CHUDLEIGH ROCK

At the weekend, we went to Chudleigh to see the rediscovered gardens of The Rock and to meet my sister over a Devon cream tea.  The Rock itself, is a former limestone quarry, known to local rock-climbing enthusiasts, but otherwise abandoned for many years.  It has now reopened as a garden, but, strictly speaking, it is a rather overgrown wilderness and, typical Devon, the cafe was closed (despite us ringing in advance to make sure we could get tea - 'Oh, sorry, I descided not to open it after all') and we were given a map of the site, 'which is not very good I'm afraid, but you shouldn't get lost . . .'.

Anyway, it was a nice time to visit, since these were out everywhere. Cyclamen?

 And this is a rare ginko tree.

  

This is the rock face from underneath a waterfall.

 

The feature of the flora here generally though was that it had matured freely into a sort of jungle or rainforest.

 

And there were strange stuctures in the clearings that weren't mentioned in the guidebook, which might have been house remains or druidic circles.  Who knew? 

 

But the point about a limestone quarry is that it weathers into crevasses and caves with grotesque eroded and leached rock formations.  This is the entrance to one of the caves.

These are some rock formations from deep inside the caverns.

 

Then we went into the village for a cream tea.