Enjoying A Few Days in Plymouth

Plymouth Is not the first place you’d think of visiting, if you travel to Britain.

It’s a large city that was devastated during the Second World War because of its status as a significant naval seaport. Much of the city that was rebuilt after the war was quite shoddy and unattractive. However...  and I emphasise that word.. HOWEVER, the oldest part of the city survived the blitz and retains a wonderfully atmospheric charm about itself. 

The seafront or Hoe, as it’s known, radiates Victorian wealth and power. Tall Victorian hotels and apartments, line the park area that slopes down to the cliffs that overhang the sea. Built into the cliffs are a number of cafes and restaurants that lure you down to enjoy the views at all times of day and night. You may even see a Royal Navy vessel cruising by as it conducts the ‘Defense of the realm’. There are numerous monuments surrounding the park, commemorating the fallen through centuries of warfare, and a mighty fortress called the Citadel, which even today is still a commando barracks, and which has an interesting story surrounding its English Civil War history ( that I tell whilst guiding here).

Take a breathtaking stroll towards the Eastern Harbour or Barbican, and you’re walking towards the medieval part of the city which survived the bombings of WW2. A maze of little streets hide many architectural and historical secrets, but one that I always point out to my tour members and one which I enjoy most is the old Blackfriars Abbey. It’s now a gin distillery..... in fact it’s been a gin distillery for much of its existence, and it’s quite probable that the friars of the abbey, were distilling it before a man called Sir Francis Drake purchased the building and started to make what we now call Plymouth Gin ( delicious). He cut ditches, also known as leiths,  that ran off of Dartmoor to the North, and fed his distillery with clean fresh water.

Sir Francis Drake is a very important figure in English history, and he was a local boy, having been born in Devonshire. He was the man who defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588. He was also a captain who had made great wealth, raiding and plundering Spanish ships that were looting gold and silver from the Americas...   a favourite of Queen Elizabeth 1, he owned vast lands all over the counties of Devon and Cornwall, and is a hero, here in Plymouth. 

Another feature of this great city, and also, to be found in the medieval quarter, are the Mayflower Steps. As the name implies, this is the exact flight of steps, down which the original Mayflower colonist, sailed to the Americas and founded their settlement in what became known as the Plymouth Colony in 1620.

So a city that wouldn’t be on most people’s travel radar, but one that I love, and is a feature of my 2 week SW England tour ( contact me for details)