Lyn Valley Tours

11/09/2025

The high spring tide was spectacular last night and this morning in Lynmouth

11/09/2025

Lynmouth looking beautiful this morning - picture taken nearly bang on the full spring tide 🌊🌊.

10/09/2025

Another lovely restored picture...even industrial buildings in Lynmouth were pretty! This building (see pic) in Lynmouth was another which was demolished for river widening after the 1952 flood.

The picture you see from the 1890s is of the former Devon Electric Light Company power station ⚡️⚡️🏭🏭🏭⚡️⚡️. It was was situated just opposite Russell and Nicky Perry's B&B (Lorna Doone House) on the East Lyn by Tors Bridge. The power station was built to 'fit in' and look like houses (in less than a year) below the row of cottages on School Steep. It was opened in March 1990.

Lynmouth had electric power before just about everywhere else. Also, it was the first stored hydro scheme in the world. I can tell you all about it on my tour along with tales of the heroes, villains, pirates, privateers, entrepreneurs and philanderers of Lynmouth - so why not join me on an epic one-hour(ish) stroll ?

Book at www.lynvalleytours.co.uk

03/09/2025

Please note: my free Walking Tour promo (for B&B, Hotel, hospitality and retail businesses in the Lyn Valley) TIME HAS CHANGED to 12.30-13.30!! Stuart Betts and others wanting a later time!

02/09/2025

FREE ** FREE ** FREE** FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES...NOW 12.30-13.30 tomorow!

If you own or run a hospitality business (hotel, B&B, restaurant, pub etc) anywhere in the Lyn Valley, or a local shop/tourist attraction, then please join me on a FREE locals-only Walking Tour coming up this Thursday morning (4th Sep) - I want to show you what the tour is like so then you can tell your customers if they ask 'what can we do during our stay?' 😁😁.

For access to a private page, where you can register for free, go here: https://walkingtourpromo.eventbrite.co.uk

Hope to see you this Thursday! 🚶🚶‍♂️🚶‍♀️

28/08/2025

Cast your mind back to a time before the terrible flood of 1952 and imagine how Lynmouth looked with its pretty river culverts, and with 'Sunnyside' 🌞🌞 between the Rock House opposite Priors Cottage. Folks would fish from the balconies of the properties perched (that's not a pun) over the River Lyn 🐟🎣. It was beautiful then as it is now. Why not join me on Lyn Valley Tours for a walk back through time and imagine the Lynmouth of yesteryear, with it's pirates ☠️☠️ vagabonds, poets and even Tsunamis 🌊🌊

Book now for this weekend at www.lynvalleytours.co.uk

25/08/2025

There is a lot written to celebrate the poet Robert Southey describing Lynmouth as England's 'little Switzerland'. Here is what he wrote to his friend, John May, in August 1799:

My dear Friend,
“. . . . . My walk to Ilfracombe led me through Lynmouth, the finest spot, except Cintra and the Arrabida, that I ever saw. Two rivers join at Lynmouth, You probably know the hill streams of Devonshire: each of these flows down a coombe, rolling down over huge stones like a long waterfall; immediately at their junction they enter the sea, and the rivers and the sea make but one sound of uproar. Of these coombes the one is richly wooded, the other runs between two high, bare, stony hills. From the hill between the two is a prospect most magnificent; on either hand, the coombes and the river before the little village. The beautiful little village, which, I am assured by one who is familiar with Switzerland, resembles a Swiss village,—this alone would constitute a view beautiful enough to repay the weariness of a long journey; but, to complete it, there is the blue and boundless sea, for the faint and feeble line of the Welsh coast is only to be seen on the right hand if the day be perfectly clear...'

Isn't that a fabulous description for this place! Come and hear about the treasures, tale and folklore of Lynmouth on my next tour!

Find out more at wwe.lynvalleytours.co.uk...and follow us to hear more about the history of the local area!

21/08/2025

Some of the famous people connected to/living here in Lynmouth:

* William de Tracy (of Countisbury) who was one of Thomas Beckett's murderers;
* His son Henry, who was one of the rebel barons who made King John sign Magna Carta;
* Huntington White-Wickham, billionaire game fisherman and inventor of a now-famous deep sea game fishing spinning reel in the 1930s, one of which last sold at an auction in London about 25 years ago for £48,000!
* Samuel Taylor Coleridge, romantic poet and writer of Kubla Khan and the Rime of the The Ancient Mariner
*Percy Bysse Shelley (see pic)
and many more....

To find out about all the famous women and men dudes who came here, don't forget to join Dan on one of the Walking Tours this Bank Holiday weekend starting at 3pm by the Rhenish Tower. Learn all about the history and tales of lovely Lynmouth in a leisurely walk around for about an hour. All on the flat, and no steps 😁😁. Register now at www.lynvalleytours.co.uk

11/08/2025

Visiting Lynmouth? Join me, Dan Day-Robinson at Lyn Valley Tours on a short walking tour packed with big tales – from daring sea rescues to smuggling shenanigans, shipwrecks, poetry, pirates, and more than a few eyebrow-raising local legends.

We will also be stopping by the Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway, the Rhenish Tower, the Devon Electric Light Company, the Flood Memorial and, of course, a favourite watering hole, The Barque, which carries with it ancient stories of famous explorations of local families sailing with Sir Francis Drake. 🌊
✨ Wander the village nestled in a 400-million-year-old coastline and uncover the lives, loves, and lunacy of those who shaped it. Tours are running this weekend – book your spot now at www.lynvalleytours.co.uk

08/08/2025

There are no red herrings in my walking tours. The only herrings mentioned are those which were fished by Lynmouth fisherman by the thousand all along the 'Sailors' Grave (our coastline). These are atlantic herrings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_herring

There were so many herrings 🐟🐟 that sometimes the catch was used as fertiliser for the fields. Indeed, at times, the local seas 🌊🌊 were 'polluted with fish'.

Herrings formed a massive part of the local economy here until the early 1800s - fishermen used to rush out from Lynmouth when shoals were seen coming up the Bristol Channel. When there were no longer enough fish to catch, the local economy suffered and so did the people living here 😞

Find out about fishy things, smugglers, poets, toothless crones, dogs-on-trolleys, submarines, cheesemaking, spitfire manufacture and tasty local dishes like deep-fried goldfish on my next tour...lasting about one hour, costing very little ( and children go free) - book here at www.lynvalleytours.co.uk

Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) is a herring in the family Clupeidae. It is one of the most abundant fish species in the world. Atlantic herrings can be found on both sides of the northern Atlantic Ocean, congregating in large schools. They can grow up to 45 centimetres (18 in) in length and wei...

24/07/2025

Join my walking tours of Lynmouth happening this weekend. Enjoy a one-hour leisurely stroll 🚶🚶around Lynmouth and hear about the history of this lovely little place 💕💕 . You'll hear tales of smuggling, piracy and hangings ☠️☠️ and the exploits of world-famous entrepreneurs - with some secrets even many of the locals don't know! Find out more about the details of the walk at www.lynvalleytours.co.uk and why not join! Kids go free, as well..