Wonders of the West Country

Back to nature

So, what is it about this region that attracts so many writers, artists and visitors? Nearly four million people take holidays there every year, with a further 26 million day trippers. While many come in the summer – hence the nose-to-tail traffic jams on the A303 during July and August – the West Country is an alluring destination all year round.

The countryside is stunning at any season. The chalk streams that bisect valleys attract kingfishers, otters and water voles in spring and summer.

By autumn the hedgerows and trees are a kaleidoscope of colours, their leaves burnished with gold, red and amber. In winter the countryside takes on an ethereal beauty as mists rise up from the rivers and hillsides sparkle with frost.

When my children were young and deep snow closed the school, all the families in our village in the Chalke Valley – famous for the annual Chalke History Festival, which attracts historians from around the world – would gather in a steep valley belonging to a local farmer. We would spend a happy day hurling ourselves downhill on toboggans, with excited dogs running along behind, before trudging to the pub to warm up by a log fire with mulled wine.

For a more sedate take on winter, you could spend a day at Stourhead on the Wiltshire-Somerset border. Its enchanting 18th-century gardens feature lakeside walks, grottoes and neoclassical temples, including the Pantheon. Its design was based on its namesake in Rome, and it was built by the banker Henry Hoare II (1705-85), who was inspired by his travels in Europe.

The gardens have been the setting for period dramas such as Pride and Prejudice and have been described as ‘a living work of art’, such is their beauty. In winter the lake freezes over, and the trees are laden with frost, creating a magical scene.

Precious stones

One of the most famous West Country landmarks is Stonehenge in Wiltshire, and there is great view of it from the A303, which passes close by.

A proposal to improve traffic flow by burying this stretch of road in a two-mile tunnel was cancelled this year by the government, so motorists will still be able to enjoy the view of the sun setting behind these ancient monoliths as they sit in stationary traffic on a Friday evening!

At the summer and winter solstices pagan worshippers gather to dance and sing among the stones, and there are guided tours throughout the year if you want to get up close. For a less formal encounter with our Neolithic ancestors, about 25 miles up the road from Stonehenge is less famous, but arguably more impressive, Avebury, another of the greatest marvels of prehistoric Britain.

Built between 2850 and 2200BC, it is the largest stone circle in Britain, with about 100 stones, and has two smaller stone circles within it. Unlike at Stonehenge you can wander freely among the stones whenever you like, and there is no entry fee.

Go wild

It is almost impossible to choose a favourite West Country county. Each has its own distinct character and famous landmarks, but putting aside my Wiltshire loyalties I have to pick Devon. It is a county of contrasts, with softly undulating hills, pretty ports, farms crisscrossed by stone walls and narrow country roads tunnelling between high hedgerows.

It also has two national parks within its borders, Dartmoor and Exmoor (straddling the border with Somerset), where you will find some of the wildest and most dramatic scenery in Britain.

Splashed with purple heather, studded with woods and peaks, you can walk – or ride – across them for miles without seeing another living soul, except for the hardy ponies and shy red deer. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sent Sherlock Holmes scouring Dartmoor’s granite peaks and rocks in his terrifying tale The Hound of the Baskervilles, but for most visitors, their breath is taken away not by a murderous hound but by its bleak and craggy beauty.

Exmoor also has a literary starring role in the Victorian romantic novel Lorna Doone, whose author, R.D. Blackmore, spent much of his childhood there.

Craggy coast

Further west still, Cornwall is synonymous with pirates, Poldark, seaside holidays and cream teas. Debate continues to rage about whether the jam goes on before the clotted cream (Cornish style) or vice versa (the Devon way).

Cornwall is not simply a summer destination: there is plenty to do and see all year round. You can spot dolphins and seals off the coast at Falmouth or plunge into a tropical jungle at the Eden Project near St Austell, where space-age biomes are home to weird and wonderful plants from around the world. Further west, near Penzance, you can descend 600 metres underground into Geevor Tin Mine, which only closed in 1990. The site is also home to a museum about the county’s mining heritage.

Another Cornish gem near Land’s End is the Minack Theatre, a Romanstyle amphitheatre carved out of the clifftop in the 1930s, with panoramic views of Porthcurno Bay. There are live performances there all year round – though you would be advised to wrap up warm in winter – but if you can’t get to a performance the scenery provides drama enough.

On Cornwall’s north coast, on the estuary of the River Camel, is the picturesque port of Padstow. The TV chef Rick Stein has several restaurants there that serve locally caught seafood – so many, in fact, that locals have nicknamed it ‘Padstein’.

If you want to see your lobster alive, rather than served with chips, the National Lobster Hatchery, a marine conservation, research and education charity, is also based in the town. You can see baby lobsters hatching and learn about the efforts to support this over-exploited species.

Cornwall is also home to a seal sanctuary, at Gweek on the Helford River between Falmouth and Penzance. It takes in orphaned seal pups, which are reared and then released, and has ten rescued puffins also in residence.

Poet’s corner

The West Country has always drawn lovers of nature, wildlife and walking. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in Devon, and after living some years in London and Cambridge returned to the West Country in 1797. He settled in the village of Nether Stowey, not far from the coast in Somerset, where he lived in a tiny cottage and aroused the locals’ suspicions by taking walks for no apparent purpose other than to enjoy the countryside. On his ramblings he was often accompanied by his literary friends William and Dorothy Wordsworth.

His neighbours feared that Coleridge might be a French spy, scouting out locations for a possible invasion, but in fact he was simply taking inspiration from the landscape and the people. It was at Nether Stowey that Coleridge wrote the The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and the mystical Kubla Khan.

The cottage became an inn during Victorian times and is now owned by the National Trust. Its wildflower garden has been restored to how it looked in Coleridge’s day.

It is not just the countryside and villages that have inspired authors. The West Country’s towns and cities also feature in some of the greatest English novels. Jane Austen set Persuasion and Northanger Abbey in Bath’s sweeping Georgian crescents, while Thomas Hardy wove his West Country tales around the towns of Shaftesbury (renamed Shaston), Dorchester (Casterbridge), Sherborne (Sherton Abbas), Bournemouth (Sandbourne) and Melchester (Salisbury).

The West Country is having something of an artistic renaissance. The international contemporary art gallery Hauser & Wirth’s outpost in Bruton, Somerset, has been drawing visitors from far and wide since it opened in 2014, while Messums West, at Tisbury, near Salisbury, hosts exhibitions in a 13th-century tithe barn. Today the art on display at Messums ranges from traditional oil paintings to thought-provoking conceptual works, such as Tessa Campbell Fraser’s recent Whales – A Deeper Dialogue exhibition. This combined life-size sperm whale sculptures and sound recordings with lighting effects to create an immersive, incredibly moving experience, like being at the bottom of the ocean in the company of these vocal giants.

Foodie paradise

Long gone are the days when a West Country stay meant seaside B&Bs presided over by tetchy landladies. Nowadays the region is home to some of the best hotels in Britain. Among many contenders a special mention must go to the Pig Group, which describes its hotels as ‘restaurants with rooms’. It has hotels at Harlyn Bay in Cornwall, not far from Padstow; in the Otter Valley, Devon; on Studland Bay in Dorset and in the Mendip Hills near Bath, which are all renowned for their glorious settings and sensational food.

Plumber Manor, near Blandford Forum in Dorset, has a much longer reputation for combining tradition with comfort. The Jacobean manor has been in the same family since it was built in the 1600s, and they have run it as a hotel for the past 50 years. It is about as far from the madding crowd as it is possible to get, and has a real family feel as well as being dog-friendly.

Hardy called the surrounding area ‘the vale of little dairies’ and descendants of farmers he knew still work the land here. Down the road in Rampisham, near Bridport, artisanal ice-cream company Baboo Gelato makes its award-wining products from locally-produced organic milk and seasonal fruits. It even does a version for four-legged friends called Doggy Doggy Yum Yum.

If any further proof were needed that the West Country is a great gastronomic destination, the Guild of Fine Food, which runs the Great Taste accreditation scheme to support independent producers, is based in Gillingham, not far from Salisbury.

Fine food, spectacular countryside, and literary connections: as a West Country lass I may be biased, but whether you want a short break or an extended stay, the best advice I can give to anyone looking for a UK-based sojourn is simple: go west!