Buckland Abbey, this was an old Cistercian abbey prior to Henry VIII ripping them all apart. This one was spared and turned into a home by Sir Roger Grenville who lived here for a while before selling it to one Sir Francis Drake

We set off on the blue walk, which is shortened to allow a one way system and social distancing along with some work which is happening down by the bottom pond. This view is down towards the River Tamar, Drake would have moored down there allowing easy access to his boat and sail to London

Avenue of trees

The area is covered in large woodlands which some nice blue skies and white fluffy clouds above

This blue walk alongside the red leads you through some of the more substantial woodlands

The River Tavy is down below, this leads into the Tamar

Plenty of fields and views around this walk

We had a look in the Great Barn before we went in for cake and a drink. This was built by the monks to store and thresh grain and dates back to the 1200s

Buckland Abbey, a National trust property and a fine place to work and visit. The Great Hall inside still has the floor tiles which were in place when Sir Francis lived here, so if you visit, you will walk were he has.

The next day we headed to Castle Drogo, we are out on a short walk here to Sharp Tor

Dartmoor proper is just over that way, the Teign Gorge is below us

Castle Drogo peeps out of the trees on the right. The Castle itself is fenced off currently for some reason. It has been closed for years now to repair the roof and now it looks like they need to do some work around the castle. Drogo is the youngest castle in England

Hameldown is right at the back left with lots of other tors and hills to its right. Chagford village is on the right of the photo

Hunters Tor zoomed in. I was only using my phone on all these photos so they aren’t great. Kes Tor is the pimple sticking up in the distance

Sharp Tor and a full canopy of trees in the Teign Gorge

Teign Gorge looking in the direction of Hunters Tor

Now I got lucky with this one. This is a High Brown Fritillary, which is apparently the rarest butterfly in our lands. It has a decent stronghold still down on Dartmoor so I will keep an eye out for it.

This is Knightshayes and our 3rd National Trust property in 3 days, told you my card was getting a tanning

Not sure the folk of Knightshayes had this in mind when they built these banks, but after doing rolly pollies, both forwards and horizontally down the bank, all that is left is the slide, face first!!!

It was a fine race, which they adapted to have youngsters on their backs like a combination of horse racing and bank sliding. One pair even had a long stick and used it like a canoe. This is what happens when the cousins get together and probably my best memory of the week

Finally we headed to Paignton Zoo to see the animals

And some rather fine Lego models of the animals. Tens of thousands of bricks in this elephant

The tiger was stunning and huge. Hundreds of hours of work went into this which provided a bit extra alongside the animals and a well organised one way system and distancing effort. A good week but not quite as much of the banter, fun and play you get with meeting up with the family.