Devon is home to the national parks of Dartmoor and Exmoor. These are two areas of outstanding beauty, with bleak uplands and isolated moorlands stretching out towards the impressive coastlines in the north and south of the county.
Dartmoor, an eerie place even in high summer, abounds with myths and legends.
The moor is reputedly the haunt of pixies, a headless horseman, a mysterious pack of 'spectral hounds', and a large black dog. During the Great Thunderstorm of 1638, Dartmoor was even said to have been visited by the Devil.
A few stories have emerged in recent decades, such as the 'hairy hands' that are said to attack travellers on the B3212 near Two Bridges. Several motorists have claimed that the hands materialised in front of them, grasped the wheel and forced their vehicle off the road.
Dartmoor has inspired a number of artists and writers, such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in The Hound of the Baskervilles, Eden Phillpotts, Beatrice Chase, and the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould.