Stargaze in Exmoor National Park, Europe's first International Dark Sky Reserve, designated in 2011

Climb Dunkery Beacon (519m), the highest point on Exmoor and in Somerset

Look for the semi-wild Exmoor ponies on the open moor

In 2011 Exmoor became Europe's first International Dark Sky Reserve. Dunkery Beacon, 519m, is the highest point on Exmoor and in Somerset, with views over the moor and the Bristol Channel, Bronze Age cairns on the hill and a summit cairn marking its gift to the National Trust. Semi-wild Exmoor ponies graze the open moor.

Exmoor: Dunkery Beacon and Europe's First Dark Sky Reserve

Exmoor

From the South Hams to Exmoor: Dartmouth Castle and Burgh Island's sea tractor, the high moor and stone rows of Dartmoor, the surf beaches of north Devon, then Lynmouth's water-powered railway and Dunkery Beacon.

Devon: Dartmoor, the South Hams and Exmoor

Drive Porlock Hill, or take the toll road if your vehicle is heavy

Stop at the top and look back down over the Bristol Channel

Carry on west along the A39 over Exmoor towards Lynmouth

The A39 runs from Bath right down the north coast of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, and through Cornwall and North Devon it is called the Atlantic Highway. Porlock Hill, immediately west of Porlock, is the steepest A-road in the UK: a climb onto Exmoor with gradients approaching 1 in 4 and hairpin bends. A gentler toll road, never steeper than 1 in 14, runs alongside it and takes motorhomes; for anything heavy or long it is the sensible choice.

Porlock Hill: The Steepest A-Road in the UK

Ride the water-powered cliff railway between Lynton and Lynmouth

Walk the coast path into the Valley of Rocks and look for the goats

The Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway has joined the two towns since Easter Monday 1890, worked entirely by water: the top car fills its tank, becomes heavier and hauls the bottom car up as it descends. West of Lynton the Valley of Rocks is a dry valley of jagged tors above the sea with feral goats on the crags, and the two rivers meet at Lynmouth where the 1952 flood came down.

Lynton and Lynmouth: The Water-Powered Cliff Railway and the Valley of Rocks

Walk the coast from Ogmore-by-Sea to Nash Point on the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, over cliffs of Lias limestone rich in fossils

See Nash Point Lighthouse, built in 1831–1832 by James Walker, 37m tall and the last staffed lighthouse in Wales until it was automated in 1998, and look for choughs in the meadow

See St Donat's Castle, begun in the 12th century, bought by William Randolph Hearst in 1925 and home since 1962 to Atlantic College, the first United World College

The Glamorgan Heritage Coast runs along cliffs of Lias limestone, layered and full of fossils. Nash Point lighthouse, built by James Walker in 1831–32 and 37m tall, was the last staffed lighthouse in Wales until it was automated in 1998, and choughs feed in the meadow around it. Along the coast, St Donat's Castle, begun in the 12th century, has been lived in since at least the late 13th; William Randolph Hearst bought it in 1925, and since 1962 it has been home to Atlantic College, the first United World College.

Nash Point and St Donat's: The Glamorgan Heritage Coast

Tour the Gothic Revival interiors at Knightshayes Court, with Burges's restored ceilings and furniture

Walk the walled kitchen garden and terraces at Knightshayes

Ride or walk beside the horse-drawn barge on the Grand Western Canal

Walk the canal towpath out of Tiverton towards Halberton

Knightshayes Court above Tiverton is a Victorian Gothic house by William Burges, built for the lace-making Heathcoat-Amory family, with a walled kitchen garden and terraces looking over the Exe valley. In the town, the surviving arm of the Grand Western Canal is now a country park where a horse-drawn barge still works the water.

Tiverton: Knightshayes and the Grand Western Canal

Cycle the Tarka Trail along the estuary from Barnstaple

Walk through the Pannier Market in Barnstaple

The Tarka Trail follows the journeys of Henry Williamson's otter in a figure of eight of 180 miles centred on Barnstaple, established in 1987; its traffic-free section runs on a disused railway along the Taw and the Torridge and forms part of the Devon Coast to Coast route from Ilfracombe to Plymouth. Braunton Burrows, at the mouth of the estuary, is the core of the North Devon UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

Barnstaple and the Tarka Trail: Flat Miles Along Two Estuaries

Stand under Verity at the end of the pier

Walk through the hand-cut tunnels to the tidal bathing pools

Climb Lantern Hill to St Nicholas's Chapel of 1361

Walk round the harbour and out to Hillsborough

Damien Hirst's statue Verity stands at the end of Ilfracombe's pier, a pregnant woman holding a sword aloft with her skin stripped away on one side; Hirst has lived and worked in the town. Above the harbour, St Nicholas's Chapel on Lantern Hill was built in 1361, has shown a light to ships since at least the 17th century, and is said to be Britain's oldest working lighthouse. In the 1820s Welsh miners hand-carved four tunnels through the cliff to reach a pair of tidal bathing pools, used for segregated bathing in keeping with Victorian morals.

Ilfracombe: Verity, the Tunnels Beaches and the Harbour

Visit Jamaica Inn at Bolventor on Bodmin Moor, the 18th-century coaching inn that inspired Daphne du Maurier's novel of 1936, and its smugglers' museum

Walk up Brown Willy, at 420 metres the highest point in Cornwall, or its neighbour Rough Tor

Jamaica Inn stands alone on the Bodmin Moor road at Bolventor, an 18th-century coaching inn on the route the contraband travelled inland from the coast, and Daphne du Maurier used it for the novel after being lost on the moor in fog. The moor around it holds Dozmary Pool, where one story says Excalibur went back into the water.

Jamaica Inn and Bodmin Moor: The Smugglers' Road

Find the Holy Thorn in the churchyard of St John the Baptist on the High Street, the tree that flowers at Christmas and again in spring

At Glastonbury Abbey, find the marked site of Arthur and Guinevere's tomb before the high altar, where the bones the monks claimed to have found in 1191 were reburied in 1278

Climb Glastonbury Tor, 158 metres, to the roofless tower of St Michael's Church and look out over the Somerset Levels

Drink from the Chalice Well, the Red Spring, in its gardens below the Tor

Glastonbury Tor is a conical hill of clay and Blue Lias, capped with hard sandstone, rising to 158 metres out of the Somerset Levels, with the roofless tower of St Michael's Church on top. Its Welsh name was Ynys Wydrin, the Isle of Glass, and the monks of the abbey below made it Avalon: destroyed by fire in 1184 and rebuilding slowly as pilgrims fell away, the abbey announced in 1191 that it had found the tomb of Arthur and Guinevere in its cemetery. The last abbot, Richard Whiting, was hanged, drawn and quartered on the Tor in 1539. The Glastonbury thorn flowers twice a year, in winter and in spring, and a flowering sprig is sent to the monarch every Christmas; and at the foot of Chalice Hill the Chalice Well, the Red Spring, has been in almost constant use for at least two thousand years.