When you open our new brochure or browse the new Bailey Unicorn Series 5 on the website, you’ll see the results of our latest photoshoot that took place in Devon in May 2021. Read on for more information about the places we visited as we spent time in beautiful valleys and campsites in Devon – near beach, harbour and farm shops.

Get ready to get some inspiration for your own caravan or motorhome trip to this stunning area within the Exmoor National Park as you see how one of our photoshoots could very easily be turned into a holiday for couples or families.

Working on a photoshoot usually means an early start from Bailey HQ at South Liberty Lane. Meeting with our photographer Alan and his own van of kit, we started off from Bristol complete with a new Bailey Unicorn Series 5 Vigo along with towcar, 2 members of the marketing team, a second car full of props and a plan to meet with our models once we arrived at our first location – the stunning Valley of the Rocks about ½ mile west of Lynton & Lynmouth.

It is thought that the Valley of the Rocks may have been created during the Ice Age due to a river carving a new channel through the area and then eventually retreating, leaving behind a deep valley and impressive rock formations.

For this part of the photoshoot, we wanted to get some sweeping shots of the new Unicorn Series 5 making its way along the roads besides the huge cliffs jutting up out of the landscape. This is the location described by R.D Blackwood in his novel Lorna Doone as the Valley of the Rocks was the setting for part of his book.

With the beautiful coastline in the background and the feral goats that roam freely perching on the rocks, it was sometimes easy to forget that we were on the Devon coast and not in an Alpine valley. In fact, the nearby towns of Lynton & Lynmouth are in an area known as ‘Little Switzerland’. Here you can find the Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway which is the UK’s only water-powered funicular railway, joining the two towns together from Lynton at the cliff top down to the sea at Lynmouth.

The whole area is especially good for walkers, so if you are looking for a caravan or motorhome holiday with a focus on getting out and about in some beautiful countryside, this could be the place for you.

When looking at UK campsites, Devon offers locations that are near to some of the UK’s best beaches and beautiful coastline.

For our campsite photography, we based ourselves at the Little Meadow Campsite with views over the Hangmans Hills of Exmoor, Combe Martin Bay and the Bristol Channel. This campsite offers 50 individually marked pitches for touring caravans, motorhomes and tents.

Little Meadow facilities include a shop stocking a range of local products (including croissants and pan au chocolat that can be freshly baked to collect each morning), a wooded children’s play area with swings and a roundabout, and is one of the many dog-friendly campsites Devon has to offer with a large dog-run field where your four-legged friend can run off the lead.

During our stay we were treated to beautiful views of both sunrise and sunset across the dramatic Devon coastline. You can see from our photos what a spectacular sight this was.

Of course, the northern coast of Devon isn’t the only area in the county where you can take your caravan or motorhome – if you are thinking of heading down this way you can find places to stay all across the region, with some campsites open all year in Devon .

There are sites that offer specific things – for example the quieter adults-only campsites Devon has available or even campsites in Devon with swimming pools for lots of family fun.

When you’re looking for caravan or motorhome campsites, Devon has a lot of choice within easy access of many attractions.

We didn’t just visit natural locations as part of our photoshoot – we also stopped off at The Good Stores farm shop at Strand Lane in Ashford, Barnstaple. This was a lovely local business that had an abundance of fruit and vegetables which were displayed outside in wooden boxes. Inside, there was an extensive range of locally sourced meats, cheese and dairy along with fresh bread and cakes. We purchased some cakes for our next stop – a picnic photoshoot at Hele Bay – and we can highly recommend!

Connected to The Good Stores is St Johns Garden Centre which had a lovely selection of plants and also their own Jungleland which is a year-round attraction with exotic plants and ‘wildlife’ to spot. A visit to these two local businesses has something for everyone and could make a lovely morning out for family fun followed by lunch.

For our final stop, we now had all the ingredients for a picnic at Hele Bay. This beach is only a 4 minute drive from Little Meadow Campsite and is a quiet location with lots of easy access parking close by.

Hele Bay has been a popular bathing location since Victorian times and is part sand and part shingle with rock pools and caves – very popular with the youngest members of our team as you can see!

We concluded our day’s shooting here with some picnic and beach scenes to add to our photography library – you can spot some of the photos from Hele Bay in our current caravan brochure, including on the front cover.

If we’d been here on holiday with more time to explore, one of the next bays along the coast – Watermouth Cove – is a harbour between Hele Bay and Combe Martin. The cove has many boats moored, and porpoises, dolphins and seals can be seen in the area when conditions are right. Opposite this harbour is Watermouth Castle, which is a Victorian Castle that has been turned into a family theme park.