A lone photographer during sunset at Sandymouth Beach North Cornwall, one of our closest beaches
Throughout the year there are many activities available locally and places to visit to suit all tastes, abilities and ages. We are an ideal base for exploring, outdoor adventure activities or just for relaxing, sitting back and letting it all pass you by.
Places of interest and activities popular with our guests
- Clovelly: world famous traditional fishing village with quaint cottages and cobbled streets perched on steep cliffs above harbour
Clovelly harbour near high tide in North Devon
- Bude: seaside resort with sandy beaches, sea pool, lifeguards and surfing
Golden sunset at Crooklets beach Bude, North Cornwall
- Moors: Dartmoor and Exmoor National parks and Bodmin Moor
A beautiful Darmoor pony foal on the moor near Princetown in Devon
- Stately homes: Hartland Abbey, Arlington Court, Cotehele, Lanhydrock, Knightshayes, Buckland Abbey, Castle Drogo
The magnificent Lanhydrock house and gardens near Bodmin, Cornwall
- Castles: Tintagel (King Arthur and Merlin legends), Launceston, Okehampton, Lydford
Tintagel Castle Gateway, Cornwall assocaited with legends of King Arthur and Merlin
- Cornish fishing villages: Boscastle, Port Isaac (Port Wenn in Doc Martin) and Padstow
Port Isaac, North Cornwall (Portwenn in Doc Martin tv series)
- Devon fishing villages: Appledore, Clovelly, Instow, Bucks Mills
Dusk at Clovelly in North Devon
- Art: Burton Art Gallery Bideford, Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) Exeter, Broomhill Sculpture Gardens
- Gardens - RHS Rosemoor (40 acres), Docton Mill, Tapeley Park, Marwood Hill, Lost Gardens of Heligan
- Cities and towns: Exeter, Plymouth, Truro, Bideford, Barnstaple, Bude, Launceston, Holsworthy, Okehampton, Tavistock, Tiverton, Crediton, Wadebridge, Bodmin
Historic architecture of Cathedral Close in Exeter, Devon
- Film, tv and book locations and associations: Clovelly, Port Isaac, Hartland Abbey, Hartland Quay, Jamaica Inn, Poldark locations in Cornwall, Dartmoor, Charleston Harbour
Hartland Quay in Devon, spectacular coastal walking with its dramatic coastline often used in filming
- Walking: coast path, Dartmoor, Exmoor, Bodmin Moor, Tarka Trail, Lydford Gorge
The view from the summit of Brown Willy on Bodmin Moor, the highest point in Cornwall
- Cycling: traffic-free cycleways Tarka Trail, Granite Way, Tamar lakes, Camel Trail. National Cycle Network. Local cycle hire available.
View from the traffic free Tarka Trail (cycling and walking)
- Surfing, kayaking, coasteering (instruction and equipment hire available at larger local beaches)
- Maritime history: Bideford, Hartland Quay, Appledore, Plymouth
- Civil War Battle Sites: Stamford Hill and Great Torrington
- Activities: Riding, sailing, climbing, swimming pools and fishing available locally
- Golf (Bude, Holsworthy, Royal North Devon)
- Family attractions: Milky Way, Big Sheep, Morwellham Quay, Exmoor Zoo, Watermouth Castle, Combe Martin Wildlife & Dinosaur Park, Bodmin Jail, Quince Honey farm, Launceston Steam Railway, Exmoor Steam Railway
- Beaches: Sandymouth, Duckpool, Crooklets, Summerleaze, Widemouth, Northcott Mouth, Crackinton Haven, Westward Ho!, Saunton Sands, Croyde, Woolacombe, Northam Burrows and Braunton Burrows
Footprints on the seemingly endless beach near Crow Point, North Devon
- Industrial heritage: Morwellham Quay, Tamar Valley, numerous old tin and copper mine sites with engine house ruins, Bude Canal, Bodmin Moor
- Neolithic and Bronze Age sites: Bodmin Moor, Dartmoor - various stone circles, cairns, standing stones, burial chambers, stone rows, hut circles
- Museums - Barnstaple, Bideford, Bude, Holsworthy, Launceston, Okehampton, South Molton, Torrington, Hartland Quay
- Lakes - Upper and Lower Tamar Lakes, Roadford, Melbury, Jennetts, Crowdy, Darracott, Siblyback, Colliford. For a relaxing day out visit one of the lakes in the South West with watersports, fishing, walking and tea-rooms.
Nearby Upper Tamar Lake for watersports, cycling, walking and birdwatching.
- Woodland / Forest trails - Brownsham, Combe, Cookworthy Forest (850 ha), Lydford Gorge
- Public swimming pools - Bude, Holsworthy, Northam, Okehampton, Torrington
- Leisure Centres - Bude, Holsworthy, Barnstaple, Bideford
- Pannier and other markets - Barnstaple, Bideford, Holsworthy
- Theatres - Barnstaple, Exeter, Plymouth, Ilfracombe
Day trips popular with our visitors:
- Eden Project (including Eden Sessions concerts in summer months)
The amazing Core roof at the Eden project uses biomimicry in its design
- Lost Gardens of Heligan
Giant's Head at Heligan
- Lands End
- Lundy Island (by boat or helicopter only)
- Exeter, Plymouth, Truro
- Dartmoor, Exmoor and Bodmin Moor
- South Devon; Dartmouth, Torbay, Paignton Zoo
- Lynton & Lynmouth and the Valley of the Rocks
- St Ives, Newquay, Penzance, Truro
- St Michael's Mount
Bradworthy the local village
Bradworthy, the nearest village, is a unique thriving and friendly rural community. Dating from Anglo Saxon times Bradworthy has a delightful ancient square, one of the largest in the West Country and a church dedicated to St John the Baptist. The village also has shops (grocers, butchers, general store and furniture store), garage (with fuel), pub (an old coaching inn with food, dining area and beer garden) and post office.
According to online local sources, the church font dates from Norman times, and the church was extended in the C13th. Extensively damaged by a fire in 1395, the re-built church was re-dedicated in 1400. The tower pinnacles were erected about 1500. Some interesting floor tiles from the C16th and local traditions believe that Cromwell's troops did further damage in the Civil War whilst stabling their horses here. A further damaging fire is noted during the C18th. Village stocks preserved here.
Local places with historical associations
Soak up the area's rich and diverse history.
Explore the fascinating and partially restored Bude Canal. Using inclined planes, a sea lock (apparently one of only two remaining in the country) and the massive Bude breakwater the 35 mile long canal was an amazing feat of engineering and allowed ships to enter the small bay and unload along wharves at high tide. The canal used specially designed tubboats and rails to transport sand and lime (to improve and enrich local farmland), coal and other goods to previously remote inland areas.
Historic figures with local associations: Thomas Hardy, Boscastle; Tennyson, Tintagel; Charles Kingsley, Bideford; John Wesley, Launceston; the eccentric Reverend Robert Hawker, Morwenstow; Daphne Du Maurier, Jamaica Inn on lonely Bodmin Moor and Henry Williamson, author of Tarka the Otter, set around the beautiful Taw and Torridge valleys.