Foolishly, we congratulated ourselves on our first relatively early start to meander along the north Devon coast through Exmoor en route towards Padstow. Just before Minehead, a silhouette of a castle on a hill appeared, the car somehow veered off to the left to a car park and we found ourselves touring the grounds of Dunster Castle then wandering through the rooms of the castle itself. The castle, first constructed over a thousand years ago has undergone innumerable major remodels. In the early 1900's it encompassed thousands of acres and three villages. Lost to the taxman in the forties it was repurchased by the Lutrell family who have owned it for more than 600 years. In 1976 it was given to the National Trust. The acres of gardens filled with native and subtropical plants, streams, and bridges begged us to stay longer, but it was midday by the time we left and our early start was laughably a thing of the past.
Porlock
Winding and climbing our way westwards through Exmoor with the sea glinting in the bright sun to our right, we drove through the historically quaint village of Porlock, then veered off on a planned detour to Porlock Weir for a late lunch. Informed that our intended return to the main road via the Worthy Toll road was not possible due to resurfacing work, we retraced our steps before resuming our route towards Lynmouth, a coastal resort and river outlet at the base of a deep valley which suffered catastrophic damage in 1952 as torrents of flood water cascaded down the valley and swamped the village. Six hundred feet directly above Lynmouth at the top of the cliffs is the village of Lynton, the two joined by a unique 1890 cliff railway powered entirely by water pumped from the River Lyn more than a mile away. A trip up and back gave us a breathtaking view of the ocean
Lynton
Mid-afternoon with lots of miles to go and things to see as we set off again. To save time we skipped an intended detour through Bude as we sped towards Tintagel Castle, arriving an hour before it closed to clamber up the steep and uneven steps hugging the cliffside to wander amongst the ruins overlooking the sea. Legend says that King Arthur was conceived at this location. Did Arthur really exist? It is fact that this majestic hilltop location was the site of a castle built in 1233.
Curtailing our plans even more, we hurried along the narrow twisting coastal road to Port Isaac (re-christened Portwenn as the location for the Brit TV series Doc Martin) and stopped for dinner in an old schoolhouse. Although we located his office Doc Martin was nowhere to be seen, perhaps he was on an emergency call.
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