Dartmoor National Park is best known for its incredible landscapes and wildlife, but did you know that it also contains some of the UK’s most beautiful churches and chapels?

Now, the National Churches Trust is making it easy for anyone visiting a National Park to also discover this amazing national heritage.

Five delightful churches from Dartmoor National Park are included in a new online visitor’s guide on the National Churches Trust’s ExploreChurches website. All are amazing and unexpectedly sacred spots, places where you will feel the connection with the Park’s landscape and can be wowed by their art and architecture.

The guide includes top tips on the best churches to visit each park and some stunning photographs to whet the appetite of heritage lovers.

More than 200 churches and chapels found in the UK’s 15 National Parks are featured in the new online visitor’s guide, which has been produced to mark 70 years since the first National Park was created.

Some of the top churches to visit in the Dartmoor National Park include:

St Michael, Ilsington: with the finest collection of floor ledger stones of any Dartmoor church.

Buckfast Abbey, Buckfastleigh: nestled in abeautiful wooded valley on the edge of the River Dart, the Abbey is a working monastery where a community of Benedictine monks live self sufficiently, welcoming visitors from all around the world.

St Michael de Rupe, Brentnor: One of the iconic landmarks of West Devon, St Michael de Rupe was founded in 1130 by the local landowner Robert Giffard and is the highest working church in England.

When you visit a church in the Dartmoor National Park, you’ll be in good company as the 14th century St Pancras, Widecombe in the Moor or ‘The Cathedral of the Moor’ as it is locally known, is a favourite of writer Bill Bryson.

He says of the church: ‘I could hardly think of a better example of a church enhancing its landscape (and vice versa) than this treasure in the exquisite village in Dartmoor, Devon.

‘At 120 feet its tower is one of the most striking on a country church anywhere in the country.’

As vice-President of the National Churches Trust, Bill is passionate about the churches and chapels that cover the length and breadth of the UK.

He said: ‘It is impossible to overstate the importance of churches to this country.

‘Nothing else in the built environment has the emotional and spiritual resonance, the architectural distinction, the ancient, reassuring solidity of a parish church.

‘To me, they are the physical embodiment of all that is best and most enduring in Britain.

‘So, when you visit Dartmoor National Park, why not discover some beautiful churches in this most breath taking and treasured landscape.’

Sarah Crossland, engagement manager for the National Churches Trust, said: ‘This year marks the 70th anniversary of the designation of the Peak District as the UKs first National Park.

‘From the rugged wilds of the Cairngorms in Scotland and the ancient woodlands of the New Forest in southern England to the golden shores of the Pembrokeshire Coast in Wales, all the UK’s National Parks are truly special places. And so are the hundreds of churches and chapels in the National Parks.

‘Our new ExploreChurches online visitor guide makes it easy for visitors to National Parks to also discover some of the UK’s most beautiful churches.

‘These stunning buildings, many of which date back to medieval times, are the jewels in the UK’s heritage crown. No visit to a National Park is complete without discovering these beautiful churches, each with an amazing story to tell.’

The list of churches in the Dartmoor National Park can be found at: https://www.explorechurches.org/national-parks