Things to do in Southwest England
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Dartmouth Castle
Mazy passages, atmospheric guardrooms and great views from the battlements. Get there via the tiny, open-top Castle Ferry
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Cabot Tower
Built in 1897 to commemorate four hundred years since Cabot's voyage to Newfoundland, the 150m-high Cabot Tower stands in the small park on Brandon Hill and can be seen from across the city. Built in red sandstone and pale-cream Bath stone, the tower offers wonderful views from the top of its spiral staircase, but be warned - it's a long, puff-powered climb to the top.
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Marrakech
This great little restaurant is the nearest you'll get to North Africa in Wiltshire, serving tangy tagines and bona fide Moroccan couscous in a terracotta-coloured dining room full of earthenware pots and tiled tables. There's even a small souk where you can buy Moroccan handicrafts, and with luck you might even get a spot of Middle Eastern dancing thrown in for free.
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West Kennet Long Barrow
Set in the fields south of Silbury Hill, this is England's finest burial mound and dates from around 3500 BC. Its entrance is guarded by huge sarsens and its roof is made out of gigantic overlapping capstones. About 50 skeletons were found when it was excavated; finds are on display at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes. A footpath just to the east of Silbury Hill leads to West Kennet (500m).
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Lyme Regis Philpot Museum
Mary Anning found the first full ichthyosaur skeleton near Lyme in 1814. The site of her former home is now the excellent Lyme Regis Philpot Museum. An incredibly famous fossilist in her day, the bonneted Miss Anning did much to pioneer the science of modern-day palaeontology; the museum exhibits her story along with spectacular fossils and other prehistoric finds.
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Nothe Fort
Crowning the headland beside Weymouth Harbour, these photogenic 19th-century defences are studded with cannons, searchlights and 12in coastal guns. Exhibits detail the Roman invasion of Dorset, a Victorian soldier's drill, and Weymouth in WWII. Commanding an armoured car and clambering around the magazine prove popular with regiments of children.
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Kent's Cavern
At Kent's Cavern, expect a stalactite to drip water on your head and temperatures of 14°C in an atmospheric, prehistoric subterranean world. These caves were inhabited in the Stone Age, making them the oldest homes in Britain. The animals that roamed Torbay then were a mite different too - guides lead you past hyena's lairs, cave bear dens and mammoth teeth.
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St Andrews St Bistro
A hectic heap of North African rugs, objets d'art and oddball furniture covers this fantastic bistro, where the modern British menu is jazzed up by traces of African and Middle Eastern cuisine. Artisan bread, lentil curries, grilled fish and spicy casseroles all feature, and you'll be as chuffed with your choice whether you're a veggie or a carnivore.
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Exeter Cathedral
Magnificent in warm, honey-coloured stone, Exeter's Cathedral Church of St Peter is framed by lawns and wonky half-timbered buildings – a quintessentially English scene often peopled by picnickers snacking to the sound of the bells.
The site has been a religious one since at least the 5th century but the Normans started the current building in 1114; the towers of today's cathedral date from that period. In 1270 Bishop Bronescombe remodelled the whole building, a process that took 90 years and introduced a mix of Early English and Decorated Gothic styles.
Above the Great West Front scores of weather-worn figures line a screen that was once brightly painted. It now forms…
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Waterfront Museum
This engrossing museum, set in a beautifully restored 15th-century warehouse, is home to a 2300-year old Iron Age logboat dredged up from Poole Harbour. At 10m long and 14 tonnes, it's the largest to be found in southern Britain and probably carried 18 people. It was hand-chiselled from a single tree; millennia later you can still see the blade marks in the wood.
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Swanpool Beach
A pleasant half-hour stroll along the headland is Swanpool Beach, backed by a small inland lagoon and nature reserve, populated by grebes, coots, kingfishers and mute swans. All of Falmouth's beaches are accessible from the coast path, or you can catch the X89 bus from town. There are car parks at Swanpool and Maenporth, but they fill up quickly in summer.
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Shoe Museum
A couple of miles south of Glastonbury is Street, once the site of Britain's largest shoe factory, Clark's. The footwear factory's long since hiked overseas, but the town's shoe connections continue at the huge Clark's factory-outlet shop and a rather odd Shoe Museum, which explores the history of shoemaking from Roman sandals to high-heeled stilettos.
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Lime Tree
With a relaxed town-house setting and cosy front-room atmosphere, dining at the Lime Tree feels like having supper at a friend's house - assuming your friend is a gourmet chef with a passion for global cuisine. Cornish duck breast, sea bass and John Dory fillet for mains, chased down by homemade bread and vanilla crème brûlée.
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Custom House
Harbourside terrace, funky eatery and fine-dining venue all rolled into one.
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Dorset Belle Cruises
Between April and September Dorset Belle Cruises operates a range of trips from Bournemouth Pier. The pick is a 2½-hour cruise (two to three daily) to the sheer white chalk cliffs at Old Harry - the start of the Jurassic Coast. It also runs ferries to Swanage (one to three daily), Poole (one to two daily) and Brownsea Island (two to four daily).
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Local History Centre
This small but impressive centre can be found, thanks to a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, in the historic town cellars at the back of the Waterfront Museum . It offers an in-depth history of Poole including archaeology, architecture, transport and local families. Naturally, Poole's maritime past is a drawcard, pooling information on trade and industry.
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Michael Caines
Housed in the Royal Clarence and run by a double Michelin-starred chef, the food here is a complex blend of Westcountry ingredients and full-bodied French flavours. Try the cauliflower and truffle soup with roasted scallops, or the slow-roast beef with celeriac purée and Madeira sauce. The set lunches are a bargain (per 2/3 courses £15/20), while the seven-course tasting menu (£65) really is one to linger over.
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Al-beb
Take a virtual trip to north Africa courtesy of this brightly tiled Moroccan eatery crammed with woven fabrics and bright ceramics. It dishes up first-rate meze, tagine and couscous. Don't be surprised if a bit of belly dancing kicks-off too. If it's full, try the excellent Indian restaurant, Maha Bharat, at No 52, which is also open for dinner.
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Redcoat Guided Tours
Redcoat Guided Tours are hugely varied. Themes range from ghosts and murder to Romans and religion - there's even a torch-lit prowl through Exeter's Catacombs. Tours leave from Cathedral Yard or the quay. There are two to five daily from April to October, and two to three daily from November to March. Pick up a programme from the tourist office.
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Barbican Kitchen
In this bistro-style baby sister of Tanners Restaurant, the stone interior fizzes with bursts of shocking pink and lime. The food is attention grabbing, too – try the calves' liver with horseradish mash or the honey, goat's cheese and apple crostini. Their Devon beefburger, with a slab of stilton, is divine.
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Spirit of the West
Newquay is surrounded by several other family-friendly attractions that'll entertain the kids and have the parents reaching for the hipflask. Weirdest of all, at Spirit of the West near St Columb, dodgily dressed Cornish gunslingers shoot it out around a gin-u-wine Wild West theme park, stables, saloon and all. Yee-ha, pardner. Weird.
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Jubilee Pool
At the eastern end of Penzance's 19th-century promenade, the glorious 1930s lido is a fantastic place for a summer dip. Since falling into disrepair in the 1980s, it's been thoroughly spruced up and is now open to al fresco bathers throughout the summer – just don't expect the water to be warm. Entry is half-price after 3.30pm.
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The Barbican
To imagine how Plymouth looked before the Luftwaffe redesigned it, head east of the Hoe to the much-restored Barbican area, where Tudor houses on cobbled streets look out across a harbour filled with fishing trawlers and upmarket yachts. Many of the Tudor and Jacobean buildings have been converted into galleries, craft shops and restaurants.
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Dartmouth-Dittisham Ferry
The best way to get to Greenway is on foot or by boat. Hike along the Dart Valley Trail from Kingswear (4 miles), or walk along the west bank from Dartmouth to the sleepy village of Dittisham (4 miles), then cross the river by the Dartmouth-Dittisham Ferry. It normally runs from 09:00 to 16:45, but if you're relying on it, call to check.
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Après LXIX
This achingly trendy bistro feels closer to Soho than Salisbury, with an artfully understated dining room filled with exposed brickwork and designer spotlights, and an imaginative menu with a magpie eye - Italian, French and Oriental flavours find their way into many dishes, all based around a solid reliance on good old British produce.
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