Exploring Devon: A Local Guide to Coast, Moor and Towns
The South West Coast Path between Ilfracombe and Combe Martin runs for about six miles, and the section that drops past the old lime kilns is closed indefinitely after a landslip took the cliff with it. You find out at the car park, from a laminated sign fastened to a post with two cable ties. The detour adds forty minutes and goes through a caravan site.
Exploring Devon tends to happen like this: a plan, a closed path, an improvised afternoon that turns out better than the plan. The county is large enough that no single visit covers it. North Devon alone has the coast, the moor and the market towns, and they don't sit conveniently close to each other. Allow a week for one region, or two weeks if you want to move around.
When to go and how the county divides
May and June are the obvious months, and they are also the crowded ones on the north coast. September works better for walking and costs less: self-catering prices at the coast drop by thirty or forty per cent once the schools return, though some cafes shut for the season on the same day. The weather is a gamble either way. Even a good forecast out of Exeter can be wrong by the time you reach Hartland, and the rain arrives sideways off the Atlantic with very little warning.
The county splits roughly into four areas worth treating as separate trips. North Devon runs from Barnstaple out to Hartland Point, with Exmoor to the east. South Devon covers Dartmoor's southern edge, the South Hams and Plymouth. East Devon is the quieter stretch along the Jurassic Coast, and the far west around Bideford and Bude feels cut off in a way that is mostly to its advantage. There's no fast road between these and there's no need for one.
Walking the north coast
The coast path is the reason many people come, and it earns the reputation. Between Woolacombe and Mortehoe the path climbs through a valley and then turns a corner onto a ridge with the whole length of the bay below. It's exposed. Wind can stop you in the middle of a step, and on the descent to Lee the path runs through a wood that stays wet for days after rain.
Further west, around Hartland Quay, the rock is folded into vertical pleats, and the folding is genuine. The cliffs there are about 100 metres high in places. The pub at the quay sells a decent lunch and closes in the afternoon, so time it. The walk down from the car park is steep enough that you'll want to do it slowly on the way back up.
Exmoor sits inland: Dunkery Beacon is the high point at 519 metres, and on a clear day you can see the Bristol Channel and the coast of Wales. Midges are a genuine nuisance in the combes from June onwards. Bring repellent, or go in the morning when there's a breeze.
Dartmoor and the south
Dartmoor is not a place to wander off-piste without a map. The army uses parts of it for training, the fog arrives quickly, and the ground holds water long after the rain stops. Boots, not trainers. The tors are dramatic, but the best walking is in the valleys, along the Dart and the Tavy, where old tin workings and clapper bridges sit half-hidden in the bracken. Postbridge has a car park, a shop and a bridge that's been there since the thirteenth century, which is not bad for a village with one road through it.
South of the moor, the South Hams are gentler. Salcombe and Dartmouth are expensive and slightly self-satisfied, but the estuary beyond Kingsbridge has a quietness that makes the drive worthwhile. Bantham beach at low tide opens up a mile of flat sand, and the walk along the cliff to Thurlestone takes under an hour.
Plymouth is worth half a day for the Barbican and the Mayflower Steps, and worth a full day if you want the aquarium. The Hoe is windy on most days. Locals walk it in coats in August.
Where to stay and what it costs
Farmhouse B&Bs in the inland villages run about £90 to £130 a night for two, and the breakfasts are usually better than the rooms. Coastal hotels charge almost double in summer for a sea view that may be a partial view of a car park. Ask directly what the window looks at.
Self-catering cottages are the sensible choice if you're staying a week. A two-bedroom cottage in a village like Hartland or Chagford costs around £600 for a week in low season, rising to £1,200 in August. Book by February if you want August. Most come with a log burner, a folder of instructions for the boiler, and a visitors' book full of complaints about the shower pressure.
Pubs are the other option and often the best. A room above a village pub, with dinner downstairs and no drive afterwards, is the arrangement I'd pick. Prices are lower and the atmosphere is more interesting, though the walls are thin and the music from the bar stops when the landlord decides it does.
Eating and the practical bits
Seafood is the local strength. Mussels from the Exe, crab from Brixham, and fish landed at Appledore, all of it best in the places that don't advertise. A crab sandwich at a harbour cafe costs £8 to £12; the same sandwich in a restaurant with a view of the same harbour costs £18 and comes with a salad you didn't ask for. Cream teas are a Devon institution and there's no need to be precious about the order of jam and cream. Clotted cream is the point. A decent scone and a pot of tea will set you back about £6.
Driving is necessary for most of the county. The lanes are narrow, often single-track, and the hedges are high enough that you meet a tractor with about six inches of room. Reversing 200 metres to a passing place is part of the experience. There's a courtesy in it: the local driver will usually back up first. Hire a small car. A wide one will make you regret every lane in north Devon.
The train from London to Exeter takes about two and a half hours, and you can hire a car at the station. Buses run between the bigger towns but not reliably to the coast, and a Sunday service is mostly theoretical. If you're relying on public transport, base yourself in one town and walk.
What gets missed
Most visitors do the coast and skip the middle, which is a shame because the middle is where the county is quietest. The Tarka Trail runs for 180 miles on old railway lines and quiet lanes, and you can cycle a flat section along the Taw estuary from Barnstaple without meeting anyone for an hour.
The churches are worth a look. Not for the architecture, though some of it is fine, but for the carved bench ends and the wall paintings that survived the Reformation because nobody bothered to scrape them off. Many are open in daylight and leave a donation box by the door.
The market towns are the other half of it. Barnstaple has a pannier market that runs most days and a lot of charity shops. South Molton has a livestock market on Thursdays. Great Torrington has a small museum and a hill with a view of nothing much. The villages keep their own rhythm, and it's slower than the coast's.
One complaint: pub opening hours are unreliable. A sign saying "food all day" means food until three, then again from six, and the kitchen closes at eight-thirty without discussion. Ring ahead. Or don't, and eat crisps.
A digression on pronunciation, since it comes up. Bideford is BID-uh-fud. Woolfardisworthy is Woolsery, and locals will correct you without much mercy. It doesn't matter for getting served, but it does help you find the right turning when the satnav gives up in a lane with no signal.
There's also a thing about the weather that's worth saying plainly: it rains. Not every day, but often enough that a waterproof jacket is not optional and a spare pair of socks in the car is sensible. The rain keeps the county green. The green is why people come back.
The best time to be on the moor is early. Six in the morning in late September, with mist in the hollows and the ponies standing in the road, is worth the alarm. It also means you'll be back at the car by nine, which is when the tea shop opens and the first coach party arrives.
What you don't get, and shouldn't expect, is a single Devon. The north coast and the south coast disagree about most things, including which way to put the cream on a scone. Pick one region, stay a week, walk until your legs complain, and let the closed path reroute the day. It will be better than what you'd planned.
Petrol at the filling station outside South Molton was £1.47 a litre on a Tuesday in September, and the man at the next pump said it had been the same since July.
Further reading: Devon on Wikipedia.
