Buckland Abbey

Buckland Abbey

Home of Sir Frances Drake

Yes this was an Old Abbey that became his Home

The stables are now Shops and Sculptures abound

The Abbey is very much a great hall now

Once use as a barn

But the roof is original and what a roof.

The house is made of what was former Abbey and church. And is now a home.

Beautiful Windows

With cravings in the wall

The rooms were large and well setup.

and what fireplaces, these would have been great in there hey days,

Of course we have a statue of Sir Frances

and Painting of the Queen that loved hm.

Jennifer of Course loved the Period Costumes

For me it is the Kitchens and Gardens

And what gardens they would have been

But it was the house that was the show place.

Cotehele Quarry

 Cotehele Quarry is just down from the Cotehele House.

It is where they made Lime

for Cement and Farming

 Three Large Kilns

River access for the barges for the coal and Lime rock.

Most of the out buildings are now Shops. They ice creams were great today,

Notice the clear Blue skys.

Cotehele House

 After coming off the dartmoor, we quick passed through

Tavistock and headed to Cotehele house, The road we went on, reminded us not to trust the Tomtom.

This is a tutor mansion that time forgot.

And it provided to be great

 The sun was out and the heat was coming

So we dashed inside and started to explore

 First the great hall, still with it's original roof and beams.

 even the furniture was still tutor

But this is the Entrance Hall, what an Entrance

The house was the finest example of old English tapestry's

So they rooms were dark but they could still be seen in their splendor.

Some were small as in the chapel

Oh, it had is own little chapel.

Some of the tapestries were telling stories

And were very Large

The Bedroom were set as if in the 1700's

Some of the Seats could have been made yesterday and called Modern.

But it was the splendor of the tapestries that were on show.

This desk was made in about 1650

But the detail was so fine.

This is door to the Chapel. What a door!

It is a building that has involved and it shows.

But you would tell much from the outside.

As for the view from the Gardens. Great place to visit

Dartmoor National Park - Hills

The Dartmoor National Park is piece of England that 

hasn't changed much over time.

It a tough landscape that gets little rainfall

Vast expenses of tundra terrain we small enclosures 

that man has tried to harness over time.

They can but try. we also stopped at Princeton for a

late breakfast at the Cafe next to the prison.

Dartmoor National Park - Horses

Part of the Dartmoor Trip was to see the rare Dartmoor Horse

As we entered the hill just past Poundsgate, we came across this herd.

Right next to the card park, about 30 of the grazing in the meadow, 

and around another 60 in the gorse 

Likely for me, I'm a country kids so I got out and walked about them taking pictures

I got close to a few of them, but one white one did not like me so she tried to bite me. 

but I stopped the anger in her early.

Most just kept an eye on me and snorted if I got to close.

many were in foal so they didn't want to move far.

So generally a WOW moment.

There is no more iconic sight on Dartmoor than a herd of ponies grazing together, with stunning, majestic Dartmoor as their backdrop. They have been here a long time, hoof prints found on Dartmoor during an archaeological dig were found to be 3,500 yrs old!

Written records of ponies on the moor go back as far as AD1012, and in the mid 1800s ponies were used to transport granite from the moorland quarries.

In 1950 there were around 30,000 ponies on the moor, now we only have approximately 1500, and only a small proportion of these are the pedigree Dartmoor Ponies.

Dartmoor National park - Dart River

On the way to the Dartmoor Hills, we cut from 

Torquay to Poundsgate

This meant we went across and alongside the Dart river

We went across Newbridge, it was only built in 1851. So it was new.....

The river was peaceful and quiet.

So we stopped and made plans to keep going.

Even the side streams looked good.