Blowing House

The ruins of an old tin smelting works sit tucked away near Exeter, barely visible unless you know where to look. What you get is essentially the skeleton of a building where tin ore was once processed - stone walls, a leat (that's the water channel that powered the operation), and the sort of industrial archaeology that speaks volumes if you're into that sort of thing.

This is proper Devon mining history. The Blowing House worked its way through the medieval period and into the industrial era, and what remains tells the story of how ordinary people extracted and refined metal from this landscape. You're not going to spend hours here - a good thirty minutes gives you the bones of it - but it's the kind of place that rewards actually turning up and standing in the space rather than reading about it online.

Walkers will find it worthwhile as part of a larger ramble through the area, and local history enthusiasts will appreciate the tangible connection to Devon's industrial past. Younger kids might find it a bit abstract - there's no interactive visitor centre, just the weathered stones themselves.

Combine it with a longer stay at Woodland Springs Touring Park four miles away, or push further onto Dartmoor National Park for proper hiking. The landscape around here is genuinely lovely once you get away from the main road, rolling and green and full of these little historical fragments that make Devon worth exploring properly.