Ivybridge

Ivybridge sits at the southern extremity of Dartmoor, about thirteen miles east of Plymouth. The River Erme runs through the town, and the ground around it mixes river valleys, farmland and dense woodland, so a cottage here puts you on the moor’s edge without leaving the A38 corridor to Plymouth far behind.

Walkers use the town as a starting point rather than a stopover. The Two Moors Way begins in Ivybridge and runs all the way to Lynmouth on the north Devon coast, crossing both Dartmoor and Exmoor on the way. Shorter routes run from the town too, including a path up to Redlake and another through Longtimber Woods along the Erme. Western Beacon, the hill overlooking the town, rises to 1,076 feet and is a shorter climb for an afternoon rather than a full day’s walk.

The town itself grew up around the river. Its name comes from a small 13th-century hump-backed bridge, the Ivy Bridge, and the Erme once powered three mills; the Stowford Paper Mill, which closed in 2013, was the last of them and shaped the local economy for generations. A railway viaduct built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1848 still carries the line over the valley.

With a population of close to 11,850 at the last census, Ivybridge is a working town rather than a single-street village, with its own shops and a station reopened in 1994 on the line to Exeter. The A38 gives quick access into Plymouth for anyone splitting a stay between moor and coast.