The West Country: it brings to mind rolling hills and remote farmland, awe inspiring coastal landscapes and stunning beaches, high moors and ancient woodlands. No wonder so many people flock to places Like Devon, Cornwall and Dorset for home-grown holidays. So let’s take a look at England’s West Country in all her glory, a UK day tours destination filled with magic.
Meet the West Country – A breathtaking destination for day tours in the UK
Covering Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, the West Country is home to many subtly different regional English accents.
Two kingdoms sit at the heart of the region: the old Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex and the Brythonic kingdom of Dunmodia. While the Anglo-Saxons originated in Germanic Saxony, the Brythonic people were pure Celtic. Cornwall still has its own language, an ancient Celtic language with roots in Brythonic, Welsh and Breton, spoken widely until the late 1700s. Today local people are keen to protect the language, use it, and keep it alive.
Bristol is big, bustling and arty, home to spectacular street art that delights many an Instagrammer. Vegans love Bristol in particular, the city being crowned as the Vegan Capital of the World.
Wells, the UK’s smallest city, is a tiny jewel of a place and Bath, not far from Wells, is a shopper’s heaven. Both are really beautiful. While ship building defined Bristol, the long coastline means ships and boats were built in many places, large and small, including scenic Appledore in north Devon, and there are hundreds of pretty little fishing villages throughout the region.
Clovelly is one of the most attractive villages in England with its steep cobbled streets lined with gorgeous cottages, leading down to a lovely little harbour. Glastonbury Tor is one of the nation’s best-loved landmarks and the town itself is a haven for alternative lifestyles, products and therapies.
The West Country’s ancient history
Like Wales, the West Country is where the descendants of the original Celts still live, driven to this remote area over thousands of years by a series of hostile invaders. Until recently experts believed the Romans were mostly kept out of the region thanks to unusually fierce resistance from local tribes, but a find of almost 100 Roman coins near Exeter changed things. They came, and they conquered.
Stonehenge is the planet’s best-known prehistoric monument, begun more than 5000 years ago. The landscapes around Avebury Stone Circle are stuffed with ancient treasures including Windmill Hill, The Sanctuary, West Kennet Avenue burial mound, West Kennet Long Barrow, and strange, spooky Silbury Hill. But they’re just the tip of the iceberg – wherever you go, up on the moors or down in the valleys, on top of hills and next to rivers, often-mysterious structures created by our ancestors still stand.
The moors – Dartmoor, Exmoor, Bodmin Moor and more
The three main West Country moors are exactly what you’d expect from moorland – high altitude, craggy, with huge skies and views that go on for miles and miles. But in north Devon, the south coast’s lesser-known partner, moorland means something different. Over there a moor is merely a piece of relatively high ground covered in what’s called Culm Grassland, a rare wildflower-rich environment. You can read more about Culm here on the Devon Wildlife Trust website.
At 400 square miles, Dartmoor is southern England’s biggest, wildest and least-tamed open space. And it’s quite something. You can literally feel ancient history here. The croaky calls of the ravens only add to the magic and there are always buzzards wheeling far above with their eerie cries. The tors stand out against the sky, rocky outcroppings carved into strange shapes by thousands of years of wind and weather. Adders bask in the sunshine here, and lizards, toads and frogs enjoy life in and around countless black moorland bogs, silvery streams and serene pools.
In autumn the place is surprisingly colourful, with acres of pretty pink and purple of ling, cross-leaved heather and bell heather set against the year-round yellow of the gorse. They say you can kiss your lover whenever the gorse flowers, the joke being it actually flowers all year round.
The fresh air can turn to chilly and raw in minutes when the clouds come down and the mist rolls in, turning the beauty turns frightening when the weather doesn’t play ball. This is no place to get stranded or lost. Luckily day tours of the moors and their surroundings are a safe way to discover these remarkable places, revealing the wildlife, the landscapes, the people, the traditions and more. If you enjoy being scared, a paranormal tour of Bodmin Moor or spooky Sennen Cove will make your hair stand on end.
The West Country’s amazing coastline
The 630 mile South West Coast Path is a marvel, running between Minehead in Somerset to Poole harbour in Dorset, including the Jurassic Coast. It follows the edges of Exmoor along the relatively quiet north Devon coast that’s so popular with surfers: Westward Ho! is the only place in the UK with an exclamation mark in its name, and the beach there is HUGE, an expanse of sand so smooth and perfect it’s like something from a dream. Then there’s Croyde, Woollacombe and more, all havens for surfers offering towering grassy sand dunes and loads of surf shops.
The route takes in the entire Cornish coast, makes its way over the great mouth of the River Tamar and into south Devon. The Dorset coastline is equally awe-inspiring with its chalky hills and interesting towns, world famous Jurassic coast, and the sea, sun and sand holiday favourite Weymouth.
Some parts of the route are flat, others are as hilly as anything you’ll find in the UK, with swooping downward paths and very challenging uphills to tackle, meaning there’s something for everyone. In all there’s a mighty 115,000 feet of ups and downs, together equalling four times the height of Everest.
West Country food and drink
Cheese is a biggie here, including Cheddar from Somerset, Devon Blue, and Cornish Yarg. It’s cream teas all the way too, traditionally eaten mid afternoon and made up of a pot of tea, scones, fresh clotted cream and jam. In Devon you add the cream to your scone first, then the jam. In Cornwall it’s the other way round. Cornish pasties are a must too, available in both Cornwall and Devon. Watch out for tasty Vegan and veggie versions.
You can’t do West Country day tours without test-driving the cider. Devon is one of those counties whose geography and geology make apple trees very happy indeed, hence the tradition for ciders. Sam’s Cider, made in north Devon, is a popular choice, and there are plenty of artisan ciders to try, everything from cloudy and vinegary to sweet and sparkling, alcohol free to incredibly potent.
That’s the West Country, and there are day tours to every corner of this unusual, secret part of England. Where will you visit first?
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