Back To My Roots
Looking across to the picturesque Kingswear side of Dartmouth. Both car and passenger ferries are available to get across the water.
Southwest Devon is the area of England that I (the author, Ross Walker) grew up. As a child and young(er) man we lived a few places around the area, so I don't call any one particular town my 'hometown'. Rather, the area covering Dartmoor (a huge national park) and the English Riviera (Torquay, Paington, Brixham), then the cities of Exeter and large town of Newton Abbot, and many more small towns in between. All of them are familiar, all of them either I've lived in or have friends or family around. When I visit the UK, most of Devon feels most like home than any other part of the UK! Although nowadays, I call Thailand my home. I'm not certain when I'll visit England again, so today we take a look around this amazing little place known as Dartmouth. Fun fact, it's also a river I kayak canoed on, swam, sailed and more activities many times as a kid!
125 year old sailing trawler (fishing boat) 'Pilgrim' now used for adventure sailing trips. Based out of Brixham, which is a fishing port just a little further up the coast as part of Torbay (the English Riviera)
Source to Mouth
The River Dart source is high up on the moors (Dartmoor) where it gathers pace and size as it flows down to the lower lying lands (and through the town of Buckfastleigh, where I was based during the pandemic, 'locked down' in England). From here it then runs through the historical town of Totnes, which is about as far as any boat can get up the river. A few more miles from Totnes, the river spills out into the English Channel which is where we are visiting today - Dartmouth. Dartmouth is a major tourist spot a few more miles southwest down the coast from Torbay.
Pilgrim coming in to dock. This shot also captures the harbor entrance with the old-world fortifications on the right (a great big heavily walled and steep granite fort which used to have canons for sinking any invadera) and sea in the distance.
Pigram nowadays has a small motor retrofitted to negotiate harbors. In the old days it would have been a bit more difficult! Perhaps oars or small pilot vessels would have been used to bring her to dock back in the day
Pilgram docked and dropping of its payload of tourists
Steeped in History
Long a strategic deep water harbor, Dartmouth has featured in the history books many times. It's always been a deep water port, as such used by man already for a thousand years. Stories stretch right back to the Celts and Saxons in early England, with early settlements along the banks and defenses against the Vikings at its entrance to the English channel. In the 16th and 17th centuries, during the time of the Tudors and Stuarts, Dartmouth was developed into a serious trading port and many of the buildings from this time remain today - as we'll see in the following photos.
Original Tudor architecture, the buildings around town have stood for hundreds of years
The Royal Castle Hotel dates back to the 17th Century, and offers a very stylish bar and restaurant - 'famous since Drake first sailed'
Car ferry to Kingswear on the opposite bank. This makes for a very big shortcut otherwise it's a few miles upriver to cross by bridge. £1.50 for an adult on foot, or £3 for a car (one way, double for return). It is cable operated, so stay well clear if in a boat, this is knowledge from my childhood when I learned how to navigate this harbor!
This boat in the forefround is very similar to the one my family had and I learned to sail on as a kid, a motor sailor with a very sturdy trawler type hull. This brand of boat are known as Fisher or Colvic-Watson, they also built trawlers and lifeboats so they are very stout vessels. This boat will hold its own even in a force 6 gale with 12 foot swells - but you might feel a bit sick with the motion!
It's a very popular place to park a boat. One reason, it gives great options - sail upriver or out to sea. It's also far cheaper than a marina, as everything is just on moorings and you need a little dinghy ('tender') to get to and from your sailing yacht.
Second World War mine converted to a charity collection box for the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society
Tudor architecture on the high street
A shot of the inner harbor with more interesting architecture. This small harbor is for tenders or smaller boats and accessed via a little tunnel along the river bank wall.
A statue in the park gifted to the town in 1960
Victorian style fountain in the gardens next to the town
Thanks for reading!
Hopefully you enjoyed seeing this historical must-see part of my homelands, Dartmouth. We've only scratched the surface as there is a lot more to see here! Hope you may make it one day to visit yourself :)