Bickham Barn

Urban explores hereabouts should start with a jaunt into Exeter, 15 minutes’ drive from the site. The city has lots to entice, from museums and gardens to a cathedral and underground vaulted tunnel tours. If there’s only time for one or two things, make them trips to the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum. Does that excite a taste for the past? There’s plenty else nearby that should appeal… The site’s within easy reach of more than a handful of old stately piles and historical spots, starting with the spectacular Powderham Castle, 15 minutes away, and taking in Buckfast Abbey and the intriguing 16-sided 18th-century A la Ronde (20 minutes' drive), Killerton House and the looming Compton Castle (25 minutes), or Kent’s Cavern Prehistoric Caves (half an hour away in Torquay). For a taste of the distant past, and some nature-filled days, it's a 25 minute-drive to the start of the famed Jurassic Coast, 96 miles of fossil-filled coastline spanning 185 million years of history. Return to modern times, then, with visits to present-day creatures at Paignton Zoo and Dartmoor Zoo, both within 40 minutes of base, or at Buckfast Butterfly Farm and Dartmoor Otter Sanctuary, 20 minutes away.