Discover South Devon

OUTWARD FROM HOLCOMBE — A GUIDE FOR EXPLORERS

EAST & NORTHEAST — SHALDON, TEIGNMOUTH, EXETER, EAST DEVON

Shaldon Wildlife Trust, Shaldon
A clearing in a wood above the sea. Small creatures, endangered, blink through branches. A zoo, but not how you remember it.

The Ness Beach, Shaldon
Follow the old smugglers’ tunnel. Light gives way to shadow, then back again. The beach, red and secret, opens like a palm.

Teignmouth Arts Quarter
Painted shops, washed-out colours. Jazz spilling from a cafe, faded signage, a slow return to life.

Haldon Forest Park
The trees stand still, but time doesn’t. Trails for walking or riding. Go Ape strings you to the canopy, a heartbeat above ground.

Exeter Underground Passages
Under the city, it is always the 14th century. Narrow stone tunnels built for water now whisper other stories.

Royal Albert Memorial Museum (Exeter)
Free entry. A cabinet of wonders — taxidermy giraffe, Egyptian mummies, and the fine dust of empire.

Crealy Theme Park, Near Exeter
Screams, soft play, a whiff of sugar and grass. It’s chaos, and it works.

World of Country Life (Exmouth)
Vintage caravans, goats, a ferret race. The odd, in one place.

Seaton Tramway
Trams glide past reed beds and egrets. You sit with strangers, watching the world shrink to three colours: green, water, and sky.

SOUTH, SOUTHWEST & WEST — TORBAY, DARTMOOR, SOUTH HAMS, PLYMOUTH

Paignton Zoo
Green and generous. Walk long enough, and the animals give in to your gaze.

Totnes Rare Breeds Farm
Chickens with fringes, a sheep that thinks it’s a dog. Smallness, deeply felt.

Bygones Victorian Museum, Torquay
Gas lamps, war letters, a street paused mid-century. You walk through history without getting your shoes muddy.

Kents Cavern, Torquay
Caves never forget. The guide speaks of mammoths. Your footsteps echo back with questions.

House of Marbles, Bovey Tracey
Glass spun in heat, marbles rolling endlessly. A place where objects have lives.

Totnes
A river town that marches to a different beat. Tea shops, crystals, good bread. The castle holds it all quietly.

Ashburton
Foraging cookbooks, antiques, and the feel of old money gone creative.

South Devon Railway, Buckfastleigh to Totnes
Steam rises. The train exhales into the countryside. You sit still while the world moves.

Berry Head Nature Reserve, Brixham
Cliffs and open sky. Gulls wheel over Napoleonic ruins.

Bantham Beach & Burgh Island
The tide gives you a path, then takes it back. A causeway, a hotel, and the sea, pretending not to know you.

DEVON'S NATIONAL TRUST TREASURES — THE COUNTY WITH THE MOST

Greenway, River Dart
Agatha Christie’s rooms are left as if she’d just stepped out. A boat ride to get there makes it feel earned.

Coleton Fishacre, Kingswear
The 1920s, frozen. Terraces tumble toward the sea. Art Deco, minus the glitz.

Overbeck’s, Salcombe
An eccentric soul built this place. Inside: stuffed birds and ship models. Outside: paradise.

Compton Castle, Marldon
Towers and turrets, and the scent of damp stone. A castle that still believes it might be needed.

Saltram, near Plymouth
Georgian symmetry and parkland dreams. Walks that take all afternoon.

Buckland Abbey, Yelverton
Sir Francis Drake’s echo lingers in the cloisters. The walls breathe exploration.

Killerton House, Broadclyst
Gardens and costume, a quiet kind of drama.

Arlington Court & the Carriage Museum, Barnstaple
A Regency house with everything from horse-drawn hearses to family heirlooms. The old and the opulent, preserved in glass.

Knightshayes Court, Tiverton
A Gothic Revival fantasy. Carved staircases, dark corners, and acres of bold Victorian ambition.

A la Ronde, Exmouth
Sixteen sides and one thousand shells. A house of eccentric vision and careful craft.

Castle Drogo, Drewsteignton
A granite fortress overlooking the Teign Gorge. The last castle ever built in England, and it shows.

Bradley Manor, Newton Abbot
Quietly tucked away. A medieval manor held together by memory and limewash.

Shute Barton, near Axminster
Thick walls, narrow windows, and a long thread of history. Limited openings make it more elusive.

Heddon Valley, Exmoor
A deep river valley wrapped in trees, where the sea waits at the mouth.

Baggy Point, Croyde
A headland where the Atlantic crashes and walkers linger. The cliffs hold your breath for you.

Lydford Gorge, Lydford
Where water falls in white sheets and ancient paths cling to rock. The gorge is a hymn to wildness.

Finch Foundry, Okehampton
Sparks still fly. The last water-powered forge in England, where iron was once life.

Loughwood Meeting House, Dalwood
A dissenters’ chapel, still and plain, built when worship had to hide.