Tavistock #4: Dartmoor Prison

Yesterday I caught a local bus from Tavistock to Princetown, Two Bridges, Postbridge and back to Princetown, high and lonely on the moor, the location of Dartmoor Prison. I had an hour in Princetown before the only other bus returning to Tavistock came through. I popped into the High Moor Visitors' Centre and then walked up the road to the entrance to the prison. There was a sign indicating an entrance for visitors so I rang the bell. A very pleasant warden appeared and I asked if I could look around the prison. No, he said, with a smile, I couldn't - it was a working prison with 600 inmates. Duh! I thought the prison had long ceased operating and that just the buildings remained as part of the Dartmoor Prison Museum!! Lots of people make the same request, said the very accommodating warden. Well, I guess that's the first and last time I'll ask to be let into prison. Actually I was disappointed because the buildings look so bleak and formidable, I wanted to get a better view of them. What a miserable place to be incarcerated.

There are multiple buildings like this one

Entrance

The moor from Princetown - nowhere much to escape to

Princetown and the surrounding moor was the inspiration for Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles. Not surprising.