West Down House Holiday Cottages Bradworthy Devon UK

02/06/2022

A glorious start here, so elevenses tea break on the front lawn!

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02/06/2022

View across the front lawn this morning...

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04/04/2022

Well done North Devon!

North Devon is named a World Surfing Reserve alongside Malibu and Santa Cruz in California.

03/04/2022

Some of our many different and long established daffodils nodding gently in the breeze and spring sunshine here in one of our woodland areas.

There has been a bumper display this year. The bright splashes of colour around the gardens are a welcome sight. Currently they can be seen alongside crocuses, primroses and anemones.

02/04/2022

The familiar acorn symbol & yellow arrow of a waymark post on the SW coastal path.

Another breathtaking stretch of our local coast offers amazing hiking opportunities in a spectacular wild and remote landscape.

Taken at Steeple Point, some 300 feet (91m) above sea level overlooking Duckpool beach, North Cornwall, SW UK (grid ref SS 200 116 for you map readers out there).

The spectacular South West Coast Path, a national trail, is 630 miles long. Starting at Minehead in Somerset it follows the coast through North Devon, Cornwall, South Devon ending at Poole in Dorset.

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26/03/2022

This week we were on the summit of Stowe's Hill approaching sunset on the beautiful wild and remote Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, SW England, UK. Unusually there was hardly a breeze in the air.

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You can see the wonderful weathered granite rock formations including the famous Cheesewring, Caradon Hill, the ancient stone wall enclosure of Stowe's Pound and the Phoenix United mine ruins in the distance. The Hurlers stone circles, the Pipers standing stones and Rillaton Barrow are also nearby. A fascinating landscape.

23/03/2022

One of the many surprise visitors we have had in the garden here at West Down House.

This very friendly tagged racing pigeon allowed us to get very close to get a 'worm's eye view'. It was having a brief rest and inspecting our lawn with its beady eye.

We also encourage shy wildlife visitors by creating wild areas in the gardens. We have recently made further dead hedge areas from brushwood taken from trees felled by recent storms. These provide shelters for wildlife whilst returning nutrients to the soil as they rot down.

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22/03/2022

Steps to Heaven...

Fun with washed up flotsam or jetsam to create this surreal image on the beach near Crow Point, North Devon, SW England, UK. It's amazing what you find sometimes whilst beachcombing. One of our more unusual finds.

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20/03/2022

A perfect sunset at a local beach. Calm conditions, water lapping at your feet...

📷 by one summer's evening at Crooklets Bude, North Cornwall, SW England, UK.

19/03/2022

The wonderful freeing feeling of solitude and peace on a large deserted beach away from our busy tech, work and consumer driven lifestyles. Nothing but the rhythmic sound of the surf, the feel of soft sand and the smell of fresh salty air. Breathing space...

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Lovely muted colours and the blurring of land sea & sky with the person walking their dog in splendid isolation enjoying the vast open space surrounding them.

A large beach makes you feel quite insignificant in the whole scheme of things. A chance to step back and maybe put things into perspective and consider what is important in our lives helping to recharge our batteries.

Shot taken on the huge expanse of Saunton Sands Beach in North Devon, SW England, UK.

With over three miles of golden sand, the beach is so huge the RAF has landed Hercules transport planes here to train for desert landings.

According to online sources videos have been filmed here for Robbie Williams (Angels), Ollie Murs (Hand on Heart) and Pink Floyd (The Wall) as well as scenes in films (Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society).

The beach is backed by the immense sand dune system of Braunton Burrows, part of a UNESCO world biosphere due to its unusual natural habitat ecosystem and the rare species of plant and wildlife that it supports.

19/03/2022

A beautiful and sculptural ancient beech tree, one of many mature trees we have in the garden and woodland here at West Down House on the border of North Devon & Cornwall, SW England, UK.

We encourage wildlife and nature by setting aside wild areas and have planted many new plants, shrubs and tress over the years. We have a lovely bluebell wood on the spring. Our shy garden visitors include hares, deer, woodpeckers, buzzards, owls, hawks, foxes pheasants, spotted flycatchers, nuthatches, treecreepers, goldfinches starling murmurations (autumn to early spring months) and many more...

As we have little light pollution nearby we are a good dark sky site for those who enjoy stargazing on clear nights. We often watch satellites going overhead and enjoy spotting shooting stars during meteor showers.

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11/03/2022

A breathtaking view of desolate but incredibly beautiful moorland and tors from the summit of Brown W***y (Cornish: Bronn Wennili) the highest point in Cornwall at 1,378 feet (420 m) on Bodmin Moor, NE Cornwall, SW England, UK.

Rough Tor, the next highest point at 1313 ft (400m), can be seen in the distance. A source of the River Camel, the De Lank River rises nearby.

The moor along with Dartmoor and Exmoor are within an hour's drive of us. They are popular with our guests for hiking or just exploring by car. Several classic novels and films have been set in these dramatic and wild granite upland landscapes e.g. Jamaica Inn, Hound of the Baskervilles, Lorna Doone.

📷 by late afternoon one February. Richard had the summit to himself and could not see another person.

According to web sources:

This trig point sits next to a man made cairn known as the Brown W***y Summit or North Cairn. Never archaeologically excavated, folklore suggests it may hold the remains of a Cornish king. Similar nearby cairns have been dated to between 2162-1746BC (early Bronze Age).

Originally Bronn Wennili ("hill of swallows") the Cornish name of the granite tor or peak on the moor, has become corrupted over many years.

Once relatively populated there are many Neolithic and Bronze Age prehistoric remains e.g. hilltop cairns, enclosures, stone circles, menhirs and hut circles. It is believed these had religious or calendar alignment significance.

Geologically, the moor is one of five granite plutons (bodies of intrusive igneous rock) in Cornwall, part of the Cornubian batholith intrusion (Cornubia = Cornwall in Latin). The batholith (huge mass of granite) formed 280 million years ago during Cisuralian epoch, the earliest part of Permian period.