Canonteign Falls

Canonteign Falls is a 90-acre waterfall and woodland attraction on the eastern edge of Dartmoor, built around the 70-metre Lady Exmouth Falls. You get far more than a view from a car park: the main route climbs through woodland, a Secret Garden and a Victorian fernery before reaching the top of the valley. Keep this one if you want a waterfall with a real walk attached to it, rather than a quick roadside stop. The full Waterfall Walk takes about an hour and is steep and rocky in places.

The climb starts beside the old sawmill site and passes Clampitt Falls before the big cascade appears through the trees. Then come the Secret Garden, Devil’s Leap, where the natural falls are, and 90 original Victorian steps into the fern garden. The restored fern collections have Plant Heritage National Collection status, and the garden itself was rediscovered after heavy snowfall in 2009. At the top, a viewing platform looks out across the Devon countryside. For a photo, keep some of the ferny ravine and trees around the falls rather than filling the frame with white water; the surrounding greenery gives the cascade its scale.

Lady Susan Exmouth had local miners redirect the leat that fed the estate’s sawmill and mines in the 1880s, creating the present waterfall when silver and tin mining was under threat. The route down leads to Lily Lake and the lower lakes, where the remains of the sawmill and waterwheel explain the estate’s industrial past. The Lily Lake loop is mostly flat and takes about 30 minutes; the Lower Lakes route takes about 40 minutes with gentle slopes. They’re good alternatives when the main climb is more effort than you want.

There’s a lakeside cafe serving breakfast, lunch, cream and afternoon teas, cakes and coffee, plus a shop and family play areas. Dogs are welcome on leads. The waterfall walk is not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs, and the 90 steps are only part of the steep, rocky route. Choose the Lily Lake or Lower Lakes walks instead if you need gentler ground. The cafe, shop and courtyard are mostly flat, with an accessible toilet; blue-badge parking is available, though the path to admissions slopes.