The Cary Arms, Torquay

This is primarily a small hotel named after a locally prominent family of land owners and is now owned by the de Savary group but it has a dedicated public bar which is open to non-residents and operates as a free house. The hotel is located at the bottom of a very steep road which has no pavement, but there is a rather muddy and rocky footpath that meanders through the wooded area by the side of the road. The building is larger than the road side narrow frontage suggests, through the entrance is a small seating area with a stone floor, a couple of wood settles and a reception desk on the right, on one wall was a framed copy of a complimentary letter from Winston Churchill thanking the owners for their hospitality. Through a narrow archway and down a step at the back of this area is the small public bar which has a rustic stone counter with rough cut timber bar top along the front half of the right wall, a large fire place with a nice cast iron log burning stove in the back half of the right wall, bare wood floor, rough stone walls on all sides and thick timber beams across the ceiling. There is a large ships wheel on the left wall opposite the fire place, the furniture is also chunky rustic wood and there are plenty of large windows in the left wall providing beautiful views of the hotel gardens and of course Babbacombe Bay with its red cliffs and famous cliff railway which provides access to Oddicombe beach. The well kept gardens are on multiple levels with scattered garden furniture and there is a path down to the bays break water where many people fish. Regular ales are currently Bays Gold and Otter Ale with Red Rock Devon Coast IPA on as a guest (Cask Marque). I tried halves of all three and found them to be in good condition in my opinion. There may be a second guest beer on during busier times of the year. I’m not usually a big fan of hotel bars which quite often lack any character or atmosphere, but this place succeeds in feeling more like a nice country pub with rooms than a hotel with a bar. The route down to and back up from the place is a little daunting but it was well worth the struggle, I think it is possible to use the cliff railway and walk round the bay but I would suggest checking first if you fancy a visit. I would certainly make the effort again if in the vicinity.

Official site of the Cary Arms - www.caryarms.co.uk

Official site of the Cary Arms - www.caryarms.co.uk