Go to Devon in October, expect greyness and rain. The beach is still pretty stunning, though.
Hidden colours and textures in the rock
Dogs don’t care about rain…
… Katie does
Category Archives: devon
Old books
It’s now becoming an annual thing for my family to have a little getaway to Devon. The house – and weather – this year wasn’t as nice as last time, but I did love this dusty old bookcase filled with some unusual titles…
More photos soon
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More Devon: Lee, Lynton, Lynmouth
The village of Lynmouth
Just down the coast from Lee, the twin villages of Lynton and Lynmouth are a little touristy, but rather pretty all the same. Lots of pubs, chippies and ice cream shops so at least you won’t starve…
Cliff railway from Lynmouth to Lynton
Built in the late 19th century to link the coastal Lynmouth to isolated Lynton on the clifftop, the short rail line runs entirely using the weight of water (and its passengers) to lever the carriages up and down. Now I know that I’m not sure I’d have felt as secure while riding it…!
Antiques shop in Lynton
A good find, attached to an art gallery with lots of paper ephemera at reasonable prices.
Valley of the rocks
A short twisty hilltop drive away from Lynton lies the Valley of the Rocks, a dramatically scenic spot where moorland meets ancient limestone and slate by way of the sea, causing unusual (and rather precarious-looking) rock formations. It’s worth the scramble up to the summit for the fantastic views (and having a ‘king of the worlllddd’ moment à la my cousin in the first photo!).
A few more photos of Lee
The old bay hotel is being turned into holiday apartments – tourism has been down in recent years which caused lots of local businesses that I remembered from childhood visits to close. The derelict hotel’s in a pretty sorry state at the moment so I hope the renovation revitalises the village a bit.
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North Devon weekend
Last weekend, we went over to North Devon for a long weekend break with my family. My mum’s from that corner of the country and my grandad’s lived in the tiny coastal village of Lee for as long as I can remember. In fact it’s barely even a village: just a stretch of cottages, a lovely local pub, a church and tea rooms.
We stayed at Mill Field Cottage, a pretty bungalow with amazing views of the bay and valley below.
View from the back of the cottage and pretty bugs in the garden
The interior was cosy Cath Kidston country-chic
The cottage is a three-minute stroll up from the bay. Lee beach is all dramatic rocks and shingle; we did lots of scrambling over the cliffs, looking for shrimp and crabs in the rock pools – then topped up all the spent calories via creams teas and ice cream from the Smugglers’ Cove cafe.
We’ve been coming here ever since I was tiny. I found this photo from when I was five years old in my granddad’s photo album and took a Dear Photograph-style reproduction.
My sister’s always wanted to be on the blog! so here’s a pic of her and her doggy Theo
It was lovely to hang out with my family for a long weekend and switch off from everything – there’s barely any mobile phone signal down there, let alone internet, and it’s quite amazing to hear nothing at night but the quiet roar of the tide drawing in.
More photos on Flickr, and yet more from my film cameras and some day trips we took coming up…
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