National Trust in North Devon

On the second day of our holiday in Woolacombe we decided to explore some of the National Trust property in the area.  We started the day by driving to Hunters Inn on Exmoor and walked down the river to Heddons Mouth.  It was a pleasant walk through a very deep gorge.  There looked as if there had been some rockfalls which made me wonder how safe it was.  There was so much water flowing down the river it was not possible to get on the beach so we returned.

Once back in our car we drove across the beautiful countryside of Exmoor to Watersmeet.  We were surprised that the car park was not owned by the National Trust and so we had to pay to park.  Another time we would go to the next nearest car park, but we wanted to walk to Lynmouth for lunch so did not have time to go the extra distance.

With all the rain that had fallen lately the rivers were flowing fast and furiously and looked wonderful.

The walk down the river to Lynmouth was truly lovely with the river rushing beside us over the boulders.

It was low tide at Lynmouth, so it did not  look that attractive.  After we walked around and had some lunch we headed back up the river to Watersmeet, which was just as good, even walking uphill.

We just got back in the car when it started to rain.  It was still raining when we reached Arlington Court, so we hurried to the coach museum to see the coaches.  We then had a quick look around the formal gardens before heading for the tea rooms.

By the time we had had our tea and cake the rain had stopped so we took the circular walk around the lake.  Some of the trees were changing colour, but most still had a long way to go before they would be in their autumn splendour.

We left Arlington just before it closed, it had been a full day as we had started this morning before 9am, but it showed us how many lovely National Trust places there were in North Devon.