Here is a chance to leave the car behind and penetrate deep into the South Devon countryside with only the birds for company. Valerie Belsey has gathered together 50 walks which take you through wooded slopes, high heathland, river valleys, sheltered coves,



exposed headlands and rolling grassland.



She looks at the history of these routes, and the stories that surround them; the smugglers ways in from the coast, the mine workers who had to walk a long way to their quarries, the lace makers who trudged through the lanes bringing lace to Honiton and the



drovers moving their animals from one farm to the next.



Featured on the walks are castles and ancient monuments, and lively historical heroes such as Thomas Wakley, founder of The Lancet, Cavaliers fleeing from Roundheads, a poet seeking an Ancient Mariner and some tanners still working in a small town based industry.



These 50 lanes readily complement those already explored in Exploring Green Lanes in the South Hams and lead the walker forth once again into the elabyrinth of brambly burrow lanesi (with only a bus ticket to protect you!)