Short answer: Okehampton has its own station, with the line running to Exeter and a car park by the A30. That makes it the only Dartmoor town you can reach properly by train, and the castle and the town are walkable from it. The high moor still needs a car.
Almost every Dartmoor town lost its railway and never got it back. Okehampton is the exception — the line to Exeter runs again, with a station and a car park by the A30. For anyone trying to reach Dartmoor without a car, this is the single most useful fact about the moor.
Okehampton sits right against the northern edge of Dartmoor and the high moor rises immediately behind it — this is the highest and wildest part of the National Park. You can walk out onto it from the town, which you cannot do from most places. Go properly equipped: it is open, exposed and the weather changes fast.
Bellever Forest, Lydford Gorge and Castle Drogo are all drives. So is most of the moor beyond the immediate town edge. Bus services across Dartmoor are sparse and seasonal and they stop short of the good walking.
Train in from Exeter, walk up to the castle, lunch in town, then out onto the moor edge for the afternoon and back for the train. That is a genuine Dartmoor day with no car involved, which is close to unique in this National Park.
The northern moor above Okehampton includes military firing ranges. Check the firing times before walking out — red flags fly when they are live, and this is not a formality. The information is published in advance.
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