As I mentioned in a recent podcast, we recently visited Bigbury-on-Sea, a lovely Devon beach with acres of warm sand running down to the sparkling sea (on the day we visited anyway).
For me, one of the beach’s best features is the fact that it faces Burgh Island, a small island that’s only cut off from the shore at high tide. The island and its art deco hotel were used as settings by Agatha Christie in And Then There Were None and Evil Under the Sun, so I could sit on the beach and imagine amateur sleuths were stalking the slopes while a gaggle of suspects, ne’er do wells and potential victims sipped gin and tonic on the hotel’s sunlit terraces. And a murderer or two, of course, but we won’t dwell on that.
A couple of days earlier we’d visited a very different beach at Shaldon, a seaside village on the Teign estuary, directly opposite the town of Teignmouth. At Shaldon, there are houses right next to the beach, and there are lots of boats bobbing on the water. There’s also a rocky outcrop called the Ness, and if you don’t mind a bit of a walk up its slopes, you can take a stroll down the narrow and echoing tunnel that leads down to a small and secluded beach at Ness Cove. The tunnel is called Smugglers Tunnel, but I’m not sure if that’s why it was dug. There’s an old lime kiln at its mouth, so the tunnel may have been built for a more prosaic purpose, but you can certainly imagine smugglers creeping through the tunnel in the dead of night.
I hope you like the photos. If you’re a member of the site, please feel free to post a comment, and if you’re not a member, please consider joining. It’s free and fun.
Burgh Island and Bigbury-on-Sea.
Smugglers Tunnel and Ness Cove
In and Around Shaldon
Comments are always welcome.
To see other featured photos on the site, please visit the Featured Photos category,
I picked up a copy of Murder at The Dolphin Hotel by Helena Dixon at the book recycling shed at the town solid waste transfer terminal and read it. I was reminded of the hotel you feature in this photo gallery. There were even tunnels in her story. I wouldn’t have given the novel a second look if I hadn’t been an avid reader of your works. Anyway, it was a fun read. There must be a group of writers based in Devon and Cornwall who write these types of novels. I’m thankful to all of them (yourself included, of courses) for providing me with hours of enjoyable reading. I also thank you for your photo galleries which I return to sometimes several times when I need some distance from the people and events in this country.
Thank you. Glad you are finding the photos enjoyable. I hadn’t heard of Helena Dixon. I guess Devon is an atmospheric setting for stories. Always nice to hear from you.
Looks like a great vacation spot Mikey! Beautiful scenery. I can easily imagine smugglers or pirates coming up that tunnel too!
Yes, I’m very lucky to have these places nearby.
The seagull on the beach at Shaldon is facing the wind like the boats are.
Well observed.