Travel & Holidays in later life

The neighbouring North Devon resorts of Lynmouth and Lynton are completely different in character, but are like Siamese twins connected by a water-powered cliff railway.

Lynmouth started life centuries ago as a simple fishing village at the mouth of River Lyn, which flows down from Exmoor. Lynton - perched on a 500-ft cliff-top - expanded much later, during Victorian and Edwardian times.

The two villages first began charming visitors in Napoleonic times, when leisured travellers decided that holidays in southern France were not so healthy. 

Attracted by the dramatic scenery, poets also came for inspiration, including Wordsworth, Coleridge and Hazlitt. Coleridge launched into writing the ballad of "The Ancient Mariner" when he viewed Lynmouth harbour.

Shelley and his 17-year-old wife spent nine weeks in Lynmouth and called the area "Little Switzerland" - a description which has stuck. 

All these romantic, scenic and poetic links attracted well-off Victorians, who built substantial houses on higher-level Lynton. These houses have long since been converted into holiday hotels and guest-houses.

In Lynmouth a 14th century thatched smuggler's inn is now the Rising Sun hotel, complete with a Shelley's Cottage annexe. But that's not the same as Shelley's Hotel, which insists that "Shelley slept here." It also claims the resident ghost of the poet's teenage wife, Harriet, who occasionally wanders through the renovated love-nest. 

During the 19th century, Lynton's growth was handicapped by the steep 500-ft climb from sea level. The zigzag road was a big strain on transport by pony, donkey or horse, whether used for carrying people, coal or household supplies. 

The solution - a water-powered cliff railway - was funded by a rich London publisher, Sir George Newnes, who established famous magazines like 'The Strand' and 'Tit-Bits'. The magazines have long since died, but the railway has worked perfectly since 1890. It's now a listed monument and is high among North Devon's most popular attractions.

Each of the two cable cars can hold 40 passengers. The system is moved up and down by the weight of 700 gallons of water piped from the West Lyn river into a tank underneath the top car, which empties out at the bottom. The incline is one to 1.75. 

In the same year, 1890, a splendid Town Hall was completed, looking as though lifted from a very prosperous Swiss town. 

From spring until autumn, the building is smothered with flowers - part of an 'In Bloom' project of Lynton and Lynmouth that wins national awards. A gardener's delight!

Another of Sir George's projects was the opening in 1898 of the 19-mile narrow-gauge Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, which featured glorious views across Exmoor. The service died about 70 years ago, but amateur rail-fans are now striving to restore it to life.

The twin resorts are popular destinations on day trips from other resorts like Ilfracombe. But they also make a good centre for anyone wanting to explore the scenic beauty of the Heritage Coast and especially of Exmoor National Park itself.

The Southwest Coast Path is routed through Lynmouth and Lynton. The National Park offers 600 miles of marked footpaths and cycle trails across a wide range of gorgeous scenery. Bikes are easily hired locally. There's wildlife to spot: ponies, buzzards and red deer. 

Wild mountain goats use the Valley of the Rocks as their playground, only a one-mile coastal walk west of Lynmouth. The action of wind on stone and shale has created weird formations in this gorge between two ridges of hills.

But normal access has long since been restored. Visitors are completely free to wander, and many guided walks are scheduled, led by National Park rangers.