Long Barrow Windmill

England`s self-styled "Riviera", with it`s palm trees, golden sands and cobalt blue seas, is only 3mls from LONG BARROW WINDMILL. You can enjoy the peace and privacy of its lonely hilltop setting in the middle of a 5 acre field and still be enjoying a pina colada in the shade of a palm tree on a Torbay beach before breakfast.

The mill was constructed in the early days of the 19th Century when Britain was once more at war with France and there were plenty of french prisoners-of-war detained in nearby Dartmoor Prison. It is rumoured that having volunteered to build a bleak extension to the prison in forbidding granite the prisoners were anxious to make their mark with something a little more french and a little more uplifting - what better than a "Moulin Rouge" using the local red sandstone. With fitting english modesty the mill now has a creamy lime coat to cover the naked red stone and perhaps also to shed any Riviera showers!

The forty five foot tower looking a little less saucy in its lime-render has four floors including the "pièce de resistance", an OBSERVATORY with a 360 degree view over the rolling, rich, red fields of the SOUTH HAMS. The conversion completed in 2001, with its round rooms, victorian iron bed and cosy lounge/dining/kitchen area, was designed more with honeymooners than families in mind, but for those who couldn't wait, there is a folding bed in the living room suitable for children old enough to negotiate the tricky stairs up to the "MILLER`S EYE" at the top of the tower.

This makes a perfect explorer`s base camp - hedonists will head for Torquay and greens for Totnes, the rest can Can-Can around the "Millers Eye" or watch foxes, badgers and deer gambolling in the hedgerows below.