Christmas Light Trails in Devon 2026

Short answer: Five light trails run in Devon this winter. Bay of Lights at Torquay is free and runs every night from 28 November to 3 January. Powderham, RHS Rosemoor, Crealy and Babbacombe Model Village are ticketed, and three of them run on selected nights only.

The free one

Bay of Lights, Torbay — Saturday 28 November to Sunday 3 January, every night, and it costs nothing. A mile and a half along Torquay seafront from Torre Abbey to the harbour, described by the organisers as fully accessible, with pixel-tree installations over in Paignton and Brixham too. There is a free firework display to open it on the 28th.

If you only do one, and you would rather not pay, this is the one.

The ticketed ones

• Powderham Castle — the Christmas Light Walk, Sunday 29 November to Wednesday 30 December, nightly except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve. 4.30pm to 8.30pm, last entry 7.30pm. A lit route through the grounds and round the lake with the castle front floodlit.
• RHS Rosemoor, Great Torrington — RHS Glow, on selected nights through late November and December. From £8 for RHS members, £13 for everyone else, under-5s free. There is a silent disco on 11 and 12 December.
• Babbacombe Model Village, Torquay — from Saturday 21 November into early January, adult £22.95. Read the small print: before 19 December the lights are weekends only, and on weekdays it closes at 3.30pm.
• Crealy, near Exeter — a lakeside trail with a light tunnel, on selected weekends in November and selected days in December. A theme-park day with lights rather than a trail on its own.

One that has no dates yet

Zooluminate at Dartmoor Zoo, near Plymouth, is real and bookable — but the zoo has not published which nights it runs this year. Admission is 5pm to 6.30pm with the site closing at 7.30pm, and it needs a separate ticket on top of normal entry. Ring 01752 837645 before planning a trip round it.

Worth knowing before you go: the zoo says its paths are uneven and may not suit wheelchairs, parts of the route are genuinely dark, and they recommend sturdy footwear and a torch. It is the least buggy-friendly of everything on this page.

Two things nobody tells you

Parking cost is not published by a single one of these venues. We checked every official page. Only one old Powderham listing mentioned a figure, and it was from a previous year, so we have not repeated it. Assume you will pay something and take a card.

Accessibility information barely exists either. Bay of Lights states that it is accessible and Dartmoor Zoo states that it is not. Babbacombe Model Village publishes a guide and warns of steep slopes at the entrance and exit. For Powderham, Rosemoor and Crealy, nothing is published, so ring ahead if you need to know.

Two you might be looking for, and should not

• The National Trust properties are not doing a trail. Killerton, Saltram, Castle Drogo, Greenway, Knightshayes, Buckland Abbey, Arlington Court and Coleton Fishacre all have Christmas offerings this year, but they are daytime events. Castle Drogo’s coloured lights are indoor decoration, not an after-dark walk.
• Escot’s "Illuminate the Night" is not a Christmas trail. It is a one-night fireworks, laser and funfair event on Saturday 7 November, 4pm to 9pm. A good night out, but if you turn up in December expecting lights in the trees there will be nothing there.

Sources and dates

Every date on this page comes from the venue’s own site or a dated press release, read on 3 November 2026. We deliberately avoided the listings sites: checking them turned up pages from 2019, 2023, 2024 and 2025 all presenting as current. Confirm before travelling, particularly for anything on "selected nights".