English countryside at its best

The two moors - Dartmoor and Exmoor - provide wonderful upland locations for camping, walking / hiking / visiting and viewing. Geologically interesting, they are a haven of wildlife and roaming farm animals. Castle Drogo, one of several National Trust properties in the area, is a wonderful, eccentric 20th century castle, and a great contrast and comparison to more conventional medieval castles dotted over the country. Devon's beaches are sandy, warm, with good facilities, and well worth a day or more of your time. One of the best things to do in Devon is the Lynton and Lynmouth Railway. It's an amazing, environmentally-powered dual-car effort, which takes people up and down the 500 foot drop between the two places, with great views en route.

Quick Tips:

It's probably best to go to the county in the months of April to September - like the rest of the country, the winter can be cold, wet, and dark, and as many of the attractions in Devon are outdoors, it would probably be a better idea to make this a warm-season trip. Devon is a great place to take children - I spent 6 two-week holidays here with my parents, brother and sister as a child, at various times of year from Easter to September, and we also spent time with friends of my parents. There are loads of activities for children, and it's a fun, safe, environment.

Best Way To Get Around:

You can get to Exeter, Plymouth, and other smaller towns from London easily by road, and you can also fly to Exeter from London. Once there, although there are bus services, this is a mainly rural county and a car is the best way to get about. On the weekend break I took recently, we drove our own car down from London, but you could just as easily take the train to Exeter and hire a car there. There is a lot of good walking to be done in the county, particularly on the moors, but again a car is useful to get to the starting points of such trips. Most of the camp sites on Dartmoor have car parking areas, and are fairly inaccessible unless you drive to them. If you do go walking on the moors, bear in mind that they are high, remote, and that the weather is very changeable. You should always let someone know where you are going, and when you should be back, and check the weather forecast before you set off.

Northcote Manor is a small, friendly, luxury hotel set in the middle of the countryside in the north of Devon. I stayed here for a long weekend at the beginning of August 2001, with my boyfriend, and we had a really good holiday.

The hotel has only 11 rooms, each called after a nearby village or town. We stayed in Marionsleigh, one of the mid-price rooms, which overlooked the front lawn of the hotel. The room itself was well decorated, the bed very comfortable, and the décor attractive. The bathroom was well-appointed, with very good toiletries provided for the guests to use – so good that we bought some of the shampoo and shower gel when we left as we enjoyed using it so much. The room was a little smaller than I had expected from a room that was billed as more luxurious and expensive than some in the building – once the bed, two chairs and a television are taken into account, there is very little floor-space left.

The package we were on included breakfast. We took the option of having breakfast in our room, at no extra cost, and got what we asked for, at the exact time we asked for it, every day. The breakfast menu had a good selection, including toast, cereals, cold ham or cheese, or eggs, and fresh fruit juice and generous pots of tea or coffee. More cooked breakfasts, of sausages, bacon etc, were available in the restaurant downstairs, but we didn’t want them anyway.

The downstairs rooms were very impressive. The entrance hall of the hotel, which is large, has several comfortable sofas and chairs, and a bar at one end – it’s also the smoking area of the hotel. There is also a non-smoking lounge with similarly comfortable seats and a bizarre mural of the Benedictine monks who once owned this land. There are a number of games such as chess, scrabble, backgammon and Trivial Pursuit available for guests to play during the day or in the evenings, and a extensive bookshelf with books about the area, and general fiction and non-fiction material also. Newspapers and current magazines are scattered about, and it’s an altogether relaxing, pleasant environment.

The best thing about this hotel was the service. Every single person working there was genuinely friendly, helpful and pleasant, and this more than the relaxing and pleasant environment made for a wonderful weekend break. I would definitely recommend this hotel.

The Manor House Hotel is more like a resort than a hotel. I stayed here with my family when I was 17, my sisters were 15 and 11, and my brother was 9, and the whole family had a great time. The hotel is essentially a sports and crafts centre, with accommodation attached. There is a good-sized swimming pool, and lessons can be arranged, and there are also the facilities to play golf, bowls, croquet, and other lawn games, and also archery practice (carefully supervised, so you don’t need to worry about little Johnny getting an arrow in his eye and imitating King Harold at the Battle of Hastings.)

The place is set up for children to pursue activities on their own – so, for example, my 9 year old brother could head off to the swimming pool, while my father played golf and my sisters, mother and I went for a walk. This means the hotel provides a break for parents as well as their children! There were snooker, pool, ping-pong and billiard tables in a big hut to play with, a restaurant for meals, and a bar for adults. (18+ is the legal drinking age in the UK.)

One of the features I enjoyed most about this place was the craft centre. Each morning and afternoon there were different activities on offer, such as jewellery making, glass engraving, and clay work. They taught you the basics if you needed to learn them, or let you experiment if that’s what you wanted to do instead. They had a number of clay moulds, and you could make pots, tea-pots, ornaments, or chess pieces among other things, which were then baked overnight and ready the next day for you to paint or glaze to your taste. My family still benefits from the dubious pleasure of an orange cat ornament by youngest sister made that holiday!

The accommodations and food are good, but not terrific – the main money here goes to the activities, so you’re hardly ever in your bedroom anyway except to sleep. One of the problems we sometimes had on summer holidays as a family was that the 6 of us wanted to do different things – this place catered to that perfectly. I enjoyed this place immensely, and would recommend it to other families with children of different ages without hesitation.

Dinner at Northcote Manor is, I understand, available both to guests and non-guests. Whether or not you are staying here, I would strongly recommend you eat at the hotel – the food is incredibly good. There isn’t a huge choice – perhaps 3 to 5 for each course – but everything is designed and cooked to perfection. Over the 3 nights we were at Northcote Manor, I had risotto of a different kind each evening as a starter – one with roast vegetables, one with crab, and one with herbs, and each was sublime. My boyfriend had risotto a couple of times, and a truly excellent soup. The starter is accompanied by small, freshly-baked bread rolls, which are also very good.

For a main course, I had fish each evening – cod, sea-bass, and sole – and again each one was amazing. My boyfriend had lamb once and steak twice, and enjoyed both. The main course is accompanied by a selection of simply prepared, tasty, seasonal vegetables. The wine list is well thought-out and accompanies the food well, and unlike many restaurants, most of the wines are available by the glass if you don’t want to drink a whole bottle.

The desserts followed the pattern of the main courses – a small selection of things that changed each day. I had a very good coffee ice-cream with meringue, and a fruit-salad twice, and my boyfriend had cheese each evening: a selection of local cheeses with biscuits, apple and cheese.

If you aren’t totally full by the end of all this, nothing would ever fill you up! We adjourned to the lounge for coffee, which came with a selection of home-made small petit fours which I was utterly unable to touch, but my boyfriend seemed to like them.

The restaurant has comfortable chairs, crisp linen, and helpful, friendly service. You can order your meal in the bar, and then come through when the starter arrives if you want. Similarly you can take your dessert and coffee through to the bar or lounge; they are very happy to be flexible.

The food in Northcote Manor is extremely special, and at £32 a head, a very good value too; I can’t recommend it enough.

Castle Drogo is a very odd place indeed – a granite medieval castle rears up in front of you as you approach it – but it was built in the early 20th century. Julius Drewe, as self-made man, decided by some dubious genealogy that he was related to Drogo de Teign, a Norman baron who came over with William the Conqueror in 1066. He decided to build an ancestral home in de Teign’s parish of Drewsteighton, in the north of Dartmoor, and employed the famous architect Edwin Lutyens, of New Delhi and later war memorial fame to build it for him.

The site is impressive – on three sides is falls away steeply from the level ground on which the castle is built, and has the most spectacular views on all sides of the building over the moor. Inside, the castle is a cleverly designed, impressively comfortable early 20th century home.

As you walk up the drive to the castle, you see the impressive Taw gorge around it – this is a defensive site the Normans would have appreciated! The huge stone doorway has the motto Drogo Nomen et Virtus Arma Dedit carved above it (Drogo is the name and the valour gives it arms). Go through the door way, and the huge stone hall, and the first room you come to is the library. This is a large, but still homely room – lined with books on one side. The books seemed to us to have been mostly bought by the yard to fill the space, rather than being books the family wanted to read – there were shelves full of seemingly untouched leather-bound volumes, with a few more handled classics at one end. There is also a full-size snooker table, and a table-football game, as well as leather armchairs next to the windows for the sitter to read and appreciate the view out of the large glass expanse. Unlike some of the rooms of the castle, this room is comfortable and low-key in its decoration, and looks like a pleasant place to spend an afternoon reading or chatting.

The corridor you walk along after coming out of the library is wonderfully designed to make use of the stone – the walks are bare stone, and the ceiling white plaster with a circle of stone showing in each section, with arches leading between sections. It’s very clever, and beautiful, but not very hospitable – I’d imagine it would feel rather chilly to walk along such a corridor in the winter.

This entry is written in 3 parts, as there is a maximum of 500 words per entry.

The Drawing Room, which you come to next, is very grand and the furnishings are a real mixture. The sofas are typical Edwardian flowery chintz, and there are very elaborate lights and huge windows. There are also some very fussy inlaid wooden items, small tables, a chest, etc, which are so over-decorated they look a little silly. There are also cabinets full of the fussy china statues, ivory statues, etc, which were popular 150 to 50 years ago (and regrettably, still are in certain quarters). There is no fit here – furniture, tapestries, and paintings all from different periods and styles, which doesn’t make for a comfortable atmosphere.

Underneath this room is the Dining Room, which features a huge oak table which is laid for a formal dinner. There are painting of Drewe’s parents and grandparents, and a lovely red patterned rug covering most of the room’s floor. The ceiling, which is beautifully elaborate white plaster-work, feels a bit oppressive for a room as big as this, but it’s still a nice place to be. There is a huge tapestry on one wall of a battle scene, and some very odd horns for drinking out of, encrusted with silver and too heavy to be useful.

The practical rooms downstairs are very interesting – and the architect didn’t stint his attention here. The kitchen is especially amazing – the only light is from a huge windowed dome in the centre of the room, and under the dome is an incredible circular wooden table to preparing food on, which appears to be the same size as the dome. There are chopping boards which fit the table, being curved in the same way, and it’s a very clever room altogether.

Leaving the kitchen rooms, (there are also servants’ room, pantries, etc) you go up again to the family bedroom floor. The rather unimpressive paintings on the walls were executed by various members of the Drewe clan, which is just as well, as it would be a waste to pay for most of them. One of the most interesting rooms is Julius Drewe’s study, which has his rent books, fishing equipment, family papers and photos, and books, and must have been a pleasant place to work. The bathroom nearby is amazing – it features a bath with a curved ceramic shower at one end – the shower has little holes all the way up the sides to spray water on the body as well as the head of the person standing in it; a very useful idea.

Next to these rooms are bedrooms, the main one being that of Julius Drewe and his wife. The windows again have a pleasant view, and the bed has a formal dress laid out on it, so that one can imagine the process of dressing for dinner, before heading down to the Dining Room below.

This entry is written in 3 parts, as there is a maximum of 500 words per entry.

At the end of the corridor, past various bedrooms, is a room for Adrian Drewe, the eldest son of the family who died in the First World War. His parents brought photos of him at school, playing sports, certificates and records of his school academic and other activities, and a huge photograph of him in army uniform, taken in black and white and painstakingly coloured in afterwards by hand. It’s a moving room, but you can’t help feeling an odd one to set up next to your own bedroom, 15 years after his death.

Once you go back outside, you walk around the back of the castle to see the private chapel and gun-room of the family. The chapel contains the original wooden cross of Adrian Drewe’s grave in France, which was later replaced by the white stone gravestones seen on millions of graves in France and Belgium. The chapel has wooden floors, pews, pulpit and altar, with a small organ and a hymn board. It’s a lovely room, with a vaulted granite and white-plaster ceiling. In one corner, there is a model of the castle architect’s (Edwin Lutyens) memorial to the missing of the British Empire, the Thiepval Arch.

In the next-door gun room are records, drawings, and papers relating to the castle and the building of it.

The gardens outside the castle are on the route you are sign-posted to take out the property – they are extensive, with rose gardens, formal lawns, and a giant croquet lawn with room for 4 games (two are set out, with all the hoops properly banged into the grass). There is also a small toy house that was set up for Drewe’s grandchildren to play in.

Like many important buildings in the country, the castle is owned by the National Trust. It costs about £10 for 2 adults to enter Castle Drogo. If you are planning to visit many other such buildings, it might be worth joining the National Trust for a year – it costs £50 for 2 adults, £32 if both are under 26.

Overall, the castle is an impressive and amazing building – but to me it also seemed a bit sad, almost a folly. It took 25 years from conception to completion, and Julius Drewe only actually lived here for a couple of years after it was finished, before he died. And it was all built because he had some grand ambition to build an ancestral home in the area of a baron he is unlikely to have been related to anyway. Whatever you think of the man, the building is certainly absolutely fascinating; dodgy taste in furniture notwithstanding.

The castle is about 3.5 miles south of the A30 road which goes from Exeter to Okehampton.

The Lynton and Lynmouth Railway is an amazing experience, that both children and adults will love. I’ve been on it twice – once as a child with my parents, and a couple of weeks ago with my boyfriend, and I found it fascinating both times. The two villages or small towns are both near the sea, but Lynton is on top of the cliff and Lynmouth is at the bottom. In terms of horizontal distance they are very close, but it’s a very steep cliff! The railway is a rack and pinion one, with two cars that make the short, steep trip at the same time – when one is at the top, the other’s at the bottom, and they meet half-way. The tracks are 860 feet from top to bottom, and the line descends 500 feet between the two stations.

The train cars work in an amazing way – there are other cliff railways in the world, but none quite like this. The car at the top fills a huge tank in the bottom of the car with water from the nearby river, which takes about 30 seconds. Both cars then release their brakes, and the added weight of water in the top car means gravity moves it down, and the bottom one is pulled up. At the bottom, the water is released from the tank to lighten the car, while the other car fills up from the River Lyn at the top of the hill. There is no other power involved – it’s an entirely environmentally friendly operation.

Each car holds about 35 – 40 people, and there’s an open-air platform at the side of the car facing the slope so that people can have a good view – and also a closed-in section if the weather’s not good, or you don’t like heights. The cars are a wonderful example of Victorian engineering at its best – built in the 1890s, they are still running perfectly, with curved oak seats and bright green metalwork.

The railway enables tourism to take off in the area – before it was built, people had a natural disinclination to climb down the cliff to the sea, and they then faced the long haul back up again in the evening! It’s certainly worth taking the railway not just to get from A to B, but because you get great views and a fascinating trip.

Lynton and Lynmouth are on the north edge of Devon, in Exmoor National Park, close to the border with Somerset. The trip costs about £2 return per adult, and season tickets are available if you’re stopping in the area for a while.