Walks near the holiday cottages 4
The Tarka Trail
Parking at Puffing Billy, Torrington SS479197
Torrington is about 10 minutes drive from Hallsannery. Turn
right out of Hallsannery and follow the main road for about 6
miles until you reach the Puffing Billy pub on your left hand
side. If you want to hire bikes there is a bicycle hire place
here as well. There is parking for the Tarka Trail here, this
can get busy at weekends.
There is a huge range of walks from here: you can have a walk
around Torrington Common where the Torrington Cavaliers are in
the process of building their next project. This is a replica of
Torrington Castle. The original castle was built in 1150, with
the structure demolished 200 years later after what is thought
to be a planning row. The replica being built on the Commons is
based on a woodcutting of the castle found by a local farmer at
the back of the barn. The castle will include a working
drawbridge, portcullis, an open courtyard, ramparts, an armour
room, stables, a banquet hall and possibly even a moat. The
Cavaliers will spend the next year building this before their
next bonfire when it will be burnt on the August Bank holiday
2010. The last big bonfire staged by the Cavaliers was the
replica HMS Victory which was spectacularly burnt in August
2005. The whole project is an amazing feat and well worth coming
to North Devon to see!
Great Torrington is one of my favourite country towns: it has a
range of useful shops, the best bakers for wholemeal bread (Sandfords)
plus the Plough Arts Centre, this has a good cafe, usually an
interesting exhibition and a range of films and other
entertainment (check out www.plough-arts.org for its schedule).
Dartington Crystal and
Torrington 1646 are in the town itself
and
Rosemoor Gardens (RHS) is close by.
Puffing Billy, Beam Bridge and Weare Giffard
1 hour, easy, approx 1 km on country lanes
Leave the car park and turn left onto the Tarka Trail. Follow
this for about 1 km over one bridge over the Torridge. The next
bridge you come to is over Beam Weir, where otters are often
seen, usually late in the evening or early morning. (It is
mentioned in 'Tarka the Otter'). Follow under a bridge and then
after about another 100 metres there is a path to your right up
through some woods. Follow this for about 1 km until you reach
the road, it's a bit of a scramble here so take care. Turn right
up the hill and walk along the road for about another kilometre
until you reach the Golf Club and a footpath to your right.
Follow this and if you want to extend your walk you can go into
Torrington itself or walk longer around the Common. Otherwise,
go down the hill and then bear to your right again, this takes
you down to a stream, which you cross over by a bridge and then
follow the track keeping to your right which leads you back to
the main road. Turn right there and keep to the pavement and
after 50 metres you're back at Puffing Billy.
More walks :
