Category: SOUTHWEST ENGLAND

After spending a few days exploring the gentle coastline of south Devon, Dartmoor comes as something of a shock to the senses. The largest stretch of open moorland in the southwest, Dartmoor covers an area of 365 sq miles between Plymouth and Exeter, stretching for around 22 miles between Yelverton in the east and Dunsford in the west. It’s a stark, wild and bleakly beautiful place, dotted with granite-topped hills, marshy bogs and patches of purple heather, as well as many weirdly shaped tors – rock pillars sculpted into strange forms by the wind and weather.

Nestled at the edge of the Jurassic Coast, the genteel resort of Lyme Regis is famous for two things: fossils and The French Lieutenant’s Woman. John Fowles’ classic tale of a seaside love triangle was set in Lyme Regis and the Hollywood film starring Richard Gere was later filmed here, providing a briefly lived boost to both the town’s tourist industry and the local housing market. But the town is perhaps better known for its archaeological attractions; some of the first dinosaur skeletons ever discovered in Britain were found here during the 19th century, and the town has been a magnet for fossil-hunters ever since.

The South Devon Coast offers the best of the British seaside. If you’re an Agatha Christie nut, or want to know what drove Basil Fawlty mad, then Torquay and Paignton will be just the ticket. In the heart of the ‘English Riviera’, you’ll find the beaches crowded with average Joes rather than the rich and suntanned, and there’s more lager’ n’ crisps than caviar and Krug, but it’s relaxing and fun in an unashamedly old-fashioned sort of way. Dartmouth, with its historical naval college, is decidedly more upmarket and caters to the boatshoe-and-blazer set with an array of swanky stores and eateries. For something a little different drop into Totnes, where hippy hangout meets ye olde castle town. The views from the keep, originally Norman, are stunning.

Stripey deckchairs, candy-floss stalls, rickety windbreaks and Punch & Judy booths line the beachfront at the well-worn seaside town of Weymouth, once a favoured holiday haunt of the English gentry, and now more popular with bawling nippers, family day-trippers and members of the blue rinse brigade. Depending on your point of view, it’s either a glorious example of British kitsch or a soulless summation of everything that’s wrong with the domestic seaside experience. Whatever you make of the present-day town, Weymouth looks set for a massive transformation over the next five years, having been chosen as the sailing centre for the 2012 Olympics.

The pretty riverside town of Dartmouth has long been known as the location for Britain’s largest naval college, but in recent years it’s also established itself as a favourite seaside escape for city types fleeing from the rat race. There are some surprisingly chic shops and boutiques dotted around town, not to mention an astonishing concentration of upmarket restaurants – in high summer it’s all a bit Knightsbridge by the sea, with posh yachts jostling for space in the small riverside harbour and plenty of impeccably-coiffured ladies doing lunch at one of the town’s streetside cafés.

The attractive harbour of Lynmouth is rooted at the base of a steep, tree-lined valley, where the West Lyn River empties into the sea along Exmoor’s northern coastline. Its similarity to the harbour at Boscastle is striking, and in fact the twin harbours share more than just a common geography; like Boscastle, Lynmouth is famous as the location of a devastating flash flood that swept through the village in 1952. Sadly, Lynmouth paid a much heavier price than its Cornish cousin; 34 people lost their lives in the flood, and memory of the disaster remains strong in the village to this day.

Dotted with picturesque fishing villages and patchwork fields, southeast Cornwall offers a much gentler side to the county than the stark, sea-pounded granite cliffs along the northern coast. Carpeted with wildflowers and crisscrossed by hedgerows, this is still working dairy country, where much of Cornwall’s famously rich milk and clotted cream is produced.

Britain’s ancient history comes to life around the fields, plateaus and plains of rural Wiltshire. It’s a place that teases and tantalises the imagination, littered with more ancient barrows, processional avenues and mysterious stone rings than anywhere else in Britain; the stunning prehistoric sites of Avebury and Stonehenge understandably receive the most visitors, but there are plenty of lesser-known sites to explore too, including Woodhenge, Silbury Hill and the Iron Age fort at Old Sarum. Wiltshire is also home to the stately homes of Longleat and Stourhead and the delightful villages of Castle Combe and Lacock, as well as the magnificent cathedral city of Salisbury.

Picture-perfect Devon has long been one of the country’s favourite holiday destinations, and with such a smorgasbord of natural wonders, it’s not hard to see what keeps the holidaymakers coming back. Blanketed with patchwork pastures, dotted with rural villages, and bordered by some of the country’s most stunning coastline, it’s a county with something to offer everyone: a place to walk the hills, roam the fields and bike the bridleways before stuffing yourself with some hearty Devonian cooking in a backcountry inn. If it’s the quintessentially kitsch British seaside you’re after, then head to the South Devon Coast for the chintzy seaside resorts of Ilfracombe, Torquay & Paignton. For a bit more class, the ancient Roman city of Exeter has some of the best preserved medieval architecture in the southwest, not to mention one of its most impressive cathedrals. And if you’re really looking to get away from it all, the wild expanse of Dartmoor National Park makes the perfect place to escape the summertime crowds.

The small market town of Moretonhampstead stands at an old crossroads where two of the main routes across Dartmoor meet, and makes a handy base for exploring the eastern moor.