A new film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, with Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor Dashwood, arrives in cinemas this September — and much of it was shot on Devon's moors. That's a decent excuse to see the county the way Jane Austen did. She visited with her family in the early 1800s, then set the Dashwoods' new life at Barton Cottage a few miles from Exeter, surrounded by exactly the kind of scenery you can still walk through today.
Start with Dartmoor National Park, where the production was based around Princetown, Tavistock and Gutter Tor near Yelverton. Open moorland, granite tors, rivers, ponies and birds of prey — walks suit every energy level, and AllTrails helps you pick a route on the spot. If you'd rather see the landscape from horseback, Shilstone Rocks near Widecombe-in-the-Moor is a family-run riding centre offering hacks across the moor.
The market town of Ashburton is worth half a day for its antiques trail: more than ten shops clustered along North Street, East Street and St Lawrence Lane, selling everything from Georgian furniture to odd trinkets at all sorts of prices. When your arms are full, stop at Emilia, a tiny Italian wine bar on East Street serving share plates like pappardelle with duck ragu. Near Buckfastleigh, Riverford Field Kitchen does the farm-to-table version, with organic vegetables from the surrounding farm served family-style to the whole room.
Garden lovers should head to RHS Garden Rosemoor, which sits in a valley — fittingly Barton Cottage-like — with formal beds, woodland and two rose gardens holding over 2,000 roses. Something is in flower year-round, though late spring and summer are the sweet spot. For indoor culture, the Devon and Exeter Institution on Cathedral Green is an independent library founded in 1813, two years after the novel was published; free tours run on Wednesday afternoons, or you can buy a day membership and read among the cupola-topped Georgian shelves. Just outside the city, the National Trust's Killerton houses the Trust's biggest fashion collection — over 20,000 pieces, including 18th- and 19th-century dress — shown in rotating exhibitions.
For the coast, Bigbury-on-Sea has a huge beach that at low tide lets you walk across to Burgh Island, the spot that inspired Agatha Christie. The Pilchard Inn there has been pouring pints since 1336. And to sleep like a Dashwood, Glebe House — a former vicarage in 15 acres of East Devon countryside above the Coly Valley — pairs antique-filled, colourful rooms with a kitchen garden and outdoor pool.
It's an easy trip to piece together: one base near Exeter or the moor covers most of it, and the mix of walking, browsing and long lunches suits couples and solo travellers alike. Credit: Condé Nast Traveller UK