Letterboxing on Dartmoor

Letterboxing

Letterboxing is a popular hobby that turns an ordinary walk into a rewarding treasure hunt – guaranteed to engage young and old alike.

Participants, or Letterboxers search the rock strewn Tors and moorland (sometimes using clues) for the hidden treasure – a durable box containing a unique rubber stamp and a visitors book – usually to be found under a rock. Finders take a copy of the stamp for their collection and make an entry in the book, often with their own personal stamp.

Letterboxing started on Dartmoor in the middle of the 19th century when in 1854 a Dartmoor guide named James Perrott set up the first letterbox at Cranmere Pool on North Dartmoor. Originally just a cairn (small pile of rocks) the idea was for a walker to leave a message there for the next walker to collect and so on. It was a further 40 years before other boxes were established and the tradition of letterboxing on Dartmoor founded.The hobby has since grown in popularity, with thousands of letterboxes hidden throughout the park, each offering a unique challenge for enthusiasts to find.

In its simplest form you just need to get out on the moors and look!  You’ll need an inkpad and a pad of paper to stamp your finds in and remember to re-hide any letterboxes you find in the same place as you found them. If you get hooked, there is  a catalogue of Dartmoor letterboxes and clue sheets available to purchase, many of which support local charities.

The 21st century equivalent of letterboxing is geocaching, using a GPS app on a mobile phone to view a map of geocaches nearby and guide you to the exact location. There are no rubber stamps inside to collect, often just a book to sign and sometimes small, inexpensive items to swap. If it inspires people to get out walking on the moors then that’s great, but staring at a phone screen to find the location, in our mind, takes the fun out of the search and means you can’t take in the spectacular scenery.