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Images of Devon & Cornwall

A selection of images from some of my favourite places in and around Devon and Cornwall (plus some adjoining areas of Dorset & Somerset) in the United Kingdom. Over the years I've used a variety of cameras ranging from SLRs to smartphones.

THINKING OF VISITING?
The counties of Devon and Cornwall are at the far South Western corner of the UK. They are richly diverse in terms of landforms including granite, red sandstone, yellow sandstone, greensands/limestones, chalk, slates and clays, and strongly folded rocks from old subduction zones when the rocks of the area were in a smilar place on the globe to what Madagascar occupies today, and all of these appear either along the two coasts or at places inland. So you've kind of got the 'whole world' in one little 150-mile long peninsula which rises to 2000ft in the middle. This incredible diversity is what helps make Devon & Cornwall so interesting and popular as a holiday destination. Then there is all the history based on the sea and the ways in which it was used to transport tin and other minerals plus agricultural products before the advent of decent roads, so our little seaside ports have their own little histories to tell, and as much has been conserved they are wonderful places to visit, and some (eg. Clovelly in North Devon)are still only accessible on foot. Many visitors enjoy seeing our villages with their thatched cottages and barns with walls made out of cob, and these are increasingly rare as they're difficult and expensive to maintain.
The 21st Century face of Devon and Cornwall however is much like anywhere else with the bigger cities of Plymouth and Exeter with about 250,000 and 100,000 people respectively having all the usual high street stores. The busy tourist spots like Torbay and Newquay swell to more than five times their winter population in the Summer season, yet they still retain much of their charm.
GETTING HERE BY CAR
The road network is actually quite good with links from London via the Motorway network (M4 to Bristol and then M5 south to Exeter) and if you'd prefer a nicer scenic route then take the M3 and turn off onto the A303 which passes by Stonehenge and joins the A30 just before the Blackdown Hills. The A30 which then runs all the way to Penzance down the spine of the peninsula is now dual-carriageway for 90% of its length from Honiton past Exeter to tip of Cornwall. From Exeter the A38 is dualled all the way to Plymouth and partially so beyond to where it meets up with the A30 near Bodmin. Meanwhile along the Northern coast there's the A39 which is a standard two-way road that takes you via Exmoor, Barnstaple and Bude through some nice interesting countryside and on to many popular hoiday destinations. The main roads only get badly congested on the Fridays and Saturday mornings in the first two weeks of the school summer holidays, and also on Bank Holiday weekends.
BY AIR? You can fly in to Exeter or Newquay on the budget airlines. The Channel islands (100 miles south) make a nice place to visit too. You might also like to visit the Scilly isles which are about 25 miles off Lands End. (Beautiful scenery of a submerged landscape.) You can go by boat, in Season, from Penzance or plane. And then there's Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel to vist by boat from Bideford or Ilfracombe.
BEST TIME TO VISIT
The best time to visit for the scenery is in early-mid May when the bluebells, primroses and May bushes are out and many of the bigger trees are still in flower. Days at this time of year will be very long with the sun above the horizon from 5am to after 9pm and good twilight until well after 11pm. It's pretty in June too when the reds of the foxgloves makes a nice contrast against the blues of the sea, and then in late July and early August when the tall Rosebay Willowherb puts a similar contrast on the artistic photographer's palate.
The heat of any summer is usally gone by the end of the third week of August, but early September and October can be nice with an "Indian Summer". Autumn can be less predictable and it's very rare to get 'New England's' intense colours, not just because the species of the trees are different, but because the weather often stays too mild and then all the leaves get blown down by fierce gales in late October and early November. However the soft more directional September/October light can make for lovely landscape shooting conditions and the sun is still setting around about 7pm even at the end of September.
CLIMATE & CLOTHES TO BRING:
What clothes to bring with you? Layers: several thin ones with a waterproof outer - that's the best advice I can give to visitors from overseas. We can sometimes go through all 4 seasons in a single day and there is no wetter or drier season for our 40-60" of rainfall.
Good fine summer weather depends entirely upon the position of the Jet Stream in any particular year. One year it will loop too far South keeping the Atlantic depressions and all their rain coming in one after the other, another year it might allow a High Pressure cell to spread up and outwards from the Continent forcing all those storms to steer clear of us and head up towards Iceland. Very, very rarely we might get 100F (38C) and equally rarely we might get -18C (about 5-10F). Blizzards are equally rare - maybe a bad one every 20 years. But the grass grows most of the year around the coast indicating that its seldom colder than 50F (10C), and that's entirely thanks to the Gulf Stream from the Caribbean transferring its heat northwards. South West England is actually at the latitude of Labrador, yet gets the climate of 1,000 miles further south thanks to this particular ocean current. It keeps us green. In fact the emerald greenness of this part of the world often surprises visitors...

** There are individual place galleries on the last page.

For commercial use please email imagseerx@aol.com Pictures available at reasonable rates.
Copyright John Farrar. 2002-2023
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Bluebells in the Golden Hour
Bluebells in the Golden Hour
Bluebells - mirror lens
Bluebells - mirror lens
Bluebells and Hawthorn on Dartmoor
Bluebells and Hawthorn on Dartmoor
Gorse &  Bluebells on Dartmoor
Gorse & Bluebells on Dartmoor
Dartmoor in the distance
Dartmoor in the distance
Fine weather has come and it's time to mow the grass
Fine weather has come and it's time to mow the grass
River at Moorgate
River at Moorgate
Bigbury on a very hot summers day
Bigbury on a very hot summers day
Cullevers Steps on the East Ockment river
Cullevers Steps on the East Ockment river
Black-a-ven Brook tumbling town the valley
Black-a-ven Brook tumbling town the valley
The Strangles
The Strangles
Padstow Ferry on the way to Rock at low tide.
Padstow Ferry on the way to Rock at low tide.
Padstow Ferry coming in to pick up passengers at Rock
Padstow Ferry coming in to pick up passengers at Rock
Mouth of the River Camel
Mouth of the River Camel
Roadford_Sundial
Roadford_Sundial
Roadford_contours
Roadford_contours
Meldon_Reservoir - evening July 18
Meldon_Reservoir - evening July 18
September light on Sidmouth
September light on Sidmouth
High Dartmoor Tors Above Okehampton
High Dartmoor Tors Above Okehampton
Nice Clean Lamb
Nice Clean Lamb
Sailing into Fowey
Sailing into Fowey
Knightshayes Gate House near Tiverton
Knightshayes Gate House near Tiverton
Knightshayes Near Tiverton in Devon.
Knightshayes Near Tiverton in Devon.
Bridge over River Exe at Fishermans Cot
Bridge over River Exe at Fishermans Cot
Carn Galver Mine
Carn Galver Mine
Ilfracombe tunnel beaches
Ilfracombe tunnel beaches
Ilfracombe tunnel beach
Ilfracombe tunnel beach
Verity anatomical side
Verity anatomical side
Verity nicer side
Verity nicer side
Mousehole Harbour, Cornwall
Mousehole Harbour, Cornwall
Newlyn Pano
Newlyn Pano
Marazion
Marazion
Lamorna Cove
Lamorna Cove
St Michaels Mount on a Summer's Evening
St Michaels Mount on a Summer's Evening
Porthcurno Beaches
Porthcurno Beaches
Reflections on The Jubilee Sundial at Roadford Lake.jpg
Reflections on The Jubilee Sundial at Roadford Lake.jpg
Tintagel Castle Door Archway
Tintagel Castle Door Archway
Dappled Light on Tree Trunks.
Dappled Light on Tree Trunks.
View from Kit Hill
View from Kit Hill
Kit Hill - relics of the industrial age
Kit Hill - relics of the industrial age
Kit Hill Chimney
Kit Hill Chimney
At Cullevers Steps
At Cullevers Steps
Moorland Stream at Cullevers Steps
Moorland Stream at Cullevers Steps
Meldon Viaduct  Spring 2009
Meldon Viaduct Spring 2009
Horse grazing under Kes Tor
Horse grazing under Kes Tor
Teign-e-ver Clapper Bridge
Teign-e-ver Clapper Bridge
Rocks in Wistmans Wood
Rocks in Wistmans Wood
Stormy Evening at Trebarwith Strand
Stormy Evening at Trebarwith Strand
Red Pokers at Boscastle
Red Pokers at Boscastle
2 Sheep on a rock
2 Sheep on a rock
Cheesewring Rushes
Cheesewring Rushes
Ilfracombe Inner Harbour
Ilfracombe Inner Harbour
Beer - Afternoon
Beer - Afternoon
Sidmouth - Jacob's Ladder Beach
Sidmouth - Jacob's Ladder Beach
Lake at Arlington Court
Lake at Arlington Court
Arlington Court
Arlington Court
Widecombe Church
Widecombe Church
Lydford Gorge
Lydford Gorge
Lydford Gorge
Lydford Gorge
Lydford Gorge White lady Waterfall
Lydford Gorge White lady Waterfall
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