The Baskerville estate in “The Hound of the Baskervilles” is set in Dartmoor.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel places Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson in the bleak moorland landscape of Dartmoor in Devon, southwestern England. The setting’s open spaces, fog, isolation, and legends of a supernatural hound create the atmosphere for one of Holmes’s most famous investigations.
The story was published in serial form in 1901 and 1902 before appearing as a book in 1902. It is set before Holmes’s apparent death at Reichenbach Falls, even though it was written after “The Final Problem.” Watson narrates much of the investigation while Holmes works to explain the apparent curse.
Dartmoor is a real national park and moorland area, but Baskerville Hall and the specific family legend are fictional. The novel’s use of landscape influenced later mystery and horror fiction, particularly stories in which geography helps generate suspense.