Aaaar, our hearties. The naval city of Plymouth is of course maritime central in the south-west, being the Devon port from whence Sir Francis of Drake set sail to bash the Spanish Armada way back in 1588 (playing a calming game of bowls on the Plymouth Hoe first, natch). It’s also seen a quite a few migrants of both the advertent and inadvertent type: the Mayflower (finally) sailed for the wild lands of America from Plymouth in the early seventeenth century after a hiccup from Southampton, and a convict or two was shipped from here to Botany Bay.
The history of Plymouth’s splash on the naval history scene is at the Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, but, as the kids will care not a whit for museums on a Plymouth camping holiday (bah), we’d suggest doing the waterfront walkway from Admiral Hard, wandering around Plymouth Sound and dipping into the National Marine Aquarium instead. (Tours are also available around the Plymouth Gin Distillery. We’re just pointing that out.) Or use your Plymouth campsite as a base for Dartmoor National Park, the Tamar Valley, day trips to the Riviera coast of Brixham, Torquay and Paignton, or the beaches of south-east Cornwall.
