Dartmoor Wild Camping Map: The Complete Guide to Legal Camping Spots & Navigation Tools (2026)

Dartmoor National Park holds a unique status in England and Wales: it is the only place where you have a legal right to wild camp on access land without seeking the landowner’s prior permission. But that right is strictly bounded by geography, environmental designations, and even military timetables. A reliable Dartmoor wild camping map is therefore not just a navigational convenience — it is the legal instrument that keeps you on the right side of common land boundaries, away from Scheduled Ancient Monuments, and clear of live firing ranges.

This guide breaks down the official map resources, the paper and digital tools that show legal access land, and the GPS hardware suited to Dartmoor’s notoriously disorienting terrain. Every recommendation is grounded in manufacturer specifications, Ordnance Survey data, and Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) guidance.

At a Glance: Top Dartmoor Wild Camping Map Resources

Understanding Dartmoor’s Legal Framework: Where You Can Actually Camp

Before selecting any map, you need to understand exactly what you are looking for on it. The legal right to wild camp on Dartmoor has been the subject of high-profile litigation, and the current situation rests on a specific Court of Appeal ruling.

The Darwall Case and the Current Law

In January 2023, the High Court (Justice Julian Flaux) ruled against Dartmoor National Park Authority in the case of Darwall v Dartmoor National Park Authority. The ruling found that there was no right to wild camp under the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985, sending shockwaves through the UK outdoor community and temporarily casting doubt on the legality of overnight stays on the moor.

However, in July 2023, the Court of Appeal overturned this ruling, reaffirming the right to wild camp on Dartmoor’s common land. This July 2023 judgment is the operative ruling as of 2026. The legal basis for wild camping here rests on two pillars: common land designated under the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985, and access land designated under the Countryside and Rights of Way (CRoW) Act 2000.

No permit is required to wild camp on this access land. However, you must remain on designated access land — there is no right to camp on Scheduled Ancient Monuments or Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). This means that a map showing topography alone is insufficient; you need a resource that clearly delineates legal boundaries and protected designations.

The Official Map Resource: Correcting a Common Misconception

A persistent misconception in online hiking forums is that the DNPA publishes a standalone “wild camping map” PDF that you can download and print. This is incorrect. The DNPA publishes no such standalone document.

Instead, access land boundaries are shown via the DNPA’s interactive map hosted on dartmoor.gov.uk (search for “access land” on their site). For authoritative cross-referencing, Magic Map (magic.defra.gov.uk) — the government’s statutory rural mapping service — shows CRoW access land boundaries definitively. Both are free to use online, though neither provides the offline navigation detail needed for a safe trip onto the high moor.

How to Choose a Dartmoor Wild Camping Map

A map that is genuinely useful for wild camping on Dartmoor must do several things simultaneously. It needs to show access land boundaries so you can confirm you are camping legally. It needs terrain contours at sufficiently tight intervals to identify flat, sheltered pitches — Dartmoor’s rolling plateau can feature sudden, hidden drops. It must mark water sources, because the moor’s rivers and feeder streams are your primary supply for filtration. And it needs to flag archaeological features and military ranges, because pitching on a Bronze Age hut circle or an active firing range is both illegal and dangerous.

The resources below address these needs in different ways, from paper sheets to dedicated GPS units.

1. Ordnance Survey OL28 Explorer Map (Paper)

Best for: The only resource that combines legal access boundaries with full navigation detail on a single physical sheet.

The Ordnance Survey OL28 Explorer map is the gold standard for Dartmoor navigation. At a scale of 1:25,000, it covers the entire National Park in detail sufficient for on-foot route-finding in poor visibility. The critical feature for wild campers is the purple shading, which denotes legal access land under the CRoW Act — meaning you can use this single map to confirm both where you are and whether you are legally permitted to pitch there.

Key specifications and what they mean for the camper:

• Scale of 1:25,000 — 4 centimetres on the map equals 1 kilometre on the ground. This is the tightest standard OS scale, showing field boundaries, individual tracks, and minor watercourses that broader-scale Landranger maps omit.
• Contours at 5m intervals — Dartmoor’s terrain is deceptively undulating; 5-metre contours let you read subtle changes in elevation to find a flat pitch rather than settling on a hidden slope that channels rainwater into your tent.
• Individual leats and feeder streams shown — Leats (man-made water channels) and minor feeder streams are marked, which is essential for planning water collection points without walking miles to a main river.
• Purple shading for access land — The visual key that tells you at a glance where wild camping is legally permitted on common land.
• Archaeological symbols — Bronze Age hut circles, cairns, and stone rows are marked with specific symbols, essential for avoiding pitching on or adjacent to protected monuments.

Standout strength: It is the only resource that puts legal boundaries and navigation-grade detail on the same sheet. You do not need to cross-reference two devices or a phone and a paper map to confirm legality — the purple shading is right there alongside the contours and waterways.

Honest caveat: Paper maps are vulnerable to Dartmoor’s wet conditions. A map case is essential, and even then, high winds can make handling a large sheet difficult on the exposed high moor.

Where to buy: Typically stocked at Cotswold Outdoor, Go Outdoors, and Amazon UK for around £15–£20.

Verdict: The indispensable foundation of any Dartmoor wild camping trip — buy this first, then add digital tools as backup.

2. OS Maps App (Premium Subscription)

Best for: Digital planning and offline GPS navigation in areas with no mobile signal.

The OS Maps app, Ordnance Survey’s official digital platform, gives you the full OL28 layer on your smartphone. For Dartmoor, the single most important feature is the ability to download the OL28 tile set for offline use — essential because the northern moor has near-zero mobile coverage, and a phone that cannot load a map is dead weight.

Key specifications and what they mean for the camper:

• Premium subscription typically around £30–£40 annually — This unlocks the 1:25,000 Explorer layer and offline downloads; the free tier only provides the less detailed 1:50,000 Landranger view online.
• OL28 layer downloadable offline — Once cached on your device, the full Dartmoor Explorer map is available without any data connection. This is non-negotiable for northern moor routes where signal is effectively absent.
• GPS positioning — Your location appears as a blue dot on the OL28 map, allowing real-time confirmation that you are within the purple-shaded access land.
• Route planning tools — You can plot your route and waypoints on a desktop before departure, then sync to the phone app for field use.

Standout strength: The offline OL28 layer means you carry the full paper-map level of detail on a device that also tells you exactly where you are — a combination no physical sheet can match.

Honest caveat: Smartphone batteries drain rapidly in cold, wet conditions, and a dead phone leaves you with nothing. A power bank is mandatory, and the app should supplement, not replace, a paper map.

Where to buy: Available via subscription on the Ordnance Survey website (osmaps.com) or through the OS Maps app on iOS and Android.

Verdict: The best digital complement to the paper OL28 — worth the annual subscription solely for the offline Dartmoor tiles.

3. Outdooractive App

Best for: Free-tier route planning with community-uploaded Dartmoor routes.

Outdooractive is the navigation app that absorbed the former ViewRanger platform (ViewRanger is defunct; do not use that name or seek out the old app). It offers a free tier with community-uploaded routes, including numerous Dartmoor hiking and wild camping circuits contributed by experienced users.

Key specifications and what they mean for the camper:

• Free tier available — No subscription required to access basic mapping and community routes, making it a low-cost entry point for planning.
• Community-uploaded Dartmoor routes exist — These can be useful for discovering popular circuits and approaches to legal camping zones, with waypoints for tors, river crossings, and potential pitch sites.
• Verify against OS access land shading — Community routes are not authoritative on legal boundaries. Any route or waypoint must be cross-referenced against proper access land mapping (the DNPA interactive map, Magic Map, or OS OL28’s purple shading) before you pitch.

Standout strength: The community route library gives you real-world tracks from campers who have walked the ground, which can reveal practical approaches to remote tors that are not obvious from contour-reading alone.

Honest caveat: Community routes are only as good as their creators. They may pass through legal access land for most of their length but cross onto private land or SSSIs at certain points. Blind trust in a uploaded GPX file is not a legal defence.

Where to buy: Available as a free download on iOS and Android, with premium tiers for enhanced mapping.

Verdict: A useful planning aid and route-discovery tool, but never your sole source of legal boundary information.

4. DNPA Interactive Map and Magic Map (Online Resources)

Best for: Authoritative, free verification of exactly where CRoW access land boundaries run.

These are not products you buy — they are free online government and authority resources that serve as the definitive legal reference for access land. The DNPA interactive map (on dartmoor.gov.uk) and Magic Map (magic.defra.gov.uk) both show CRoW access land boundaries, and they should be consulted at the planning stage of every trip.

Key specifications and what they mean for the camper:

• DNPA interactive map — Hosted on dartmoor.gov.uk; search for “access land” on the DNPA site to find it. Shows the National Park Authority’s designated access land where the right to wild camp applies.
• Magic Map — The DEFRA-run statutory mapping service at magic.defra.gov.uk. It shows CRoW access land boundaries authoritatively and is the government’s official record of these designations.
• Both are free and online-only — Neither provides offline navigation, so their role is pre-trip verification, not field use.

Standout strength: These are the legally authoritative sources. If there is ever a dispute about whether a particular parcel of land is access land, Magic Map is the government’s definitive answer.

Honest caveat: Because they require an internet connection and offer no offline capability, they are useless once you are on the moor. Their value is in confirming boundaries at the planning stage.

Where to access: Both are free web tools — dartmoor.gov.uk and magic.defra.gov.uk.

Verdict: Consult both before every trip to verify your planned camping area sits within CRoW access land.

5. Garmin eTrex 32x

Best for: A dedicated GPS unit that maintains battery life in the cold, wet conditions that drain smartphones.

The Garmin eTrex 32x is a rugged, handheld GPS that addresses the fundamental weakness of smartphone navigation on Dartmoor: battery vulnerability. According to Garmin’s manufacturer specifications, the eTrex 32x delivers up to approximately 25 hours of battery life — a figure that matters because Dartmoor’s cold, wet conditions accelerate battery drain in both phones and GPS units alike.

Key specifications and what they mean for the camper:

• Up to approximately 25 hours battery life (per Garmin manufacturer spec) — In cold, wet Dartmoor conditions where a smartphone might last less than a day, a dedicated GPS with 25 hours of life gives you a full weekend of navigation on a single set of batteries. Carry spare AAs and you are covered for longer trips.
• Preloaded basemap — The unit comes with a basemap installed, providing basic orientation out of the box.
• OS mapping purchasable separately — The full Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer layer for Dartmoor can be bought as an additional download, giving you the same detail as the paper OL28 on the GPS screen.
• Typically around £150–£180 — The unit price before any OS mapping add-on.

Standout strength: The eTrex 32x hits the sweet spot for Dartmoor’s specific conditions. It is the right balance of battery endurance, affordability, and mapping capability for a moor where cold and wet are the default weather states.

Honest caveat: The screen is small compared to a smartphone or paper map, making it harder to read broad terrain patterns. It is a positioning tool rather than a substitute for a paper OL28 when planning a route from a tent pitch.

Where to buy: Widely stocked at outdoor retailers including Cotswold Outdoor and Amazon UK, typically around £150–£180.

Verdict: The ideal dedicated GPS for Dartmoor — robust, long-lasting, and accurate, with OS mapping available as an add-on.

Garmin GPSMAP 66s: For Those Who Want Maximum Accuracy

Worth noting for completeness: the Garmin GPSMAP 66s is a step-up option with a larger screen and multi-band GPS technology, typically priced around £350–£400. Multi-band GPS improves positioning accuracy by receiving signals from multiple satellite constellations, which is cited on Garmin forums as beneficial in poor visibility — exactly the conditions Dartmoor’s clag can produce. However, for most Dartmoor trips, this level of hardware is overkill. The eTrex 32x covers the same core needs at less than half the price.

Dartmoor-Specific Topography: What Your Map Must Show

A Dartmoor wild camping map is only useful if you know how to read the moor’s specific features. The following locations and hazards should be marked on your chosen map before departure.

Popular Legal Camping Zones

All three of these locations sit on northern high moor common land and are popular with experienced wild campers:

• Fur Tor — One of the most remote tors on Dartmoor, requiring a long walk-in but offering a genuine sense of isolation.
• Cut Hill — High, exposed ground on the northern moor, with wide views but minimal shelter.
• Beardown Man area — The region around this standing stone offers legal common land camping with relatively straightforward access from northern approach routes.

Water Sourcing

Your map must show the following water sources for filtration planning:

• West Dart River — A primary watercourse on the northern moor; reliable flow for filtration.
• Cowsic River — Another key river for water collection.
• Lower-level streams near farmland — These require heavier filtration due to agricultural runoff; identify on your map whether a stream is high on the open moor or low near enclosed land before deciding on treatment.

Serious Bog Hazard

• Raybarrow Pool area (northern moor) — A serious bog hazard that should be explicitly marked on your map before departure. Dartmoor’s bogs can be genuinely dangerous, and community threads on Reddit’s r/UKhiking and r/wildcamping (search “Dartmoor” on both) consistently flag northern moor bogs as a navigation hazard. Route around, not through, known boggy ground.

Military Ranges

Dartmoor contains three active military ranges: Okehampton, Merrivale, and Willsworthy. You must check firing times at dartmoor.gov.uk/firing-times before pitching. When red flags are flying by day or red lights are showing at night, there is no public access to the range area whatsoever. Your map should show the range boundaries so you can identify whether your planned route crosses into a range zone.

Archaeological Features

Bronze Age hut circles and cairns are dense across the southern and eastern moor. The OS OL28 map uses specific symbols for these features, and recognising them is essential — you must not pitch on or adjacent to Scheduled Ancient Monuments. Familiarise yourself with the OS legend before your trip so you can identify these symbols in the field.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is wild camping legal on Dartmoor?

Yes. The Court of Appeal’s July 2023 ruling reaffirmed the right to wild camp on Dartmoor’s common land, overturning the earlier January 2023 High Court decision in Darwall v Dartmoor National Park Authority. The July 2023 ruling is the operative judgment as of 2026.

Do I need a permit to wild camp on Dartmoor?

No. No permit is required. The right to wild camp rests on the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 and the CRoW Act 2000, and you simply need to ensure you remain on designated access land.

Can I camp on Dartmoor’s military ranges?

Only when red flags or red lights are not flying. The three active ranges — Okehampton, Merrivale, and Willsworthy — have scheduled firing times published at dartmoor.gov.uk/firing-times. You must check these before your trip and avoid the range areas entirely during firing periods.

Where can I find the official Dartmoor wild camping map?

The DNPA does not publish a standalone “wild camping map” PDF. Access land boundaries are shown on the DNPA’s free interactive map on dartmoor.gov.uk (search “access land”), on Magic Map at magic.defra.gov.uk, and as purple shading on the OS OL28 Explorer paper map. There is no single official PDF to download.

What areas of Dartmoor are off-limits for wild camping?

You cannot camp on Scheduled Ancient Monuments or Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), even if they fall within access land. You also cannot camp on private farmland or enclosed land without the landowner’s permission. The OS OL28 map’s purple shading shows where access land applies, and its archaeological symbols mark protected monuments you must avoid.

Which map should I carry for navigating Dartmoor’s northern moor?

The OS OL28 Explorer paper map is essential, supplemented by the OS Maps app with the OL28 layer downloaded for offline use. The northern moor has near-zero mobile signal, so offline access is critical. A dedicated GPS such as the Garmin eTrex 32x provides a reliable backup, with approximately 25 hours of battery life per Garmin’s spec — enough for a full weekend in cold, wet conditions.

How do I avoid Dartmoor’s bogs when navigating?

Study your map before departure and mark known hazard areas, particularly the Raybarrow Pool area on the northern moor. Community reports on Reddit’s r/UKhiking and r/wildcamping consistently flag northern moor bogs as a serious navigation hazard. Route around known boggy ground rather than attempting to cross it, and be prepared to adjust your line in the field based on what you encounter on the ground.

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