Perfect Weather for Picnics
I am writing this in an outdoor office in a heatwave. It is hot! Very hot for England. Perfect weather for a picnic, perhaps…
Pick a Perfect Place For a Picnic
The word picnic conjures sunny images of hot beaches, cool riversides, deep forests or green meadows where a tartan rug has been covered with wonderful things to eat accompanied by lashings of lemonade or something stronger. Luckily, the West Country peninsula is rich in such locations…
For many of us the idea of a picnic is a kind of nirvana - the ultimate reward for long weeks of hard work or months of wintry weather. A picnic is the antithesis of a hard slog. It is the opposite of humdrum. The reverse of the everyday and boring.
This, by the way, was a picnic I enjoyed with friends in Provence
Indeed, the picnic should be the high point of every good high day and holiday. But where to take that hampers and that picnic rug? First of all you need to find the right kind of location…
Tarr Steps on Exmoor offers an ideal example - it was named the best picnic spot in the whole of the UK by the Sunday Times.
Tarr Steps
The beauty spot worn the accolade even though its most famous feature is said to have been the work of the Devil! Legend has it that the Evil One “has exclusive sunbathing rights on the medieval clapper bridge.” Exmoor attracts over two million day visits a year, and many of those tourists find their way down into the depths of the Barle Valley to see the ancient bridge.
But allowed Tarr Steps to win? What are what are the essential ingredients for a perfect picnic spot, rather than for the actual picnic itself?
Tarr Steps walk
Superb scenery: The most important requirement of them all - who wants to suffer the discomfort of eating al-fresco just so they can be confronted by something ugly? Tarr Steps is in the middle of beautiful Exmoor National Park,
Natural shelter: The second most important factor when looking for the perfect picnic-spot. Even a summer day can have a chill breeze or a spot of rain - so the outdoor diner needs something big and bold to loom nearby that will help keep out the wind and rain. Tarr Steps for example has deep woods the the protection of the 1000 foot high Hawkridge Common just to the west.
Potential comfort: a picnicking point all too often overlooked (think: pebble beaches). Do you eat dinner standing up at home? Of course not - and eating outdoors should be no different. Hard surfaces (such as Dartmoor tors) will do, as long as they’re smooth - but jaggedness is a big no-no. Tarr Steps has large natural riverside lawns.
Something to stare at: Not just the scenery - something specific and full of interest. Tarr Steps has the rushing River Barle, for a start and the famous bridge itself. You can happily watch for hours as tourists negotiate these stones teetering perilously above the rushing river.
Plenty for the kids to do: see above. Dining anywhere is so much more relaxing if miniature humans filled with boundless energy are occupied. At Tarr Steps they love nothing better than to play on the aforementioned bridge.
Availability of a Plan B: Good picnic spots can become crowded, which means the very best ones should have a nearby alternative which is just as perfect, if not better. Tarr Steps has just that - a waterside meadow just upstream between Knaplock Wood and Westwater Copse.
Lane to the west of Tarr Stepps
So much for the perfect picnic requirements - what about the West Country’s most perfect picnic locations? We’ve mentioned Tarr Steps, so leaving that aside, here’s the our Top Half Dozen...
Porthgwarra beach
Porthgwarra, West Penwith: An idyllic hidden location with the very best Five Go Mad in Cornwall kind of credentials. Fabulous oceanic scenery, sheltered by Gwennap Head, just a mile Land’s End. Let the children play in the hand-carved tunnels which may, or may not, have been built by smugglers. You can always head next door to Porthcurno for a Plan B.
Porthgwarra
Fernworthy Reservoir, Dartmoor: Wilderness, woodland and water - what’s not to like? Fernworthy, above Chagford, is located up in the Dartmoor wilderness, and yet its big pine forest will give picnickers plenty of shelter. There are extensive picnic facilities where you can watch folk coming and going around the many walks, which the kids will enjoy exploring. A good Plan B would be to go to neighbouring Bellever Forest, picnic there and admire a young River Dart.
Staple Plain on the Quantocks: More moorland mixed with forest and fabulous views. Picnic tables have been installed at the edge of Staple Plantation and are sheltered from the prevailing winds by trees. Deep, almost gorge-like, Weacombe offers a natural adventure playground for kids while adults can sit back and enjoy views of the hills so beloved by poets Coleridge and Wordsworth. Plan B would be to relocate to neighbouring Holford Glen which is even more sheltered from the winds and even more epic in a poetic kind of way…
Parson Hawker’s Hut, Morwenstow, North Cornish Coast: Said to be the smallest property owned by the National Trust. You are free to enter the small hut perched on top of a mighty cliff above The Wreckers’ Coast, which means picnickers can keep cosy when the wind is blowing - which it often is along this jagged Atlantic littoral. The maritime views, which would have been enjoyed by old Parson Hawker, are as fabulous as the story of his life is interesting. He did a great deal to halt to the shipwrecking which went on along here 100s of years ago and founded the first rescue teams (who used rockets to send ropes to stricken ships) which eventually gave rise to the RNLI. So history and views… and a Plan B alternative for good weather in the many beach picnic spots far below.
View looking down over the roof of Hawker’s Hut
Golden Cap, West Dorset: Sometimes only the biggest and best will do - and up here you can say you’ve dined higher-off-the-hog than anyone else along England’s entire South Coast. It is, after all, a huge hog’s back of a hill - and as such offers stupendous panoramas of the Devon and Dorset coasts. Golden Cap is steep-sided - so one flank or other will offer shelter from the weather - and if not there’s always neighbouring Langdon Hill Plantation. The vast views alone will keep you busy just looking at what you can spy - but a Plan B would be to go down to neighbouring Charmouth and picnic on the beach while hunting for fossils.
Golden Cap looms high over the Dorset coast
Valley Of Rocks, Lynton: Pure natural drama - described by one Romantic Poet as the “Realm of the Pre-Adamite Kings”. There are plenty of grassy swards for picnics as well as the airier thrill of rocky knolls - and the bulk of Castle Rock is always there to offer shelter. The wild goats provide visual amusement and there might be a match being played on Britain’s most dramatically situated cricket pitch. Plan B is cosy neighbouring Lee Bay beach, or Lynmouth itself with its seaside lawns and funicular railway.
