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Note this r/bout because you may want to return to it when you leave. It will the start point for the
next touring module to Exeter.
Take the 3rd exit from the r/bout on to the Western Approach, the A374 s/p “City Centre A374”.
There are several car parks on the left a bit further along this road.
Plymouth.
Plymouth to Exeter
[Return to the index for The West]
There are three ways to handle this journey from Plymouth to Exeter but my recommendation would
have to be to take the road across Dartmoor.
1: Straight up the A38 through Buckfastleigh to visit Buckfast Abbey and/or take a ride on the
South Devon Valley Railway.
2: Across the wild uplands of Dartmoor National Park.
3: Get the best of both worlds by going to Buckfastleigh on the A39 then taking the A382 to
Princetown on the Dartmoor road.
Dartmoor is a landscape of stunning views, granite tors, deep wooded valleys with fast flowing
rivers, and rugged, wide open spaces. But Dartmoor also has a very gentle side. Safe, quiet areas
where you can picnic with the family, easy to follow trails for walking and cycling, many lovely
open spaces.
The wildlife is particularly interesting. This fellow here (pictured) stood
majestically in the middle of the road oblivious to the steady stream of
passing traffic. As I disappeared over the hill further along the road I
saw him in the rear vision mirror, still standing quite still. Then there’s
the sheep and, of course, the famous Dartmoor ponies. Plenty of
them. You can’t miss them.
It is also a place of dark history and mystery. Dartmoor Prison is a grim
and forbidding place The moor’s reputation as a sinister place was made all the more real by the
famous Sherlock Holmes mystery The Hound of the Baskervilles, set on Dartmoor.
“As you can imagine with a land as ancient and mysterious as Dartmoor many legends have been
attached to the myriad of places and features on the moor. These include lurid tales of ghosts,
witches, piskies and a whole range of other unearthly happenings. In times gone by many of these
tales would have been told around the fireside at night thus becoming an oral tradition which
makes it important to keep these stories alive today by documenting them here.” From the website
http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk . An excellent source of information on the moor.