Some of Britain’s most evocative landscapes occur where areas have been managed by man for centuries; millennia even, as grazing land for livestock and where absence of field enclosures, arable cropping and chemical applications have left the land open and wild. These heathlands, downlands and moorlands are very well represented in the South West and gave birth to some of our most enduring images in art and literature. They also support some of our most interesting wildlife.
The upland areas of Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor and Exmoor are the birthplaces of many of our most important rivers with bogs, pools and open moorland. Salisbury Plain and the Moors of West Penwith are geologically poles apart and lie at opposite ends of the Region but both are internationally important as historic landscapes as well as for their rich plant and animal life.
Best Examples in South West England
