At the western extremity of England, the counties of Devon
and Cornwall encompass everything from genteel, cosy villages
to vast Atlantic-facing strands of golden sand and wild expanses of
granite moorland. The combination of rural peace and first-class
beaches has made the peninsula perennially popular with tourists,
so much so that tourism has replaced the traditional occupations of
fishing and farming as the main source of employment and income.
Enough remains of these beleaguered communities to preserve the
region's authentic character, however - even if this can be
occasionally obscured during the summer season. Avoid the peak
periods and you'll be seduced by the genuine appeal of this region,
which beckons ever westwards into rural backwaters where
increasingly exotic place-names and idiosyncratic pronunciations
recall that this was once England's last bastion of Celtic
culture.
Although the human history of the region has left its stamp, it
is the natural landscape which exerts the strongest pull, and not
just in the beauty of the long, deeply indented seaboard.
Straddling the border between Devon and Somerset, Exmoor is
one of the peninsula's three great moors, its heathery slopes much
favoured by hunting parties as well as by hikers. For wilderness,
however, nothing can beat the remoter tracts of Dartmoor ,
which takes up much of the southern half of inland Devon. The
greatest of the West Country's granite massifs, most of Dartmoor
retains its solitude in spite of its proximity to the only major
cities at this end of the country, either of which would make a
good touring base. Of the two, Exeter is by far the more
interesting, dominated by the twin towers of its medieval cathedral
and offering a rich selection of restaurants and nightlife. Much of
the city was destroyed by bombing during World War II, though the
largest city of Devon and Cornwall, Plymouth suffered far
worse, the consequence of its historic role as a great naval port.
Bland postwar development inflicted almost as much damage as the
Luftwaffe, although enough of Plymouth's Elizabethan core has
survived to merit a visit, and the city, by capitalizing on its
maritime associations, has succeeded in reviving its port area.
The coastline on either side of Exeter and Plymouth is within
easy reach. Warmed by the Gulf Stream, and enjoying more hours of
sunshine than virtually anywhere else in England, this part of the
country can sometimes come fairly close to the atmosphere of the
Mediterranean, and indeed Devon's principal resort, Torquay
, styles itself the capital of the "English Riviera". St Tropez it
ain't, but there's no denying a certain glamour, far removed from
the old-fashioned charm of the seaside towns of East Devon ,
or the cliff-backed resorts of the county's northern littoral.
Cornwall too has its pockets of concentrated tourist development
- chiefly at Falmouth and Newquay , the first of
these a sailing centre, the second a mecca for surfers drawn to its
choice of west-facing beaches. St Ives , too, has long
attracted the crowds, though the town has a separate identity as a
magnet for the arts. Despite the tourist incursions, this county is
essentially less domesticated than its agricultural neighbour, in
part due to the overbearing presence of the turbulent Atlantic,
which is never more than half an hour's drive away. The restless
waves give Cornwall's old fishing ports an almost embattled
character, especially on the north coast, where the fortified
headland of Tintagel - the most famous of the many places
hereabouts to boast a connection with King Arthur and his knights -
and the clenched little harbour of Boscastle are typical of
the county's craggy appeal, but the full elemental power of the
ocean can best be appreciated on the twin pincers of Lizard
Point and Land's End , where the splintered cliffs
resound to the constant thunder of the waves. And there's another
factor contributing to Cornwall's starker feel - unlike Devon, this
county was once considerably industrialized, and is dotted with
remnants of its now defunct mining industries, their ruins
presenting a salutary counterpoint to the tourist-centred seaside
towns. One disused clay-pit, though, is the site of one of
Cornwall's biggest success stories of recent times, the Eden
Project , which imaginatively highlights the diversity of the
planet's plant-systems, with the help of science-fiction "biomes"
where tropical and Mediterranean climates and conditions have been
re-created.
The best way of exploring the coast of Devon and Cornwall is
along the South West Coast Path , Britain's longest
waymarked footpath, which allows the dauntless hiker to cover
almost six hundred miles from the Somerset border to the edge of
Bournemouth in Dorset. Getting around by public transport in
the West Country can be a convoluted and lengthy process,
especially if you're relying on the often skimpy bus network. By
train, you can reach Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance, with a
handful of branch lines wandering off to the major coastal resorts
- though there's nothing like the extensive network the Victorians
once enjoyed.