WIREDGOV

Giorgia Tolfo continues the second leg of her journey while exploring how archival research and walking can work together. This time: the 'Valley of Rocks' and a quest to find the Ilfracombe Hotel.

After exploring Lynmouth and Lynton in Devon, I had two more days of walking ahead of me. Once I had visited the church in Lynton, I set off toward Combe Martin through the ‘Valley of Rocks’, which is about half a mile away. According to the Lynton and Lynmouth Homeland Guide, ’some declare its magnificence has been exaggerated’. Yet, in 1794, Dr Maton (my research suggests that this is most likely the physician William George Maton) described the area in far more dramatic terms:

The heights on each side are of a mountainous magnitude, but composed, to all appearance, of loose, unequal masses, which form here and there rude natural columns, and are fantastically arranged along the summits, so as to resemble extensive ruins impending over the pass. Vast fragments overspread the valley; and which way soever we turned our eyes, awful vestiges of convulsion and desolation presented themselves, inspiring the most sublime ideas.

Intrigued by Maton’s vivid words, I returned to James Dixon-Scott’s photograph of the Valley of Rocks to see whether I could find the sense of awe described. Sadly, I could not. What Dixon-Scott's image showed was the transformation of the valley from a site of inspiration into a tourist destination.

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