Okehampton hotels and self catering cottage accommodation in Okehampton - Devon-Stay Okehampton Tourist Information

Devon » Okehampton accommodation

Where the bleak, rock filled landscapes of Dartmoor meet the undulating North Devon hills, right in the middle of Devon, lies the town of Okehampton. Since the beginning of times have these lands been inhabited, as the many megaliths, tomb structures and hut circles from the Neolithic and Iron Age clearly show. The large quantities of easily obtainable granite seem to have made this much easier.

Slaves were regularly freed at this Saxon village around the year 980, before the Normans invaded and took over. A settlement built around a crossroads, the first sheriff of the Norman era, Baldwin de Brion, decided to build a base from where he could manage all of his recently aquired Devon estates. He thus built Okehampton Castle, the biggest medieval castle in Devon. Its striking ruins still overlook the main road to Cornwall and the valley of the River Okemont.

Okehampton isgreat for those wanting to discover the many sides of Devon. It's a lovely town, from which the peaks of High Willhayes and Yes Tor can be admired on a bright day. The Town Hall, located in Fore Street and dating back to the late 17th century, was originally a house, and only since the early 19th century has it been serving its present function. The Museum of Dartmoor Life, located in an old mill on West Street, exhibits the local history. In 1988, a detour was built, taking some of the traffic off the town and restoring some of Okehampton’s original peace and quiet.