Plymouth

The port the Mayflower sailed from, with the old Barbican and Plymouth Hoe overlooking the Sound, ferries across to Cornish estates and fishing villages, and Dartmoor just to the north.

Plymouth lies in Devon in south-west England, on Plymouth Sound between the rivers Plym and Tamar. It is a major naval base and a historic port: Drake set out from here to circumnavigate the globe and to face the Spanish Armada, and in 1620 the Mayflower Pilgrims sailed from here for the New World. The city was heavily bombed in the Second World War and the centre was rebuilt afterwards, but the old waterfront quarter survives intact. The highlights are along the waterfront: the Barbican, the Mayflower Steps, the gin distillery and the National Marine Aquarium can all be linked on foot; to the west, Plymouth Hoe has Smeaton's Tower, the Royal Citadel and the Art Deco Tinside Lido; further west still is Royal William Yard, converted into a food and drink quarter. The Box museum in the city centre is worth half a day. From near the yard, the Cremyll Ferry crosses the mouth of the Tamar to Mount Edgcumbe in Cornwall, from where you can follow the coast path to the fishing villages of Kingsand and Cawsand and on to Rame Head. Nearby are National Trust houses including Buckland Abbey, Saltram, Cotehele and Antony, while Wembury beach to the south-east and Burgh Island at Bigbury make good summer outings. Dartmoor National Park to the north is listed as a separate destination. The best time to visit is May–September; winters are wet, and some estates and ferries run reduced services. Getting there: about 3 hours by train from London Paddington, or about 1 hour from Exeter; in the city, sights are reachable on foot or by bus, but a car is best for the country estates. Allow 2–3 days.

Top sights

• Plymouth Hoe & Smeaton's Tower – A grassy clifftop overlooking Plymouth Sound, where the red-and-white Smeaton's Tower is the city's emblem. Legend says Drake finished a ga…
• The Barbican & Mayflower Steps – A historic harbor district of cobbled lanes and Tudor houses, where the Pilgrims set sail for the New World aboard the Mayflower in 1620.
• National Marine Aquarium – Britain's largest public aquarium, with an Atlantic deep-sea tank featuring sharks and shipwrecks, and everything from local coastal life t…
• Royal William Yard – A granite complex from the 19th-century Royal Navy supply base, now a waterfront district packed with restaurants, bars, and art spaces.
• The Box – A city cultural complex that opened in 2020, where you can see a display of ship figureheads, natural history and the Mayflower story all i…
• Tinside Lido – An Art Deco seawater pool built in 1935, with a semicircular pool set beneath the cliffs of the Hoe, where you can swim while looking out o…
• Plymouth Gin Distillery – A gin distillery that has produced spirits since 1793 in the former site of a medieval Black Friars monastery, and one of the oldest gin di…
• Royal Citadel – A massive star-shaped fortress built in the 17th century by Charles II, still an active military garrison and open only to guided tours.
• Elizabethan House – A 16th-century merchant captain’s house on New Street in the Barbican, with its timber-framed floors and capstan-style staircase preserved…
• Mount Edgcumbe House and Country Park – A Cornish country estate on the opposite shore of Plymouth Sound, with a Tudor mansion, Italian and French gardens, and coastal parkland ov…
• Kingsand & Cawsand – A pair of brightly coloured fishing villages on the Cornish coast, linked by narrow lanes and beaches, once a stronghold of smugglers and r…
• Rame Head – A headland at the southeastern tip of Cornwall, topped by a 14th-century chapel of St Michael, with dramatic views of the coastline and ope…
• Saltram – A Georgian mansion east of the city, with interiors designed by Robert Adam and a collection of Reynolds portraits. It was a filming locati…
• Cotehele – A Tudor estate in the Tamar Valley with a stone great hall and tapestries preserved as they were, and a riverside quay and old mill that cr…
• Antony House – An 18th-century mansion in silver-grey stone on the western bank of the Tamar, known for its garden sculptures and clipped hedges, and for…
• Drake's Island – A small fortified island in Plymouth Sound from which Drake is said to have begun his circumnavigation of the globe, with many batteries an…
• Wembury Beach – A beach in a voluntary marine conservation area southeast of Plymouth, where rock pools revealed at low tide are a great place to observe m…
• Burgh Island – A tidal island that becomes an island at high tide and can be reached on foot at low tide. The Art Deco hotel on the island inspired Agatha…
• Crownhill Fort – A bunker-style fort built in Victorian times to defend against a French invasion, with its underground tunnels, gun batteries and cannons t…
• Royal Albert Bridge – A railway bridge designed by Brunel and opened in 1859, with two lens-shaped trusses spanning the River Tamar and linking Devon with Cornwa…

Where to eat

• Rockfish Plymouth – A seafood restaurant on the Sutton Harbour waterfront run by celebrated chef Mitch Tonks, with fish landed daily at Bri…
• Harbourside Fish and Chips – A fish and chip shop on the old streets of the Barbican, trading since the 1970s, with multiple national awards and lon…
• Barbican Kitchen – A popular pub run by the Tanner brothers inside the Plymouth Gin distillery, listed in the Michelin Guide, focusing on…
• Supha's Street Food Emporium – A waterside Southeast Asian street food spot on Sutton Harbour, mainly Thai with Laotian, Vietnamese and Malaysian dish…

Itineraries

• Devon & Cornwall Coastal Loop – Departing from Exeter, loop through Dartmoor, the South and North Cornwall coasts, and Land's End.