Active Devon > Other Activities in Devon > Letterboxing in Devon
Give an added thrill to your exploration of Dartmoor with letterboxing. We assure you, once you start, you'll get hooked! Essentially, letterboxing is a kind of treasure hunt - you search for containers hidden all over Dartmoor, and stamp your own book with the rubber stamp you'll find in each one.
Letterboxing dates way back to the 1850s, when a guide placed a bottle at a remote pool for visitors to prove that they had reached the spot. Now it has grown to a mega-sport, with thousands regularly tramping the moor to add more stamps to their collection. Whole charity walks are based around them - you follow a list of clues to lead you (you hope!) from one box to another.
Where will you find the boxes? They could be anywhere on the moor, but not where they will disturb wildlife or on sites of historical interest or on private property; a few are, encouragingly, placed in pubs. Try looking around tors and other geographical sites.
So, get out your large scale map, compass, book and rubber stamp, and start looking!