Scenic Place in Devon and Torbay

Lundy Island lies in the Bristol Channel approximately 18 kilometres off the North Devon coast and is one of the most distinctive and rewarding island destinations in Britain. Three miles long and about half a mile wide, the island rises to granite cliffs some 120 metres above the sea on its western side while the eastern shore slopes more gently to a small beach and landing beach. Its very remoteness, enforced by the channel crossing and the absence of cars on the island, makes Lundy genuinely unlike anywhere else on the British coast. The island's name comes from the Old Norse for puffin, and seabirds remain one of the principal reasons visitors make the journey. Puffins, razorbills, guillemots, kittiwakes and Manx shearwaters all nest on the island's cliffs and ledges, while peregrine falcons hunt along the clifftops. The waters surrounding Lundy were designated as England's first statutory Marine Conservation Zone in 2010, and the exceptional quality of the underwater environment supports populations of grey seals, reef fish, sponges, anemones and cold-water corals that make it one of the finest snorkelling and diving locations in the country. The island's human history is appropriately colourful. It was used as a base for pirates and smugglers throughout the medieval and early modern periods, and the cave-riddled cliffs provided excellent hiding places for contraband. The Marisco family, who held the island during the thirteenth century, were eventually hanged for piracy and treachery against the crown. Later inhabitants included eccentric Victorian squire William Heaven, who managed the island with such absolute authority that he became known as the King of Lundy. The island even issued its own stamps, which are still collected by philatelists worldwide. The island is managed today by the Landmark Trust, which maintains 23 properties available for holiday rental ranging from the Castle to converted lighthouse cottages. Day visitors arrive by ferry from Bideford or Ilfracombe during the summer season and are free to explore the island's farms, footpaths and wildlife habitats. The Marisco Tavern, the island's only pub, provides food, accommodation and the social centre for both residents and visitors.

Salcombe is the most sophisticated and most expensive small resort town in the West Country, a south Devon harbour town set on the steep hillside above the Salcombe Estuary whose combination of the beautiful wooded estuary, excellent sailing water, the attractive town with its independent shops and seafood restaurants and the accessibility by water to the remote beaches of the Salcombe-Kingsbridge Estuary system creates a destination of exceptional appeal for those who can afford the prices. The harbour is one of the most beautiful in Devon, the wooded hillsides on both shores of the estuary reflecting in the still water and the blue of the sea visible through the estuary bar at the southern end. The estuary provides some of the finest sailing water in the southwest, its sheltered channels and anchorages ideal for yachts and dinghies and the Salcombe harbour a crowded centre of marine activity throughout the summer. The combination of the estuary sailing and the open sea sailing available through the bar at the mouth of the estuary, with the dramatic South Devon coast extending in both directions, makes Salcombe one of the leading sailing destinations in Britain. The beaches accessible by water from Salcombe, particularly North Sands and South Sands immediately south of the town and the more remote Millbay and Starehole Bay beyond the bar, provide some of the finest sandy beaches in Devon in settings of considerable beauty. The ferry services connecting these beaches during the season allow a day of beach hopping and sea exploration that is one of the most distinctive experiences of this stretch of the Devon coast. The South West Coast Path traversing the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty above the estuary provides excellent walking with views of the estuary and the open sea.

Clovelly on the north Devon coast is the most dramatically picturesque fishing village in England, a settlement of whitewashed cottages cascading down an impossibly steep cobbled street to a small harbour below the great cliffs of the North Devon coast whose combination of the extraordinary topography, the complete absence of motor traffic and the genuinely historic character of the buildings creates one of the most visited and most consistently admired small coastal communities in Britain. The village is privately owned by the Asquiths of Clovelly and has been maintained in its historic character with exceptional care over several generations. The main street of Clovelly, the Up-along and Down-along as the villagers call it, descends approximately 120 metres from the clifftop to the harbour below in a series of cobbled steps and narrow paths too steep for wheeled vehicles. Goods are carried by sledge to the houses below and donkeys traditionally helped with the heavier loads, a few still being kept in the village as much for their role in the visitor experience as for practical necessity. The experience of walking down this street, with the whitewashed cottages on either side and the glimpse of the harbour and the sea below, is unlike any other in England. The harbour at the bottom, with its medieval quay, the fishing boats and the atmosphere of an entirely authentic working fishing community, provides the destination that makes the descent worthwhile. The herring fishing that once sustained the village is commemorated each November in the Clovelly Herring Festival.

Ilfracombe is the principal seaside resort of the north Devon coast, a Victorian town of considerable character built into the dramatic cliffs and valleys of the Bristol Channel coast whose combination of the historic harbour, the Tunnels Beaches carved from the cliff by Victorian entrepreneurs, the Damien Hirst sculpture Verity on the harbour pier and the dramatic coastal scenery of the surrounding cliffs creates a destination of considerable variety and interest. The town has reinvented itself in recent decades as an arts destination and the contemporary cultural activity complements the Victorian heritage. The Tunnels Beaches at Ilfracombe are one of the most unusual visitor attractions on the Devon coast, a series of hand-cut tunnels through the cliff rock created in the 1820s to provide access to a series of natural tidal bathing pools on the sheltered side of the headland, with the pools divided by a low wall to provide separate male and female bathing in the Victorian propriety that governed public bathing at the time. The tunnels are still used and the tidal pools provide excellent natural bathing in a setting of considerable historical and geological interest. The Verity sculpture by Damien Hirst, a 20-metre bronze of a pregnant woman holding scales and a sword on the harbour pier, has become one of the most talked-about and most controversial pieces of public art in Devon and has contributed substantially to Ilfracombe's profile as an arts destination. The sculpture dominates the harbour entrance and provides an immediately striking introduction to a town of considerable character.

Wistman's Wood on the high moorland of Dartmoor National Park near Two Bridges is one of the most ancient and atmospheric fragments of natural woodland surviving in southern Britain, a grove of stunted, moss-draped pedunculate oaks clinging to a boulder-strewn hillside at an altitude of approximately 380 metres where the harsh conditions of the high moor have produced a woodland of extraordinary character. The trees, which would be sizeable forest specimens in a more sheltered valley setting, have been dwarfed by the wind, poor soil and high rainfall of the moorland to a height of rarely more than seven metres, their gnarled trunks and twisted branches creating a landscape of considerable visual power. The clitter, or boulder field, within which the trees grow provides the conditions for the wood's survival at this altitude. The large Dartmoor granite boulders offer protection for tree seedlings from grazing animals and from the worst of the moorland weather, and the moisture retained between the boulders supports the luxuriant growth of mosses, lichens and ferns that cover every available surface within the wood. The effect is one of absolute verdancy in an otherwise austere moorland setting: the interior of Wistman's Wood is green and dripping even in dry weather, the mosses holding moisture like sponges and creating a micro-climate considerably warmer and more humid than the open moor outside. The antiquity of the wood is difficult to establish precisely, but pollen analysis from nearby peat deposits indicates that oak woodland has been present in this location for at least 7,000 years, connecting the existing trees to a woodland tradition extending back to the period immediately after the last Ice Age. Individual trees within the wood may be several hundred years old. The wood has a powerful atmosphere that has generated folk associations with the supernatural throughout its recorded history. Local tradition associated it with the Wisht Hounds, spectral black dogs said to pursue the souls of the unbaptised across the moor, and Arthur Conan Doyle's Dartmoor research almost certainly encountered this tradition before The Hound of the Baskervilles was published.

Appledore is one of the most attractive and most completely preserved maritime villages in Devon, a small port at the confluence of the Rivers Taw and Torridge near Bideford whose combination of narrow streets of Georgian and earlier cottages, the active shipyard, the maritime museum and the estuary setting creates one of the most authentic and most rewarding small coastal destinations in the West Country. The village retains the genuine character of a working maritime community in a way that more tourist-developed Devon coastal settlements have lost. The shipyard at Appledore, one of the last traditional shipbuilding yards in Britain, has constructed vessels on this site for centuries and continues to build and repair ships of considerable scale. The sight and sound of an active shipyard working with steel and tradition in a village of this intimate scale is one of the most distinctive features of Appledore and the most powerful evidence of the maritime heritage that the village museum documents in more conventional ways. The North Devon Maritime Museum in the village provides an excellent account of the seafaring history of the Taw-Torridge estuary, including the Victorian seamen who emigrated to Newfoundland and established the fishing communities of that coast. The estuary itself, with its shifting sandbanks, the bird life of the mudflats and the views across to Instow and the Taw Valley beyond, provides the beautiful setting for a village that rewards extended exploration.

Hartland Quay on the north Devon coast is one of the most dramatic and most remote coastal destinations in England, a small building group on the shore beneath great Devonian sandstone cliffs of considerable height where the Atlantic meets a coast of extraordinary geological complexity and where the wreck of numerous vessels over the centuries has made this one of the most dangerous and most storied stretches of the British coast. The former quay buildings, now converted to a hotel, café and museum, provide the only facilities in a setting of complete exposure to the Atlantic. The geology of the Hartland cliffs is among the most visually dramatic of any section of the British coast, the Carboniferous and Devonian rocks folded into extraordinary patterns of near-vertical strata that create the characteristic chequerboard pattern on the cliff faces as alternating hard and soft layers erode at different rates. The geological structures visible in the Hartland cliffs have been used as textbook examples of coastal fold geology since the nineteenth century and the combination of the scale, the variety and the clarity of the structures makes this one of the most instructive geological coastlines in Britain. The South West Coast Path from Hartland Quay traverses the most remote and most demanding section of the entire route, the succession of headlands between Hartland and Bude providing walking of exceptional quality and considerable physical challenge in a landscape of complete wildness where the Atlantic and the ancient rocks meet in constant dramatic engagement.

Watersmeet in the East Lyn Valley near Lynmouth in Exmoor National Park is the meeting point of the East Lyn River and Hoar Oak Water, a confluence of two fast-flowing streams in a deep wooded gorge of exceptional beauty managed by the National Trust. The combination of the wooded gorge, the rushing streams and the Victorian fishing lodge at the confluence, now serving as a National Trust café, creates one of the most rewarding and most consistently visited short walks on Exmoor. The gorge of the East Lyn is one of the finest examples of Atlantic oakwood in the national park, its sessile oak woodland thriving in the humid, sheltered conditions of the valley and creating the layered, moss-covered character of a genuinely ancient woodland. The valley sides above the path are steep and wooded throughout, and the combination of the rushing water, the mature oak trees and the narrow rocky path provides an experience of enclosed natural drama characteristic of the Exmoor gorge woodlands. The 1952 Lynmouth flood, in which the East Lyn River rose catastrophically following exceptional rainfall on Exmoor and destroyed much of the village of Lynmouth below, was one of the most destructive natural disasters in post-war Britain. The power of the river that now runs peacefully below the Watersmeet path is fully comprehensible after understanding what this valley can contain in extreme conditions. The walk from Lynmouth up the East Lyn valley to Watersmeet and return provides one of the most rewarding short walks on Exmoor, the combination of the woodland, the water and the gorge scenery providing a complete valley experience.

Salcombe is one of the most beautiful and sought-after harbours on the south Devon coast, a sheltered estuary town that combines maritime heritage, superb sailing waters and the kind of compact, well-preserved Victorian seaside character that makes it immediately attractive. The town sits at the mouth of the Kingsbridge Estuary, a drowned river valley or ria that creates a network of sheltered inlets reaching deep into the South Hams countryside, providing some of the finest sailing and small-boat waters in the southwest of England. The estuary's natural shelter from the Atlantic swell and its extensive navigable waters have made Salcombe a centre for pleasure boating, yacht chartering and watersports for well over a century. The approach to the harbour by sea, through the narrow bar at the mouth where the estuary meets the English Channel, has a certain drama: the bar can be treacherous in onshore conditions, and vessels approaching in difficult weather must time their entry carefully. Within the harbour the contrast between the sparkling water, the green hillsides and the colourful buildings of the town is immediately appealing. The town's history is closely bound with the sea. In the nineteenth century Salcombe was a significant centre for the building of fast, light sailing vessels known as Salcombe Fruiters, schooners designed for the rapid transport of fruit from the Mediterranean, Azores and West Indies that needed to reach English ports before their cargo deteriorated. The speed and seakeeping qualities of these vessels earned them a considerable reputation, and the men who sailed them a particular expertise in working the tides and weather of the western approaches. The beaches within and around the estuary are exceptional. North Sands and South Sands beaches provide safe bathing within the estuary, while the more exposed beaches on the coast to either side, including Soar Mill Cove and Bolt Head, are reachable on foot along the South West Coast Path that runs along the stunning cliff scenery of this stretch of the Devon coast. The coastal path between Salcombe and Hope Cove is particularly dramatic, passing along clifftops with views across Bigbury Bay. The town's excellent selection of restaurants, the ferry crossings to sandy beaches on the opposite shore and the general atmosphere of unhurried coastal enjoyment make Salcombe one of the most popular, if increasingly expensive, summer destinations in Devon.

Badgworthy Water in the Exmoor National Park, the location of the fictional Doone Valley of R D Blackmore's celebrated novel Lorna Doone published in 1869, provides one of the most rewarding walking destinations in Exmoor, a long valley walk through heather moorland and ancient oak woodland beside a stream of considerable beauty whose association with one of the most popular novels of the Victorian period has made it a place of literary pilgrimage since the book's publication. The walk from Malmsmead through Badgworthy Wood and up the valley to the medieval village site on the moor provides the complete Doone Country experience. Blackmore's novel, set in the seventeenth century and involving the outlawed Doone clan who terrorised the Exmoor moorland from their hidden valley, drew on the landscape of this specific valley while considerably embellishing its historical basis. The novel created an enduring Exmoor mythology that has made this remote section of the national park one of the most visited, and the combination of the literary association and the genuine beauty of the valley justifies that reputation. The medieval deserted settlement visible as earthworks in the upper valley is sometimes identified as the site of the Doone village of the novel, though the historical Doones are far less substantial than Blackmore's fiction suggests. The watersmeet of Badgworthy Water with the Lankcombe Brook, set among ancient sessile oaks of great character, is the finest single landscape feature of the valley walk and one of the most beautiful woodland stream settings on Exmoor.

Lynton and Lynmouth on the Exmoor coast are twin communities separated by a cliff 150 metres high and connected by the Lynmouth Cliff Railway, an 1890 water-powered funicular that is the steepest water-powered railway in the world. The upper town of Lynton sits on the clifftop while Lynmouth occupies the harbour below, and the extraordinary coastal and valley scenery of this section of Exmoor creates one of the most distinctive visitor destinations in the national park. Lynmouth was devastated in August 1952 when an exceptional rainstorm over the Exmoor plateau sent a catastrophic flash flood down the East and West Lyn rivers that destroyed nearly 100 buildings and killed 34 people in one of the most deadly natural disasters in twentieth-century Britain. The rebuilt Lynmouth is itself a monument to the community's recovery, and the flood memorial and river control works are now part of the village heritage. The Valley of the Rocks immediately west of Lynton, the Watersmeet wooded valley above Lynmouth and the South West Coast Path provide excellent walking destinations accessible directly from both towns.

Dartmouth is one of the finest and most completely realised historic harbour towns in England, a settlement on the west bank of the Dart estuary in south Devon whose combination of the medieval and Tudor town houses, the two great castles guarding the harbour entrance, the naval college on the hill above and the extraordinary natural beauty of the Dart estuary creates a destination of exceptional quality and historical depth. The town has one of the finest collections of historic buildings of any small port in England, its prosperity as a medieval wine trade and privateering centre having financed architecture of considerable ambition. The Butter Walk in the centre of Dartmouth, a series of four seventeenth-century merchants' houses whose overhanging upper floors rest on granite columns creating a covered walkway below, is one of the finest examples of Jacobean commercial architecture in England, its carved woodwork and the scale of the merchants' ambition speaking directly to the wealth generated by the trade of this exceptionally well-positioned harbour. The nearby Flavel Arts Centre occupies the church built by Thomas Flavel, whose merchant fortune funded many of Dartmouth's finest buildings. Dartmouth Castle guarding the harbour entrance is one of the earliest purpose-built artillery castles in England, its round towers designed specifically to mount cannon for the defence of the harbour against attack from the sea. The combination of the castle, the estuary views and the Bayard's Cove Fort below the town provides a concentration of military heritage in a small area of great scenic beauty.

Torquay Harbour sits at the heart of one of the most attractive seaside towns on the south Devon coast, the principal resort of the English Riviera, a string of three Torbay towns whose mild climate, sheltered coastline and abundance of palm trees have justified the Mediterranean comparison since Victorian leisure tourism transformed this stretch of coast in the mid-nineteenth century. The harbour is the social and visual centre of Torquay, its marina surrounded by restaurants, bars and hotels occupying the elegant Victorian and Edwardian buildings that reflect the town's prosperous resort history. The harbour developed from a modest fishing anchorage in the late eighteenth century as the town's fortunes grew. The arrival of the railway in 1848 and the patronage of wealthy Victorian visitors seeking the health benefits of the coastal climate and the scenery drove rapid development that gave Torquay its grand villas, promenading spaces and theatrical seafront architecture. The town's character as a fashionable resort was established in the Victorian period and, though much has changed, something of that character persists in the better-preserved quarters of the town above the harbour. Torquay's most famous daughter is Agatha Christie, who was born in the town in 1890 and retained connections to it throughout her life. The Agatha Christie Mile, a self-guided trail through the town, connects places associated with her life and the locations that inspired her work. The Torquay Museum holds a permanent collection related to Christie and the town hosts an annual Agatha Christie festival that draws visitors from around the world. The harbour waterfront provides pleasant walking, with views across Tor Bay toward Paignton and Brixham and out into the Channel beyond. Boat trips from the harbour include cruises along the coast, fishing trips and seasonal services to Brixham. The natural harbour of Torbay itself provides sheltered water for sailing and water sports, and the beaches immediately north and south of the harbour offer good bathing in the calm summer waters of the bay.

Heddon Valley lies within Exmoor National Park on the north Devon coast, sheltered between high wooded hillsides that fall steeply towards the Bristol Channel. It is one of the most beautiful and unspoiled small valleys in southwest England, a place where ancient oak woodland, clear rivers and dramatic coastal scenery combine within a compact landscape that rewards exploration on foot. The valley follows the course of the River Heddon as it descends from the Exmoor plateau through dense sessile oak woodland before meeting the sea at Heddon's Mouth, a secluded rocky cove accessible only on foot. The oak woodland clothing the valley sides is ancient and ecologically rich, a remnant of the native woodland that once covered much of this coastline. The trees support an intricate community of lichens, mosses and ferns that flourish in the valley's moist, sheltered microclimate, and the dappled light through the oak canopy creates an atmosphere of genuine wildness even in high summer. The National Trust manages most of the valley and has developed a network of well-maintained footpaths that allow walkers to explore at their own pace. The main valley walk follows the River Heddon downstream from the car park at Heddon's Gate, passing through old coppiced woodland and across wooden footbridges to reach the shore. The round trip to Heddon's Mouth and back takes around two hours at a comfortable pace and is suitable for most walkers. More ambitious walkers can continue from the valley along sections of the South West Coast Path, which runs along the clifftop above. The coastal section between Heddon's Mouth and Combe Martin to the east, or toward Lynton to the west, is among the most dramatic walking on the entire South West Coast Path. The cliffs here are among the highest on the English coast, and the views across the Bristol Channel towards South Wales can be exceptional on a clear day. The Hunter's Inn, a Victorian hunting lodge converted to a hotel and pub, sits at the valley bottom near the car park and provides welcome refreshments after a walk. A small population of fallow deer can sometimes be spotted in the woodland, and kingfishers have been recorded along the river. The valley also provides habitat for pied flycatchers, wood warblers and other summer migrants that arrive to breed in the oak woodland. Heddon Valley is close to the twin towns of Lynton and Lynmouth, which together offer the extraordinary cliff railway, several good cafés and excellent access to the broader Exmoor National Park landscape.

Totnes is the most independent and most characterful small town in Devon, a medieval market town on the River Dart whose combination of a Norman castle, fine Elizabethan architecture, the remarkable colonnaded Fore Street and a contemporary culture of independent shops and alternative businesses gives it a vitality unusual among Devon market towns. The town has attracted a creative and unconventional population that has made it disproportionately famous for its size. Totnes Castle, with a near-complete round keep on one of the finest Norman mottes in England, overlooks the town and provides the best views of the Dart estuary from any accessible point. English Heritage manages the castle and its combination of architectural quality and historical associations makes it an excellent complement to the town's other attractions. The Elizabethan House Museum on Fore Street occupies one of the finest surviving Elizabethan town houses in Devon. The River Dart below Totnes provides boat trips to Dartmouth and excellent riverside walking, and the Totnes to Buckfastleigh steam railway provides a heritage rail experience through the Dart Valley. The combination of the medieval heritage, the Elizabethan townscape, the river setting and the contemporary independent character makes Totnes one of the most rewarding and most distinctive small towns in the West Country.