"There was no moon, and everything beneath lay in misty darkness: not a light gleamed from any house." – Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Yet, in February 2026, the Yorkshire moors have never been more visible. Emerald Fennell's screen adaptation of Wuthering Heights has ignited a cultural reckoning with our beloved windswept uplands – a landscape as mercurial as Cathy and Heathcliff themselves. "Wuthering" is a provincial term for the atmospheric tumult the novel's heights experience, but restoration resides here too. This is a landscape threaded with romance: it rouses all who tread upon it from indifference.
Here we follow the path of Emily Brontë, the enduring “nursling of the moors.” Our luxury self-catering properties across Yorkshire, Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor and Exmoor are gateways to some of Britain's most romantic moorlands.
Yorkshire moorland, Yorkshire
The Yorkshire moors held near-mystical import over Emily Brontë. They remain, mostly, unchanged. Penistone Crags still catch beacon-lights when the setting sun shines on the topmost heights, and Swaledale, where Fennell's cameras captured Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi's tempestuous romance, rolls in a moisture-glistened tangle of moss and stone.
If Wuthering Heights has you under Yorkshire's spell, consider Castle Trinity: a blend of soul-stirring scenery and incomparable grandeur. This Gothic castle sits at the end of a private drive through a wild deer park, from which guests can explore the Yorkshire Dales and the rugged West Yorkshire moorland just beyond. Sleeping up to 10 in palatial comfort, this self-catering castle invites you to “escape into that glorious world.”
Dartmoor, Devon
Trace the wild winds to the South, where granite tors brood beneath rolling mist and Dartmoor ponies graze freely across ancient mossy moorland. For those drawn to Yorkshire's drama but seeking Devon's milder climate, Dartmoor offers its own Gothic romance. Dartmoor is forged from stone and soil, where prehistoric stone circles ground, marshes and bogs pepper the landscape and glassy pools invite wild swimming for the brave.
Hugging Dartmoor's southeastern edge, Over Lemon River is a light-filled sanctuary where heather cloaks the wilds towards Ashburton and granite monoliths scramble to touch open skies. This is a stone outhouse turned luxury self-catering barn for two, complete with wood-fired hot tub, fire pit and underfloor heating where mud once laid.
In the storybook village of North Bovey, Penny Black sits beneath a thatched roof like a presence from a fairytale. This luxury cottage sleeps up to six, with a hot tub for soothing limbs after summit paths and moorland walks that begin right at the door.
Exmoor, Somerset and Devon
Exmoor is a land of contrasts. Situated where England's highest cliffs meet the Bristol Channel, it rises to 1,700 feet before plunging into 34 miles of remote coastline. For those enchanted by wild beauty but craving sea air, Exmoor embodies this very duality. By night, a great swell of glittering moons illuminates this International Dark Sky Reserve.
Follow a silvery beck as it wends through wooded combes, past marshes and over banks, and arrive at Castle on the Well. Resting on prehistoric Druid stones and built on the site of a 6th-century chantry, this unique dwelling on Exmoor's edge is an idyllic base to explore the Exmoor National Park and North Devon coast.
In nearby Braunton, Novella – a cob cottage resembling an ancient chapel – embodies romantic refuge. Its walled garden conceals an outdoor kitchen for year-round al fresco feasting and a hot tub beneath those beguiling dark skies.
Bodmin moor, Cornwall
Venture West, where myth and moorland intertwine, and you’ll find Cornwall's wild heart beats steadily. For those seeking an alternative to the Yorkshire moors without sacrificing their windswept romance, Bodmin Moor is a heather-braced and salt-licked option. Legends of brooding beasts of a different nature underpin its lore.
Little Inka sits on Bodmin's northern edge, a secluded couples' retreat with hot tub, roll-top bath, and king-size bed beneath a window looking up to the stars. Wake to a quiet broken only by the call of buzzards overhead, return mud-flecked from summit paths and fall asleep under a mackerel sky.
For those seeking slow living in tune with the landscape, Riverstone Mill is a rustic-luxe retreat across eight acres near the River Lynher. This former watermill grounds in bucolic rhythms, whilst a wellness deck complete with wood-fired hot tub and sauna invites restoration.
What draws us back to moorlands, then, century after century? Britain's moorlands hold stories that far outlast each new interpretation of our beloved literary classics. These are lands that wuther, still, and their enduring romance reminds us that we come from and belong to our earthly wilds.
Feeling inspired? Read our recent piece Footsteps through folklore to take a journey through regions embedded with myth, browse our wilderness retreats or peruse our full collection of luxury self-catering escapes.
