Ideford Common

The approach to Ideford Common, a few miles south of Newton Abbot, is deceptively ordinary until you arrive and realise you've stepped into something genuinely wild. This isn't a manicured country estate or a managed beauty spot - it's proper heathland that feels like it belongs to no one and everyone at once.

What you get here is space. Open moorland rolls across the landscape with scattered gorse and heather, the kind of terrain that makes Devon's inland character feel properly remote. Paths crisscross the common, some well-trodden, others barely visible. It's the sort of place where you can walk for an hour and see maybe two other people, which is precisely why it works.

Walkers will find the most value here - this isn't a tourist attraction with viewpoints and interpretive boards, it's a genuine working common where locals and visitors alike come for unstructured rambling. You can spend twenty minutes or three hours depending on mood. Families with energetic kids will get mileage from it, though there's nothing to "do" in the theme-park sense. If your holiday park is Lady's Mile, Cofton Holidays, or any of the half-dozen spots within five miles, Ideford Common makes an excellent morning or afternoon detour.

Access appears to be entirely free and unrestricted - it's common land, after all. Best visited on a clear day when you can actually see the landscape rather than walking through cloud. Early morning or late afternoon beats midday.