SU CARROLL rounds up the very best activities to do and things to see close to the coastline this month
1 FREE FOR ALL
Dartmouth Food Festival has everything you’d want - an exciting mix of local artisanal food and drink stalls, chef demonstrations, wine seminars, product tastings, book talks and lively food debates. And best of all, most of it is free.
The beautiful Royal Avenue Gardens are at the heart of the festival, and home to street food vendors offering everything from dim sum and bao buns to vegan mac’n’cheese and gut healthy bowl food. Over 80 additional stalls then spill out down the picturesque Embankment and up into the Old Market Square. Here you’ll find an abundance of locally-produced, high quality ingredients including awardwinning cheeses, hand-made preserves, delicious breads, amazing wild game and artisan coffee.
The festival, from October 20-22, welcomes many special guests, from internationally renowned chefs to celebrated writers and critics. This year the line-up includes Dartmouth restaurateur and festival advocate Mitch Tonks (pictured), Matt Tebbutt, Mark Hix and Jane Baxter alongside local chefs.
The Food Matters programme will cover topics such as regenerative farming, eating for the planet and how aquaculture may help solve our food supply issues. The Festival is keen to promote sustainability and reduce food waste and on the Monday following the festival, a few local chefs and volunteers will produce a fabulous array of dishes using all the leftover food that would otherwise be thrown away. This is a free lunch and open to anyone who wants to attend. Go to dartmouthfoodfestival.com.
Since 1864 sailors heading for safe harbour in Dartmouth have been cheered by the sight of the Daymark, an 80ft tall Grade II listed tower. The unusual octagonal structure is visible from miles around and helped mariners find the entrance to the harbour which was considered difficult to locate. It can be accessed by foot from Froward Point or a short walk from the National Trust’s Brownstone Car Park. visitsouthdevon.co.uk
2 FERRY TALES
2Take the ferry across the Solent for the Isle of Wight Literary Festival – packed with speakers on history, crime, nature, fiction and topical issues. This year is rich with journalists including veteran journalist and former MP Chris Mullin, 2 BBC journalists past and present Justin Webb, Martin Sixsmith and Rory Cellan-Jones, and Sky’s Martin Brunt. Also appearing are actress Maureen Lipman and War Horse author Michael Morpurgo. The main venue is the Grade II-listed Northwood House (pictured).
Part of the festival, which runs from October 5-8, is the Isle of Wight Book Awards, now in its second year. There are three categories with the awards’ founder Hunter Davies once again judging the non-fiction books; Alan Titchmarsh, the festival’s vice patron, resumi
