|
| |
|
clovelly |
| |
|
|
|
The steep cobbled lanes and whitewashed cottages of CLOVELLY must
have featured on more calendars, biscuit boxes and tourist posters than
anywhere else in the West Country. It was put on the map in the second
half of the nineteenth century by two books: Charles Dickens' A Message
From the Sea and, inevitably, Westward Ho! - Charles Kingsley's father
was rector here for six years. To an extent, the tone of the village has
been preserved by limiting hotel accommodation and holiday homes, and
restricting coach parties, though there's still a regular stream of
visitors and on summer days it's impossible to see past the artifice.
The first hurdle to surmount is the visitor centre (daily: April-Oct
9am-5pm; Nov-March 10am-4pm; ), where you are charged £3.50 for access
to shops, snack bars and an audiovisual show, and also for use of the
car park (it's well-nigh impossible to leave your motor anywhere else).
Walkers, cyclists and users of public transport have right of way to the
village (there's a separate entrance to the right of the visitor
centre). Below, the traffic-free main street plunges past neat, flower-smothered
cottages where sledges are tethered for transporting goods - the only
way to carry supplies since the use of donkeys ended.
Clovelly's stony beach and tiny harbour lie snuggled under a cleft in
the cliff wall. A lifeboat operates from here, and a handful of fishing
boats are the only remnants of a fleet that provided the village's main
business before the herring stocks became depleted. If you can't face
the return climb, take the Land Rover, which grinds up to the top of the
village and leaves about every fifteen minutes from behind the Red Lion
(Easter-Oct 9am-5.30pm; £1.60). It is here, immediately below the
visitor centre, that Hobby Drive begins, a panoramic three-mile walk
along the cliffs through thick woods.
There are two hotels in the village, both pricey: the New Inn halfway
down the High Street (tel 01237/431303; £70-90), and, enjoying a superb
position, the Red Lion at the harbour (tel 01237/431237, redlion@clovelly.demon.co.uk
; £90-110). Below the New Inn is a small B&B , Donkey Hill Cottage (tel
01237/431601; under £40), and there's a greater selection of guest
houses a twenty-minute walk up from the visitor centre in Higher
Clovelly: try the Old Smithy , on the main road (tel 01237/431202; under
£40).
|
| |
|
