Clovelly

Clovelly has been in one family's ownership since 1738 and is run as a private estate, which is why it looks as it does and why there is an entrance charge to walk down a village street. The single street falls about a hundred metres to the harbour in a stepped cobbled ramp, too steep for any vehicle, so deliveries and rubbish go by sledge, wooden sleds dragged over the cobbles, and donkeys did the same work until they were retired to lighter duties. Whitewashed cottages line it with flowers on the walls. Charles Kingsley lived here as a boy and set part of Westward Ho! nearby. A Land Rover runs an alternative route back up the hill for those who cannot manage the climb, and the sixteenth-century quay still shelters a few boats.

The main sights

• The stepped street - a cobbled ramp falling a hundred metres to the sea.
• The sledges - wooden sleds still used to move goods down and rubbish up.
• The harbour quay - a sixteenth-century breakwater sheltering small boats.
• The whitewashed cottages - flower-hung houses along the descent.

When to go

April to October; the village runs a herring festival in November and a Christmas weekend. Weekday mornings are quietest. The cobbles are slippery in rain and genuinely dangerous in ice.

Before you go

There is a charge to enter what is a public-looking village street, which some visitors object to on principle. The descent is severe and the climb back worse; the Land Rover back up costs extra and queues. Cobbles are uneven and unsuitable for wheelchairs, prams or poor knees.

Nearby

Bideford and Westward Ho! lie east; Hartland Point and its lighthouse are west.

Key facts