The land which the course roams was once owned by Sir Francis Drake and today is owned by the Lopes family as part of the Maristow Estate. The course sits 600ft above sea level on the edge of Dartmoor. It harbours some man-made features including the Devonport Leat (built in 1793)to carry water into Plymouth which is in play as a water hazard. The second piece of evidence of man's presence is the tin mine workings from Elizabethan times. Finally not to mention our four-legged co-habitants of the moor - the Dartmoor ponies - which arouse in the golfer a conflict between instinctive love of (almost) wild animals and a longing for a pristine playing surface.