For our second wedding anniversary we went away for the weekend to North Devon. We stayed in Combe Martin, in a lovely B&B called La Gallerie, which I would thoroughly recommend. Tracey and John were such friendly people and Tracey makes a mean Eggy Bread with Cream, Strawberries and Balsamic Glaze for breakfast…yum.
We stopped off at Arlington Court and the National Trust Carriage Museum on the way there. It was a lovely little NT site, with beautiful gardens, sadly we didn’t get to see as much as we would have liked, or done the 2 mile walk around the grounds as it was absolutely tipping it down with rain. We did manage to find a short break though for a walk through the walled garden and kitchen garden (Ben and I absolutely love a kitchen garden and everytime we think we should start our own veg patch!). We then went over to Combe Martin (which is really really long) and in the evening headed over to Ilfracombe to take a look and eat unlimited tapas at a nice little restaurant called Terrace Tapas, the service here was excellent and the food very nice! Then we headed over to see Damien Hirst’s ‘Verity‘ statue in the harbour which is pretty controversial (well it is Damien Hirst) but I liked it. Other than these though, we weren’t overly impressed with Ilfracombe.
The following day we got up nice and early and set off for Croyde, which, despite being a bit grey and grizzly, was teeming with surfers the day we were there. We decided to walk over Baggy Point, on this walk which was lovely and not too difficult. The views over the Headland and to Woolacombe were lovely.
When we got back to Croyde, I had a quick coffee stop in a lovely little tea rooms and then later that day, we also headed to Woolacombe and had a mooch about on the beach, then drove to a pretty little village called Berrynarbor to see what was there.
In the evening we decided to walk down to the beach at Combe Martin from our B&B, and found many many charming little rock pools which kids could spend hours looking in, there were also caves to be discovered and rocks to scramble across. The light was beautiful, I love the shot below of it shining off the rocks. We thought it would be rude not to get Fish and Chips and eat them on the beach, so did just that. I ate possibly the best fish and chips I’ve had in a very long time, from the Black and White Chip Shop. If you visit it is highly recommended.
On our final day, we decided we would head towards Exmoor (as it was on the way home anyway) and stopped off in Lynton and Lynmouth first. These are very pretty towns, one at the top of a hill and one at the bottom. It is EXTREMELY steep and there is a funicular train that can take you between the two, but as we were there so early and had other things in mind we didn’t do it this time. We hill was so steep though that we had to stop at the bottom as our brakes were smelling rather hot!!
Instead, we headed to the Valley of the Rock just outside of Lynton and we loved it! It was so beautiful, and it didn’t hurt that it was a beautiful day. We scrambled up onto the tor/big pile of rocks and took some beautiful pictures of the coast. I couldn’t get over how blue and turquoise everything was.
From there, we headed up over Exmoor and stopped to admire the views and the wonderful purple heather fields that stretch as far as the eye can see. We stopped off for lunch in Porlock (and again gave our brakes a rest) and then drove towards Minehead and back into Somerset.
In our second National Trust visit of the weekend, we went to Dunster Castle, which was amazing. It had loads to do including extensive gardens, outbuildings, cellars and of course the castle itself, plus there’s lovely places for a picnic and lots of space to run around. If you are ever down this way, definitely add this to your list.
So that was it, our whistlestop tour of North Devon. If you’re thinking of a visit and would like any more info, just give me a shout and I’d be happy to pass on more details.
Where have you been away recently? I love a mini-break, it’s a great way to refresh and reset that default mode!
Big, Staycation, Love,
Laura
xoxox
sponge cakes and scarves 