97 Best Sights in The West Country, England

Built by Bristol merchants who wanted a place in which to pray for the safe (and profitable) voyages of their ships, the rib-vaulted, 14th-century church was called "the fairest in England" by Queen Elizabeth I. High up on the nave wall hang the arms and armor of Sir William Penn, father of the founder of Pennsylvania. The church is a five-minute walk from Temple Meads train station toward the docks.

A monument to Victorian engineering, this 702-foot-long bridge spans the Avon Gorge. Work began on Isambard Kingdom Brunel's design in 1831, but the bridge wasn't completed until 1864. Free hour-long guided tours usually take place on weekends at 3 between Easter and October or 2 from November to Easter, departing from the tollbooth at the Clifton end of the bridge. At the far end of the bridge, the Clifton Suspension Bridge Visitor Centre has an engaging exhibition on the bridge and its construction, including a range of videos and hands-on experiences. Near the bridge lies Clifton Village, studded with cafés, boutiques, antiques shops, and smart crafts shops in its lanes and squares. Bus No. 8 from Bristol Temple Meads Station and the city center stops in Clifton Village.

You'll have to pass through the Visitor Centre to enter the village, where you can see a 20-minute film that puts Clovelly into context and book walking tours of the village (tours can also be pre-booked to guarantee a spot at a particular time). The admission fee (£8.50) includes parking. Clovelly's specific attractions include a 1930s-style fisherman's cottage and an exhibition about Victorian writer Charles Kingsley, who lived here as a child. To avoid the worst crowds, arrive early or late in the day.

Just a mile outside the heart of Torbay by bus or car lies this chocolate-box village with thatched cottages, a 14th-century forge, and the square-tower Church of St. George and St. Mary. Repair to the Old Mill for a café lunch, or head to the Drum Inn, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens to be an archetypal pub. On the village outskirts lies Cockington Court—a grand estate with crafts studios, shops, and an eatery. Cockington has, however, more than a touch of the faux: cottages that don't sell anything put up signs to this effect.

The 51-mile Coleridge Way runs between Nether Stowey (site of Coleridge's home) and Lynmouth, passing through the northern fringes of the Quantock Hills, the isolated villages of the Brendon Hills, and along the Exmoor coast.

About 4 miles west of Buckland Abbey and 9 miles southwest of Tavistock, Cotehele House and Quay was formerly a busy port on the River Tamar, but it is now usually visited for the well-preserved, atmospheric late-medieval manor, home of the Edgcumbe family for centuries. The house has original furniture, tapestries, embroideries, and armor, and you can also visit the impressive gardens, a quay museum, and a restored mill (usually in operation on Sunday and Thursday—call for other days). Choose a bright day or bring a flashlight, because the rooms have no electric light. Shops, crafts studios, a gallery, and a restaurant provide other diversions.

Take advantage of the shuttle bus that runs most days between the house, quay, and mill. Just keep in mind that the shuttle is driven by volunteers, and so is dependent on volunteer availability. Call in advance to confirm the shuttle will be running when you're there.

Exeter's historic waterfront on the River Exe was the center of the city's medieval wool industry, and the Custom House, built in 1680, attests to the city's prosperity. The city's earliest surviving brick building is now flanked by Victorian warehouses and houses a visitor center where you can view a short video as well as documents on the city's maritime history. Local tourist information is also available here.

Even on a summer's day, the brooding hills of this sprawling wilderness appear a likely haunt for such monsters as the hound of the Baskervilles, and it seems entirely fitting that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle set his Sherlock Holmes thriller in this landscape. Sometimes the wet, peaty wasteland of Dartmoor National Park vanishes in rain and mist, although in clear weather you can see north to Exmoor, south over the English Channel, and west far into Cornwall. Much of Dartmoor consists of open heath and moorland, unspoiled by roads—wonderful walking and horseback-riding territory but an easy place to lose your bearings. Dartmoor's earliest inhabitants left behind stone monuments and burial mounds that help you envision prehistoric man roaming these pastures. Ponies, sheep, and birds are the main animals to be seen.

Several villages scattered along the borders of this 368-square-mile reserve—one-third of which is owned by King Charles III—make useful bases for hiking excursions. Accommodations include simple inns and some elegant havens. Okehampton is a main gateway, and Chagford is a good base for exploring north Dartmoor. Other scenic spots include Buckland-in-the-Moor, a hamlet with thatch-roof cottages; Widecombe-in-the-Moor, whose church is known as the Cathedral of the Moor; and Grimspound, the Bronze Age site featured in Conan Doyle's most famous tale. Transmoor Link buses connect many of Dartmoor's towns and villages. The National Park Visitor Centre in Princetown is a good place to start your trip, as are centers in Postbridge and Haytor. You can also pick up information in Ivybridge, Ashburton, Okehampton, Moretonhampstead, Bovey Tracey, Tavistock, and Buckfastleigh.

These lovingly restored trains chug along on tracks beside the River Dart between Paignton and Kingswear (across the river from Dartmouth). You can combine a train ride with a river excursion between Dartmouth and Totnes and a bus between Totnes and Paignton or Torquay on a Round Robin ticket (£34.50).

For a taste of Arthurian legend, follow A30 northeast out of Bodmin across the boggy, heather-clad granite plateau of Bodmin Moor. After about 10 miles, turn right at Bolventor to get to Dozmary Pool. A lake rather than a pool, it was here that King Arthur's legendary magic sword, Excalibur, was supposedly returned to the Lady of the Lake after Arthur's final battle.

In the heart of the Barbican section, this former sea captain's home dating from 1599 offers a fascinating insight into how Plymouth residents lived over 350 years ago. The three floors of the timber-frame house are filled with items connected to the people who inhabited the house, including 17th-century furnishings, 18th-century wigs (the house once belonged to a wig-maker), and tea sets. You'll also see a reconstructed kitchen and a spiral staircase built around a ship's mast.

Less wild and forbidding than Dartmoor to its south, 267-square-mile Exmoor National Park is no less majestic for its bare heath and lofty views. The park extends right up to the coast and straddles the county border between Somerset and Devon. Some walks offer spectacular views over the Bristol Channel. Taking one of the more than 700 miles of paths and bridle ways through the bracken and heather (at its best in fall), you might glimpse the ponies and red deer for which the region is noted. Be careful: the proximity of the coast means that mists and squalls can descend with alarming suddenness.

Facing due west, this favorite of serious surfers is a long stretch of flat, soft sand, renowned for its powerful tides and strong currents. Surf shops rent equipment and offer lessons on the beach, or you can just check out the scene. Lifeguards watch the water in summer, and there are cafés and shops selling beach supplies. The beach is at the western edge of Newquay. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (fee); toilets; water sports. Best for: partiers; surfing; swimming.

The winding B3306 coastal road southwest from St. Ives passes through some of Cornwall's starkest yet most beautiful countryside. Barren hills crisscrossed by low stone walls drop abruptly to granite cliffs and wide bays. Evidence of the ancient tin-mining industry is everywhere. Now a fascinating mining heritage center, the early-20th-century Geevor Tin Mine employed 400 men, but in 1985 the collapse of the world tin market wiped Cornwall from the mining map. Wear sturdy footwear for the surface and underground tours. A museum, shop, and café are at the site.

The ruins of this great abbey, in the center of town, are on the site where, according to legend, Joseph of Arimathea built a church in the 1st century. A monastery had certainly been erected here by the 9th century, and the site drew many pilgrims. The ruins are those of the abbey completed in 1524 and destroyed in 1539, during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries. A sign south of the Lady Chapel marks the sites where Arthur and Guinevere were supposedly buried. Between April and October, guides in period costumes are on hand to point out some of the abbey's most interesting features. The visitor center has a scale model of the abbey as well as carvings and decorations salvaged from the ruins.

It's a stiff climb up the conical Glastonbury Tor, but your reward is the fabulous view across the Vale of Avalon. At the top stands a ruined tower, all that remains of St. Michael's Church, which collapsed after a landslide in 1271. Take the Glastonbury Tor bus to the base of the hill. Nearby at the foot of the Tor is Chalice Well, the legendary burial place of the Grail.

A rewarding way to experience the River Dart is to join a cruise from Dartmouth's quay to visit Greenway, the 16th-century riverside home of the Gilbert family (Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland on behalf of Elizabeth I), more famous today for its association with the crime writer Agatha Christie. Mrs. Mallowan (Christie's married name) made it her holiday home beginning in 1938, and the house displays collections of archaeological finds, china, and silver. The gorgeous gardens are thickly planted with magnolias, camellias, and rare shrubs and are richly endowed with panoramic views. Beware, however, that the grounds are steeply laid out, and those arriving by boat face a daunting uphill climb. Allow three hours to see everything; in busy periods, timed tickets for the house are given on arrival. Parking spaces here are restricted and must be booked in advance. Alternatively, ask at the tourist office about walking and cycling routes to reach the house, as well as about the bus service from Greenway Halt (a stop on the Dartmouth Steam Railway). A round-trip ticket between Dartmouth and Greenway costs £10 on the Greenway Ferry ( www.greenwayferry.co.uk).

On the city's main shopping street, this is said to be the oldest municipal building in the country still in use. The current hall, with its Renaissance portico, dates from 1330, although a guildhall has occupied this site since at least 1160. The walls are adorned with imposing portraits of royal figures, civil war generals, and noteworthy locals, and its timber-braced roof, one of the earliest in England, dates from about 1460. Book ahead for private tours for individuals and groups.

From the Hoe, a wide, grassy esplanade with crisscrossing walkways high above the city, you can take in a magnificent view of the inlets, bays, and harbors that make up Plymouth Sound.

Fondly regarded in folklore as the lost land of Lyonesse, this compact group of more than 100 islands 30 miles southwest of Land's End is equally famed for the warm summer climate and ferocious winter storms. In fair weather you can find peace, flowers—wild, cultivated, and subtropical—swarms of seabirds, and unspoiled beaches galore. There's a 2¾-hour ferry service from Penzance, a plane service from Land's End airport and other mainland airports, and a helicopter service from Penzance. Planes and ferries both arrive at the largest of the five inhabited islands, St. Mary's, while up to 11 helicopter flights connect Penzance with St. Mary's and Tresco (every day but Sunday). St. Mary's has the bulk of the lodgings, though the most palatial retreats are on the islands of Tresco and St. Martin's.

A chain-drawn car ferry, the King Harry runs to the scenically splendid Roseland Peninsula each day three times an hour. From its decks you can see up and down the Fal, a deep, narrow river with steep, wooded banks. The river's great depth provides mooring for old ships waiting to be sold; these mammoth shapes often lend a surreal touch to the riverscape. On very rare occasions, you may even spot deer swimming across.

A path close to the tip of the peninsula plunges down 200-foot cliffs to this tiny cove dotted with a handful of pint-size islands. The sands here are reachable only during the 2½ hours before and after low tide. The peninsula's cliffs are made of greenish serpentine rock, interspersed with granite; souvenirs of the area are carved out of the stone.

The sea crashes against the rocks at Land's End and lashes ships battling their way around the point. Approach from one of the coastal footpaths for the best panoramic view.

Over the years, sightseers have caused some erosion of the paths, but new ones are constantly being built, and Cornish "hedges" (granite walls covered with turf) have been planted to prevent erosion. The scenic grandeur of Land's End remains undiminished. The Land's End Hotel here is undistinguished, though the restaurant has good views.

For a superb view of the surrounding countryside, climb to the hilltop ruins of this 13th-century castle. George Fox, founder of the Quakers, was imprisoned here in 1656.

These sprawling grounds have something for all garden lovers, as well as an intriguing history. Begun by the Tremayne family in the late 18th century, they were rediscovered and spruced up in the early 1990s by former rock music producer Tim Smit (the force behind the Eden Project). In Victorian times the gardens displayed plants from around the British Empire. The Jungle area contains surviving plants from this era, including a lone Monterey pine, as well as giant redwood, clumps of bamboo, and a wobbly rope bridge crossing the subtropical valley. The Italian Garden and walled Flower Gardens are delightful, but don't overlook the fruit and vegetable gardens or Flora's Green, bordered by a ravine. It's easy to spend half a day here. Guided tours can be arranged for groups. Travel via St. Austell to avoid confusing country lanes, then follow signs to Mevagissey.

Water and a cable system power the 862-foot cliff railway that connects these two towns. As it ascends a rocky cliff, you are treated to fine views over the harbor. Inaugurated in 1890, it was the gift of publisher George Newnes, who also donated Lynton's imposing town hall, near the top station on Lee Road.