Fingle Glen Hotel Exeter

More of a "Well Beaten" path tip

by johngayton

For those of you who have visited me elsewhere on this site it may come as no surprise to find out that I do enjoy a good walk. For those of you who haven't visited me elsewhere.......do so now...........I MEAN NOW!!........'cos if you don't I'm not going to continue with this tip.

OK, now that you've got an idea of where I'm coming from, I'll continue.....a good walk always involves a destination, and strangely enough the destination, for me, invariably involves a pub or restaurant and this walk is no different. The destination in this case is the Double Locks Hotel, a pub that does quite reasonable food and absolutely excellent beer.

If you go down to the river from the city centre there are various bridges which will take you across river to the Exeter Canal, along which are the old towpaths (from the days before the infernal combusting engine when horses did all the towing of the barges). Follow the path (either side of the canal) and about a mile ( a proper DEVON MILE!) out of the city there is a pair of canal locks and the aforementioned pub. This is one of my favourite walks, it usually takes me about 30 mins to get there and sometimes several hours to get back, but I have yet to fall into the canal - oh! dear! that's tempting fate!!

If this piques your curiosity have a look at the travelogue.

Phoenix From The Flames

by Meadows11

I saw a gig back in 2002 at a venue in Exeter called the Phoenix (can't help but be reminded of Pheonix Nights) and it was a great venue. It was relatively small and something of a go between of a large purpose built venue and a pub gig venue. We were able to get very close to the band (Mad Caddies) and were able to enjoy a very good night with a well run venue.

One Of My Favourite Riverside Beer Gardens

by johngayton

The Exe River and Canal offer great walks and cycles and there's plenty of watering holes along the routes. Some of these are characterless large company places but there's still plenty of interesting little privately run pubs too.

One that's often overlooked is the Royal Oak in St Thomas. This is a cracking little pub with friendly owners, staff and locals. The beer is always good, and reasonably-priced, and the beer garden is on the riverside just down from the main Exe Bridge leading from the city centre.

This is an ideal spot to get away from it all and enjoy a bit of local colour.

The Double Locks

by johngayton

"Start Point"

This is where I started from for my last visit to the Double Locks: Exeter Quay on the south side of the river. The rather attractive woman taking the photo is not me, she was in frame and far too pretty to be edited out........digressing already.........must stop doing this....but she is .......she is!

Back to subject: This travelogue IS about the walk from Exeter city centre to the Double Locks Hotel and there will be no more digressions, just a nice simple, factual, informative log.

If you enjoy a decent pint of beer and don't mind having to travel a little way for it then a visit to the Double Locks Hotel on the Exeter Canal is a MUST. Not only is the pub worth visiting in its own right but the walk along the canal is exactly the sort of walk that I like - no hills, not too far AND a pub at the end.

From the city centre just follow the signs for the quay and cross this bridge. Also, during the day there is a little ferry, called The Butts Ferry, which will take you across the river for the princely sum of 20p. I am, of course, far too mean to spend 20p when I can walk a couple of hundred yards upstream and cross the bridge for nothing!

Not only is there a pub at the end of the walk but there is also The Welcome Inn en route. The Welcome is only open from 12-2 and 7-11 and so is best for a rest stop on the way back........but more about The Welcome at a later date.

(Digressing again, but I've purposely categorised this pub under "people" because it is the landlady who makes this a really interesting place to visit............but anon.)

This is the south side of the canal but still within the quay area but a few minutes walk takes you onto the canal proper, where there are often excellent opportunities for birdwatching.

I must have the camera shakes big time 'cos I'm sure this pic was of a soaring heron which had just plucked a fish, swooping elegantly, barely rippling the surface as it arose with the gleaming silvery titbit it had chosen for its lunch, still wriggling, as in mid-flight it tossed it nonchelantly into the azure sky before recapturing it and with a wholesome swallow its repast is sorted............and what I got was this pic! Such is life.........at a later date I must tell you about ERIC, the heron who used to pop in for breakfast at Two Bridges, very fussy heron......salmon or prawns.....ach here I go digressing again......must,must stop.

Life is all about digression, but here I am on the canal and this is the view in front of me, perfect, "summertime and the living is easy" and I know that my reward for the walk awaits.

As I've said in one of my other Devon pages, this is to me one of the most beautiful counties in England, within the same county we have moorlands, beaches, hills, rivers, starkness, busyness, joy and sadness, all the emotive things that make life worth living.......... aye, I know...........another digression.

Let's carry on with the walk, after all I'm developing a bit of a thirst and I've still got a good 15 mins yet before I arrive at the pub.

Now I'm in sight of the pub with the locks ahead against a verdantly typical Devon backdrop.

A brief piece of info: the Double Locks is so called because they can take two boats at a time, thinking about it all locks tend to come in pairs anyway - before I started writing this I'd always thought it was called the double locks because there are two of them........Doh!

And finally here we are, sorry for the digressions.

This is the Double Locks Hotel, its not really an hotel, but it is an excellent pub - I'll have to put some more info on a tip page 'cos I'm running (breathlessly) out of space here.

A really good link, provided it works, for Exeter pubs is Exeter thro the bottom of a beer glass

If this doesn't work just google "double locks exeter" and click on "Exeter thro the bottom of a beer glass" this is a really good site.

And now the bar, it's a summer Tuesday evening, perfect light for this photo (it was hit or miss in reality - but that's the great thing about digital cameras, I can just fire off shots, change settings, try again and see what the pics are like when I download them - this is my new toy!).

If you enlarge the photo you'll see that the beer barrels are stilled behind the bar, beer straight from the barrel, oh joy! oh bliss!

I've run out of space now but this will be continued elsewhere. Perhaps I'll do a log on the way back..............splash!!! ..........Once the camera dries out anyway, glug,glug!