ranges that have operated since the Napoleonic era, and the stories of those who served and lived alongside the military presence on the moor.
The museum is run by the Three Towns and District Museum Trust and draws on decades of local collecting and research. Temporary exhibitions complement the permanent galleries, and the museum acts as a hub for research into Dartmoor's history, maintaining an extensive archive and reference library. The mill building itself is part of the story — a reminder of Okehampton's own history as a working market town serving the communities of the northern moor.
Categories:
Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
📅 Best Times to Visit
Quietest: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Busiest: Saturday
💡 Weekday mornings in spring or early autumn
💡 Visitor Tips
- The museum is seasonal — open Easter to end of October only. Always check the website before making a special journey, particularly for bank holidays.
- Okehampton has good free parking near the town centre; the museum is a short walk from the main car parks on West Street.
- The mill building has multiple floors connected by stairs; the upper galleries contain the most detailed collections on Dartmoor farming and industry.
- Combine your museum visit with a walk onto the northern moor — Okehampton is the starting point for excellent Dartmoor walks to the high tors and Yes Tor.
- The Dartmoor pony section is a highlight for children and families; enquire at reception about current conservation efforts for this endangered native breed.
- The museum maintains an archive and reference library for those researching Dartmoor history — contact in advance if you wish to access archival material.
- Okehampton Castle (English Heritage) is a ten-minute walk from the museum and makes an excellent combined visit, occupying a dramatic riverside location.
- The Dartmoor Railway runs steam services from Okehampton station in summer — a great way to approach the museum if you want to arrive by heritage train.
Highlights
Bronze Age Dartmoor Gallery
Dartmoor contains one of the most remarkable concentrations of Bronze Age monuments in Europe — stone rows, cairn circles, kistvaens, and settlement enclosures that date from 2000–700 BCE. This gallery presents finds from moorland excavations alongside detailed explanations of what these monuments tell us about the people who built them: farmers and pastoralists who cleared the wildwood, grazed their cattle on the high moor, and buried their dead in elaborate stone settings.
Maps and models help visitors understand the distribution of monuments across the landscape and the extraordinary survival of these structures on open moorland.
Dartmoor Longhouse Reconstruction
The Dartmoor longhouse is one of the most distinctive building types in British vernacular architecture — a single-storey stone building divided into human and animal quarters by a central drain, allowing a farming family to share warmth with their livestock through the harsh moorland winters. This reconstruction, based on excavated examples and surviving buildings across the moor, places visitors inside a medieval longhouse and brings to life the reality of farming on Dartmoor before the enclosures transformed the landscape.
Authentic furnishings and equipment recreate the domestic life of a fourteenth-century moorland family.
Tin and Copper Mining Heritage
Dartmoor was one of the great tin-producing regions of medieval Europe, and the mining industry continued to shape the moor through the nineteenth century when copper became the primary target. This section of the museum brings together tools, equipment, wage books, photographs, and personal testimonies from the families who worked the mines — from the great lodes of the Mary Tavy area to the smaller workings scattered across the moor.
The dramatic engine house ruins that punctuate the Dartmoor skyline today are explained through plans and archive photographs showing the mines in operation, and the sudden collapse of the industry in the 1870s is documented through records of emigration and community disruption.
Dartmoor Ponies: A Native Breed
Dartmoor ponies have roamed the high moor for thousands of years, shaped by centuries of natural selection into a hardy, compact breed perfectly adapted to moorland conditions. The museum dedicates a gallery to the story of this iconic animal — its history as a working pony for moorland farmers and miners, its near-extinction after mechanisation reduced demand, and the conservation efforts of the Dartmoor Pony Society to preserve the purebred herd that grazes the open moor today.
Interactive displays explain the challenges facing the breed and what visitors can do to support conservation.
Photographs of pony drifts — the annual autumn round-ups — document a tradition that continues to the present day.
Collections
The Museum of Dartmoor Life holds a broad and representative collection documenting the full span of human activity on Dartmoor and its surrounding communities. The archaeology collections include finds from Bronze Age settlement sites and moorland excavations, alongside material evidence of the medieval and later farming culture of the moor.
The industrial history collections are particularly strong on the tin and copper mining industry — tools, plans, photographs, and personal accounts from the families who worked the great mines of the nineteenth century.
The farming collections encompass implements, equipment, and documentation relating to the distinctive pastoral culture of Dartmoor: cattle droving, sheep farming, peat cutting, and the ancient practice of commons grazing. A dedicated collection relates to the Dartmoor pony and efforts to preserve this native breed.
Military collections cover the long history of the army on Dartmoor, from Princetown Prison to the twentieth-century ranges.
The archive holds extensive photographic records, maps, and documentary material relating to the communities of northern Dartmoor.
The Story of Dartmoor
Core permanent exhibition spanning geology, prehistory, medieval history, and modern times
Dartmoor at Work
Mining, quarrying, peat cutting, and farming industries of the moor
Living on the Moor
Social history of moorland communities — housing, family life, religion, and community
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.