Country walks in Devon directly from Twistgates Farm Cottages are one of the many reasons that attract visitors to our holiday cottages located in peaceful rural East Devon. We’re often ask what our favourites are, we have plenty to chose from, but there’s one that’s very special. It’s a circular walk in the Blackdown Hills that begins the moment you step out of the front door of your self catering holiday cottage .
Winding along quiet lanes, down leafy tracks and beside the river the seasons come and go and you lose yourself in nature . Wild flowers, bird song, deer grazing in the fields, buzzards wheeling overhead, swallows and house martins skimming the water in summer, and in winter murmurations of starlings heading towards the Somerset Levels.
Start off down our drive and go straight ahead into Twistgates Lane. In April and May the Devon banks that you pass are crowned with thick ribbons of bluebells followed by frothy clouds of cow parsley. When you reach a house with a pair of eagles guarding the entrance turn left and walk up hill.
As the road levels off get your breath back and reward yourself with far reaching views over the valley (you’ll see Twistgates Farm Cottages nestling among the trees) before turning downhill and then onto a track on your right.
This track is very old and takes you to Upottery village so imagine life a couple of hundred years ago when previous occupants of Twistgates Farm would have used it to walk to church or to take animals to market and then, as now, in the spring and summer the banks burst with flowers – Lent lilies, primroses, violets, stitchwort, orchids, foxgloves and honeysuckle to name a few. 
Our walk doesn’t go as far as the village but turns left down a forgotten sunken lane with its canopy of twisted branches overhead and wild garlic underfoot.
In high summer it’s tempting to go all the way down the lane and have a cooling paddle in the river Otter but at other times you need to go over a stile that you’ll find on your left. Cross the field, another stile and then wander along beside the river. Dogs love this bit as there are places where they can swim and splash around before running on to join the road where you turn right.
From now onwards continue along this very quiet road and when grass starts to grow down the middle of it (and its late summer/early autumn) search the hedgerows for blackberries, this is a particularly good place for them and often we can provide you with home grown apples so you can make a blackberry and apple pie for supper in the well equipped kitchens in the cottages.
The road will end when you come out on a bend with the entrance to Twistgates Farm holiday cottages and romantic Apple Loft close by on your right.
We’d love to welcome you for a holiday, short break or weekend retreat and tell you about other country walks in Devon from Twistgates, and particularly in this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that we’re so fortunate to live in. And if time allows during your vacation the South West Coast Path the Devon Way and Exmoor and Dartmoor National Parks are within easy driving distances.
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or ring Suzanne on 01404 861173