95 Best Sights in The West Country, England

Although built between 1880 and 1910, this cathedral evokes a medieval church, with an exterior in Early English Gothic style. The interior is filled with relics from the 16th-century parish church that stood on this site, part of which has been incorporated into a side chapel. Free cathedral tours are usually available Monday–Thursday at 11 am (no booking required), and 45-minute roof tours (£15) are offered on some Saturdays—consult the website to check availability and book. Free lunchtime classical concerts take place on most Tuesdays and organ recitals on most Thursdays between March and October. An open, cobbled area called High Cross lies in front of the west porch, and the city's main shopping streets fan out from here.

One of the prettiest thoroughfares in Penzance winds down from Market House to the harbor. Its predominantly Georgian and Regency houses suddenly give way to the extraordinary Egyptian House, whose facade recalls the Middle East. Built around 1830 as a geological museum, today it houses vacation apartments. Across Chapel Street is the 17th-century Union Hotel, where, in 1805, the death of Lord Nelson and the victory of Trafalgar were first announced. Near the Union Hotel on Chapel Street is the Turk's Head, an inn said to date from the 13th century.

Seven miles west of Fowey, Charlestown has a Georgian harbor so well preserved that it often appears in period film and television productions (antique-looking square-riggers are usually moored here). This port was built by a local merchant in 1791 to export the huge reserves of china clay from nearby St. Austell. It was also one of the ports from which 19th-century emigrants left for North America.

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. Guided tours lasting up to one hour take place on weekends and bank holidays at 2, departing from the tollbooth at the Clifton end of the bridge; call or consult the website for monthly tours of the Underground Vaults. 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 (£9.50) 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 Torquay 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 Weavers Cottage Tea Garden for refreshments, or head to the Drum Inn, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1936 to be the fulcrum of a new (but never completed) model village. Nearby lies Cockington Court—a grand estate with crafts studios, shops, and the Seven Dials Café. 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 in the Quantock Hills) 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. (The mill's operation is currently suspended while repairs take place following damage to the weir upstream.) 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 here.

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 Exeter's maritime history.

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 Ashburton, Okehampton, Ivybridge, Moretonhampstead, Bovey Tracey, Tavistock, and Buckfastleigh.

Dating from the 14th century, this well-preserved fortification a mile downriver was once equipped with a massive chain attached to the Dart's opposite bank to protect the town from sea raiders. Five hundred years later it was the site of a gun battery, dramatically illustrated in a sound and light display. It's a pleasant riverside walk from Dartmouth's center, or take one of the frequent boats leaving from Dartmouth's quay.

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 (£39.50). Consult the website for the sporadic winter timetable.

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 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.

John Pinney, the owner of a Caribbean sugar plantation and the many enslaved people who labored there, lived at this refined address at the end of the 18th century, and the house has been restored and furnished according to how it might have appeared then. The 11 rooms in the house's four floors showcase the contrasting lifestyles of those who lived upstairs, enjoying elegant reception areas and bed chambers, and those who lived below, working in the kitchen and washing up in the basement's cold-water plunge bath. One room provides context on Pinney's—and Bristol's—role in the slave trade.

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. 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. Buy tickets online at least one day in advance for a 10% reduction.

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.

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 online or call 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. 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 ( www.penzancehelicopters.co.uk) 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. St. Mary's has the bulk of the lodgings, though the most palatial retreats are on the islands of Tresco and St. Martin's.

John and Charles Wesley were among the Dissenters from the Church of England who found a home in Bristol, and, in 1739, they built the New Room, a meeting place that became the first Methodist chapel. Its simplicity contrasts with the style of Anglican churches and with the modern shopping center hemming it in. Upstairs you can visit the Preachers' Rooms, now containing a small museum. Charles Wesley's house, situated nearby, is also visitable (online bookings only).

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 a short distance west of 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 (be aware of the risk of being cut off by the rapidly advancing high tide). The area is managed by the National Trust.

The 16-sided, nearly circular A la Ronde was built in 1798 by two cousins inspired by the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy. Among the 18th- and 19th-century curiosities here are elaborate displays of feathers and shells. The house is 5 miles south of Topsham.

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 constructed 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.