Our final day in Devon today and we decided to drive round to Dartmouth to see the castle which is perched on the cliffs either side of the entrance to Dartmouth. It was about an hours drive so after packing and checking out we set off. Unfortunately the weather isn’t being so kind today as it is overcast and although we hoped it would stay off until after we had finished walking round the castle it didn’t and was raining as we arrived so we decided to stop for a coffee and a late breakfast before we went in. The castle is an artillery fort which was built in the 1380s to defend against the threat of attack from the French. It has been built on over time and by the end of the 15th century it had been expanded and an iron chain was stretched across the harbour to a tower the other side to ‘capture’ any ships coming up the Dart. This was put back in place during the First World War as a defence against the German navy. We had planned to either have lunch or a final Devon cream tea before heading home but the cafe at the castle wasn’t very big and was really busy by the time we had finished walking round so in the end we decided to start heading home and find somewhere on route to stop. This was achieved in Buckfast which has both a steam train and an abbey, neither of which provided cream tea but…. in the village there was a cafe where they served fresh baked cream teas which actually turned out to be two scones each with a massive amount of jam and cream so much that Chris couldn’t actually finish his! By the time we had eaten our way through this it was almost 3pm so we set off for home but unfortunately the rain had returned and the Friday evening traffic was in full flow meaning that we had a very slow journey back, after a few stops we finally got home safe and sound about 8pm.
