Okehampton is a bustling market town, in central Devonshire at the north edge of the Dartmoor National Park. It is quickly assessible from the main A30 dual-carriageway highway that goes through Devon and Cornwall. The City of Exeter in Devon is about 25 miles (approx. 40 km) to the east along the A30 and the Cornish town of Launceston is about 17 miles (approx. 27 km) to the south-west along the same highway. 

The area now occupied by Okehampton has a long history, it was Baron Baldwin de Brionne , one of the knights of William the Conqueror, who, by building a castle, established the basis for the present town of Okehampton as an important trading and market centre throughout the centuries in this part of Devon. Baron de Brionne was William's Royal Sheriff of Devonshire, and his castle in Okehampton is the only Devon castle listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. The present castle, on the same site, is that rebuilt and considerably enlarged in the early 1300s by Earl Hugh Courtenay, of the powerful Courtenay family of the County. In 1539, its owner, the Marquis of Exeter, was executed by order of King Henry VIII, and it gradually fell into disuse from then onwards. Although now in ruins, the remaining walls and towers are still imposing and spectacular, as befitting a castle that was among the strongest in all Britain in Norman and subsequent times. An evening visit to see the Castle under floodlight is also very worth while. 

The town boasts the famous Victorian Arcade, a covered shopping area as well as easy access to Belstone, Lydford, Tavistock and the whole of the Dartmor National Park a large and beautiful wild area of hills and tors (grassy peaks topped by rock formations). The two tallest peaks of Dartmoor, Yes Tor and High Wilhays, each more than 600 metres in height, are not far south of Okehampton town. Meldon Viaduct, formerly a railway viaduct but now open for pedestrians, offers fine views into the ravine and over Dartmoor and Meldon Reservoir, a spectacular dam again giving stupendous views over Dartmoor.