Key facts
- Light pollution is measured by the nine-level Bortle scale, where nine represents central London, one represents remote locations such as the Atacama desert in Chile, and Exmoor's darkest zone rates a two.
- About 80 events took place across Exmoor National Park during the 2026 festival, including moonlit swimming, astronomy sessions, bioluminescence walks and planetarium shows.
- Antony Brunt, manager of the Yarn Market Hotel in Dunster, said the festival brings people from all over the UK, some returning twice a year, and many events sold out before opening day.
- Families at the Exmoor festival learned about the cosmos through fireside question-and-answer sessions, peeks through telescopes and bioluminescence walks through the woods.
Skywatchers gathered at the 10th Exmoor Dark Skies Festival from Oct. 16 to Nov. 1, 2026 in villages and towns around Exmoor National Park in south-west England.
Research cited by The Guardian shows the night sky grows 10% brighter each year as light pollution increases, and the outlet includes this figure while explaining why the Exmoor festival matters as light pollution rises across the UK. According to the Light Pollution Map, the UK is the 14th most light-polluted country in Europe, and microstates including Vatican City and Monaco make up the top five.
The nine-level Bortle scale measures light pollution, with nine standing for central London, one for remote places such as Chile’s Atacama Desert, and two for Exmoor’s darkest zone. It uses the scale to contrast Exmoor’s darkness with central London and the Atacama Desert. Roughly 80 events happened across Exmoor National Park during the 2026 festival, among them moonlit swimming, astronomy sessions, bioluminescence walks and planetarium shows, as part of the two-week 10th anniversary programme.
The BBC and EnviroLink describe the event as taking in villages and towns around the park, offering walks, talks and shows focused on the dark night sky. Visitors came from across south-west England to Exmoor during October 2026 to see the night sky and learn about space with astronomers and ecologists from the national park. Festival organiser Julie Colman said Exmoor has little light pollution, and the reserve’s core includes a light-free area that makes the sky clearer for viewing constellations and the Milky Way.
“You can see the Milky Way – it really is fantastic,” she said. Antony Brunt, manager of the Yarn Market Hotel in Dunster, said the festival draws visitors from across the UK, with some coming back twice a year, and many events sold out before the festival opened. The Yarn Market Hotel in Dunster offers special festival trips led by a local astronomer and takes visitors to sites and events across Exmoor National Park.
The National Park created the Exmoor Dark Skies Festival in 2017 partly to support local businesses as the traditional tourism season ends. Kate Lacey, an ecologist at Exmoor National Park Authority, said darkness safeguards rare bechstein’s and barbastelle bats on Exmoor because the animals need darkness for hunting, navigation and migration. She said Exmoor is a key salmon spawning ground, but artificial light confuses salmon migrating upstream and lowers their chances of survival. She made the comments as part of her nocturnal environment focus during the festival.
Jo Richardson and her husband Peter, both astronomers, operate Space Detectives, offering space science workshops, presentations and courses to adults and children, and Peter said former participants now work as professional astronomers. She told visitors at Exmoor that Saturn lies on average 800m miles away, equal to a trip around the Earth’s circumference 32,000 times, and she said Saturn was the first planet she ever saw through a telescope.
She said, “Saturn, on average, is 800m miles away,” the equivalent to travelling the circumference of the Earth 32,000 times. Peter Richardson said a Bortle scale one sky permits naked-eye views of the Milky Way and dust lanes. Jo Richardson said taking people to Exmoor’s darkness leads them to think about light pollution at home, and she said careful light use, not total darkness, is the goal. She made the point as the glow of Tiverton appeared on the horizon during sunset at the Exmoor festival.
Clouds covered Exmoor’s sky during the festival, hiding the stars and ending the stargazing event. Kate Lacey said the night sky is a source of wonder not everyone experiences, and she said it has inspired science, art and religion. She spoke after clouds closed the festival event. Families at the Exmoor festival learned about the cosmos through fireside question-and-answer sessions, telescope views and bioluminescence walks through the woods.
Visit Devon, publishing on Sept. 2, 2025, describes the Exmoor Dark Skies Festival as including yoga under the stars, ranger-guided sky and wildlife walks, observatory stargazing at North Molton and fireside storytelling, and its page lists these as typical autumn festival experiences at Exmoor. The Guardian describes these evening family activities as part of the festival’s educational programme in Exmoor.
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