Dartmoor is somewhere that’s been on my list to visit for years. A wild and rolling upland in Devon, Dartmoor is home to spectacular granite tors, herds of semi-wild ponies and miles and miles of fantastic walking opportunities. It’s even home to some of the last few pockets of rainforest in Britain. I was therefore so thrilled when Mill End Hotel got in touch to invite us to spend a few night in their luxury, dog friendly hotel on the banks of the river Teign, perfectly located for exploring everything that Dartmoor has to offer.
Mill End Hotel is a 4 star hotel close to the village of Chagford on Dartmoor. Set on the banks of the river, the hotel has 21 beautifully appointed rooms, ranging from twins to suites, several of which are dog friendly. It’s also home to a 2 AA rosette restaurant, serving a mouth watering menu of three course meals, cream teas and Sunday lunches – and we can now testify that the food really is excellent. You don’t even need your car once you’ve arrived, with footpaths from the front door taking you along the banks of the river Teign or directly onto the Castle Drogo estate.
When we set off on the drive down, it was a bit of a grey and drizzly day. Check-in wasn’t until 3pm, and arriving early we decided to take the dogs for a quick walk to burn off some energy after a longer car journey. We decided on a visit to Lydford Gorge, on the western edge of Dartmoor. I was just expecting a standard soggy stroll in the rain, but we were absolutely blown away by this short and relatively easy walk. Free to visit for National Trust members (admission fee for non-members), the gorge is home to one of Dartmoor’s pockets of temperate rainforest, and was surprisingly green even in mid-January. The real highlight of the walk was the White Lady waterfall, which was in full flow following the recent wet weather and which was ethereally beautiful.
Visiting the waterfall is either a short walk from the ‘waterfall entrance’ car park, or a slightly longer (but still fairly short) walk from the Devil’s Cauldron entrance. When we visited the trails from the Devil’s Cauldron were closed for winter maintenance, so we parked at the closer entrance and were at the waterfall in no time. You can either visit the waterfall via a short circular walk, or do a linear walk down and back up the hill if you want to avoid the steps.
Dogs need to be kept on leads, but ours really loved all the sniffs on this walk and it was nice and quiet (although that may in large part have been down to the fact it was raining and mid-week in January!). There were no stiles we needed to navigate and the dogs loved being able to get into the river for a paddle and a drink.
By this point it was time to check-in, so we made our way to the hotel where we were warmly welcomed by the lovely staff on reception who showed us to our room. We were staying in West Okement, a dog friendly junior suite which was absolutely stunning, and had an enormous bathroom to die for! Before taking the dogs to the room from the car, we made a stop off in the hotel’s handy boot room, which has towels you can use to dry your dog off after a wet and muddy walk (don’t worry, these towels are laundered separately to the human ones!).
After spending a few hours unwinding in our room (including two very lucky dogs who were allowed on the sofa, with the hotel thoughtfully providing a blanket to cover the cushions), we popped down for dinner. When we’d arrived we’d talked to the manager about Coal’s reactivity, and they were so understanding and welcoming to him. They reserved us a table in a little nook in the bar, and reassured us that no other tables with dogs would be seated within Coal’s eyesight. I can’t describe what a relief this was and how much more relaxing our meal was because of this – I’m sure all reactive dog owners will know what I mean though!
When the menus arrived, we were so torn about what to order – everything looked delicious! Eventually we managed to decide what we wanted, and were treated to some tasty parmesan biscuits and freshly baked bread while we waited for our food. To start, I had ham hock terrine and Sam had butternut squash soup (both super tasty), while for mains I had carver duck (my favourite!) and Sam had Devonshire pork. We enjoyed the food so much that we even went on to squeeze in puddings – creme brûlée for me and chocolate bon bons for Sam. While our first meal was complimentary as part of our stay, the food was so insanely good that we decided to eat in again the following day.
We practically ran downstairs to breakfast the next morning – we knew after the meal the preceding evening that we were in for a treat. There’s a help yourself buffet to browse, as well as a menu from the kitchen. Sam went for his usual full English, and I had my favourite Eggs Royal – poached eggs on a muffin, with smoked salmon and hollandaise sauce. Being so dog friendly, the dogs were also treated to a sausage each from the kitchen – they couldn’t believe their luck!
Appropriately fuelled for the day, we headed out to explore Dartmoor. This was our only day with a favourable weather forecast (the perils of travelling in January), so we decided that this would be the day to head up onto the moors to explore some of Dartmoor’s famous tors. Our first stop of the day was Haytor Rocks, one of Dartmoor’s most celebrated granite outcrops, easily reached on foot from the car park at the nearby National Park visitor. We got there early and had the tor pretty much to ourselves – well, apart from some local sheep knocking around!
After spending some time exploring the tor (and Sam attempting some (unsuccessful) bouldering), we jumped in the car to head over to nearby Hound Tor. While Sam liked Haytor Rocks best, Hound Tor was my favourite of the two: a fantastic sprawl of granite taking up a much larger area, with plenty of nooks and crannies to explore. If you carry on past the tor, you soon find a deserted medieval village – we sat here for a snack and had a think about what life must have been like on Dartmoor, hundreds of years ago.
From here we took a drive over to Okehampton to get some lunch and to pick up some bits and pieces which we’d inevitably forgotten to pack. Driving through Dartmoor was incredibly scenic, and to top it off we even came across a few herds of Dartmoor ponies. We stopped in one place to watch the ponies for a while: the ponies are semi-wild and should be left alone and observed from a safe distance (they are still very cute though).
When we got back to Mill End later that afternoon, we had a quick stroll through the grounds to stretch the dogs’ legs again after the drive. I couldn’t believe that daffodils were already starting to poke their heads up on the drive – it must be a lot milder generally in the south west than in Yorkshire! We’d again booked into the restaurant in the evening, this time opting to leave the dogs in the room to chill now that they’d settled a bit. You are welcome to leave your dog in your room while you eat at Mill End (as long as they’re not likely to get up to no good!), and we decided to let them snooze in there rather than coming down to the bar with us.
I’d been thinking all day about what I was going to order, and had thought I’d try the pork Sam had had the night before – but when the menus arrived, they had changed! I found this inordinately exciting, and proceeded to spend a very long time agonising over what I wanted (again). Ultimately I went for slow roasted pork belly to start and the BEST gnocchi I have ever had as a main (honestly not sure I can ever cook it again after tasting gnocchi like that), and Sam had the pork belly followed by Dartmoor beef sirloin. The food here is absolutely outstanding and I would strongly encourage you to book a meal here even if you’re not staying!
When breakfast rolled around again the next day, Sam came over to the dark side and had Eggs Royal too (as apparently mine had looked so tasty the day before). Unfortunately on this day the weather really wasn’t on our side, with heavy fog making everything practically invisible. Plan A had been to drive over to Bellever Forest and walk up to Bellever Tor, which seemed a bit pointless in dense fog, so we instead drove down to have a look at Postbridge Clapper Bridge.
Clapper bridges are a very old type of bridge constructed with large, flat slabs of stone (usually granite or schist) and mainly associated with the south west. Postbridge is one of the best examples of a clapper bridge, and it’s easily accessible via a short walk from the National Park car park at Postbridge. As well as visiting the bridge, there’s an information board in the car park with a few suggested walks you can do, ranging from short riverside strolls to a walk up to Bellever Tor.
Sam was entered into a 100 mile race the following day, so we decided against a longer walk, and instead drove down to the race registration to save getting up earlier the following day. But more to come about this in next week’s blog…
All too soon it was time for us to depart – we had an absolutely wonderful stay and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Mill End Hotel to anyone wanting to explore Dartmoor, looking for a special place for a trip away or wanting to celebrate a special occasion. We had a fantastic time and the only thing that was wrong with our visit was that it was too short!
Dog friendly rating – 5/5. I think this is hands down the most dog friendly hotel I’ve ever stayed in. From the boot room to the way the staff were so accommodating to Coal’s reactivity, everything had been thought of. The dogs were even treated to their own welcome packs with fancy Venison treats, a home baked Mill End biscuit, balls and some really handy little tags to attach to their collars with the hotel’s contact details. Being allowed to have the dogs on the sofa was a rare treat and something which they certainly appreciated too!
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