Devon, England
A short guide to this county in southwest England
Of all the counties of England, Devon must surely offer the most variety, and the traveller who makes Devon their destination must decide which part will interest them most and concentrate on that.
As a child, I spent several family holidays in Devon, mostly on the north coast around Ilfracombe and Combe Martin. As a teenager I once cycled around Devon, crossing both Dartmoor and Exmoor, and in more recent years I have spent holidays in the south of the county. The contrast is dramatic!
Dartmoor
Let’s start with the moors. Dartmoor is wholly contained with Devon, to the south of the county, whereas Exmoor, on the north coast, is shared with Somerset. Dartmoor is noted for its eerie granite tors that stick up above the bleak, rain-swept moorland, populated mainly by sheep and the hardy Dartmoor ponies. This is where Arthur Conan Doyle set the famous Sherlock Holmes story, “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, and is also one of the places where the Army trains its soldiers to the peak of toughness. A day spent on Dartmoor in the rain will show you why! It will also explain why Princetown, at the heart of the moor, is home to one of Britain’s toughest prisons (although it is due to close in 2023).