St Peter & St Paul

The moment you push open the heavy wooden door of St Peter & St Paul in Ermington, you're stepping into nearly 700 years of Devon parish life. This is proper village church territory - the sort of place where locals have christened their children, buried their dead, and sheltered from thunderstorms for generations.

The church sits quietly in its churchyard just outside Plymouth, and what strikes you first is how genuinely old the bones of it are. Medieval stonework, a tower that's watched over the village since the 14th century, and inside, the kind of light that only falls through ancient windows. You'll find brass memorials worn smooth by centuries of fingers, carved roof beams, and the sort of accumulated quietness that modern buildings simply can't manage.

It's genuinely free to visit and you can spend as little as twenty minutes having a look round, though if you're into medieval architecture or local history, you could easily lose an hour reading the plaques and soaking up the atmosphere. Families with fidgety kids might find it a bit static - there's not much to do beyond look and wonder - but history enthusiasts will find it rewarding.

If you're staying at Hidden Hill Devon's glamping sites nearby, this makes a lovely low-key morning walk. It's the sort of place that reminds you why people actually bothered building these structures in the first place - not for show, but because they genuinely mattered to the people who lived here.