Another “maintainance” trip down to Brixham earlier this year – this time in June – and it’s always to see surprising how quickly the garden has (over!) grown in what has been an alternatively warm and then damp spring and summer so far
We also appeared to have had a young family move in upstairs…
We’re pretty confident they are on a short term let though, and will be moving on just as soon as their young ones “fly the nest” !
As always, Brixham was pretty spectacular when we managed to get out and about between trips to B&Q and Hammer & Nails.
We also managed to try the newly refurbished Smugglers Inn restaurant, which has this rather impressive steak grill actually in the dining room – taking open-plan kitchens to a whole other level.
Their steaks may not be the cheapest in town, but in our opinion are absolutely worth it – if you do ever fancy a change from fish for an evening during your stay.
..is when we aim to spend a week in Brixham tidying everything up for the coming Spring/Summer season and ticking off those little maintainance tasks that always seem to be needed with a historic property that is also very close to the sea.
This year was no exception, and we were also fortunate enough to be blessed with some great weather in and around the bay.
Our trip wasn’t all DIY – we did manage to get out and about, and here are some of the photos we took during our stay.
We hope the weather on your holiday is as good as it was in our week of cleaning and DIY !
In between Brixham and Kingswear as you go along the South Coast Path is a 25m high tower called The Daymark.
Built in 1864 as a landmark for shipping, it sits in the middle of a farmers field, but is (of course!) visible from miles around, especially if you get the ferry from Brixham to Dartmouth.
This New Year’s we made a trip to see it a little closer up – not by walking the 8 miles from Brixham on the Coastal Path but by driving to the car park at Brownstone (just follow the signs for Coleton Fishacre National Trust property from the Brixham-Kingswear road).
The Daymark is quite a thing once you get close up, as you can see here – but walk a little further and you get to the Brownstone Battery and Coastal watch position, and some stunning coastal views.
You are also by this point rather close to Kingswear and Dartmouth, which is where we went for a really nice pub lunch at the Steam Packet pub as well
We spent New Year down in Brixham at the end of 2024, and were blessed with some stunningly clear weather during our stay.
This inevitably resulted in a whole slew of photos of “the Bay” taken from our top bedroom balcony and also from along North View Road as we meandered back from the pub/restaurant/Breakwater walk.
Another trip down to Brixham, just before Storm Darragh arrived! Thankfully the weather was pretty decent for our own out-of-season short break, and we managed to get out and about around Torbay as well this time.
Here’s a few photos from our trip to show how great Brixham and the bay looks even for a Winter break – there are even some shots of the Christmas Lights in town!
Any trip to Brixham wouldn’t be complete without a full English or two, and these are a couple of our favourites:
This is from The Guardhouse Cafe on Berry Head – you need to be mindful that they stop serving breakfast around 1130, and then have a 30 minute hiatus with no food service to swap over to the lunchtime ment… which does also include their legendary doorstep sandwiches, so even if you are a bit late for breakfast, thre is still an opportunity to get your daily fix of bacon that way too!
The Dilly Dally Tea room is now under new ownership as of Xmas 2024, but we’re hoping the new owners manage to carry on with breakfasts as good as this one, which we managed to get in just before the previous owners closed up shop at the start of December.
A very bold robin who we encountered on the South Coast Path walking round from Brixham to Fishcombe Cve and on to Broadsands.
This was the view of the harbour just before Storm Darragh hit the South West – we’ve never seen so many boats in harbour all at the same time!
As well as hhaving our own break, the other reason (or “excuse!”) for going to Brixham in December is of course to unpack and set up the Christmas Tree and decorations for our guests over the festive period.
We’ve just discovered that there are (of course !!) a load of videos on YouTube which show off the best bits of Brixham and the surrounding area – so why not share a few of them here?!
Looking carefully at this video, we thinn Mr “Atomic Shrimp” must have been staying somewhere on the other side of North View Road – so while the view is very close to the one from the Captain’s Cottage, we’re still confident ours is even better !
This is one of our favourite walks – OK, maybe the first 1/3rd of it is from Berry Head round to Sharkham Point anyway, as after that we tend to head back into town to find ourselves a pub!
This one shows the town ( from 2023) and you can catch a couple of glimpses of The Captain’s Cottage in the background too.
We love the walk along the coast towards Paignton – Churston and Fishcombe Coves are truly stunning (even when the sun isn’t shining quite as brightly as in this video!), and are a great place to spot the occasional seal or two mooching around in the water watching the walkers amble by!
This summer in our annual trip to Brixham we managed to do something rather different – takea trip around the Fish Market.
The tours are arranged monthly during the summer, with the entry fees going to the Fishermens Benevolent Fund – a very worthy cause. You do also get breakfast at Rockfish too, which is rather welcome after a 6am start and a couple of hours standing in a very big fridge spent learning about how the beating heart of Brixham actually works!
We also of course managed to take advantage of the great weather, great food, and great views as well !
This year we managed to squeeze in a week at the very end of August down in Brixham, and in the process discovered a few more local attractions.
For starters, did you know there’s a (rather excellent) vinyard within a few minutes drive (or a rather longer walk) of Brixham? Neither did we, but having discovered Sandridge Barton and their wine tasting tours we’re sure we’ll be going back !
They’ve also got a fabulour-looking restaurant onsite too, which we didn’t manage to visit – so there’s a lunch date in the countryside in our calendar for next time we are here as well.
We of course also did the walk along the Coast Path to Broadsands and onto Goodrington – it goes without saying that Fishcombe and Churston coves were lovely as ever this summer, and that we saw a few seals along the way too.
Later in the week we took a ferry across to Paignton harbour, and then completed the walk round to Torquay.
Paignton Harbour is a bit of a hidden gem around these parts, with a scenic (and very tidal) boat-filled harbour surrounded by a lot of really nice pubs and restaurants, so when the Brixham-Paignton-Torbay ferry is running (on its round-robin route – we suggest calling them to check which time it leave Brixham as their website is a bit confusing!) it’s very much worth the trip, and doubly so as it makes the walk to Torquay a lot shorter when you start in Paignton!
This section of the coast walk is much better in terms of being a hard-standing “path”, but as it snakes under, over and around the Dartmouth Steam Railway track it doesn’t skimp on the “ups and downs” – the result being a whole series of stunning views across Torbay.
We were also lucky enough to be crossing a bridge over the railway tracks when a steam train came past underneath!
And, of course, we had a few evenings out in Brixham’s many pubs and restaurants too!
We hope you’ll be able to enjoy some of these stunning views, and take some even better photos of your own when you next come to visit us down in Brixham!
We’ve been getting some great feedback about the Captains Cottage from our guests this year. If you flick through theguestbook in our lounge you’ll also be able to pick up some handy tips about places to visit around Brixham, and the best restaurants to try too!
A couple of the recent reviews stood out though, firstly this one which was sent to Luxury Coastal, our booking agent :
“We would like to personally thank Luxury Cottages and the owners of the Captains Cottage for a truly lovely stay at the property. The interior and setting were amazing. And the updates and instructions provided by the company and owners were really useful. Thank you also for complimentary wine and treats on arrival“
We’re already pretty much full all through this summer, but there’s still availabillity for short breaks later in the year, so why not have a look at availability on Luxury Coastal’s site and see when you might be able to visit us down in Brixham this autumn too?
We always like to take advantage of at least one week in the summer to stay in Brixham ourselves, and 2022 was no different.
As well as all of our favourite haunts, this time we explored the area a little more, and found a couple of local gems to recommend visiting s part of your trip.
First up was Greenway – Agatha Christie’s summer residence on the banks of the Dart. It’s a lot more than “a house” – practically a stately home, and all preserved in the exact state it was in when she passed away complete with all of her writing materials, notes and the fax machine she sent manuscripts to her publisher on – the life of one of the world’s most famous authors preserved in aspic.
The house itself would be worth a visit even if it wasn’t for the Agatha Christie connections, and also has a huge amount of beautifully landscaped gardens to explore too – so next time you see that “Greenway” brown sign on the way into Brixham just before the railway, you now know what it is for!
Man Sands Beach was our other great find – a lovely secluded and sandy cove that you can find down a (steep and unpaved) turnoff on the road from Higher Brixham to Kingswear
Definately one to go back to with a picnic, bathers and beach towels next year!
Of course, we also spent plenty of time around Brixham, and took a few photos along the way too..
And, of course, we took full advantage of the view of Brixham Harbour from our balcony every time we could!
