Rainy Day in Brixham: What Is Actually Worth Doing

Short answer: The breakwater is flat, half a mile long and dramatic in bad weather, with seals close in. Berry Head's Guardhouse Café is rated as highly as the reserve itself. For sitting it out, Rockfish on the fish quay and the Old Market House on the harbour both have the view.

Brixham does not have much of a roof

This is a working fishing port, not a resort, and it has almost no indoor attractions. What it has is a harbour that is genuinely more interesting in bad weather — the fleet still lands here, the sea gets up against the breakwater, and the coloured houses stacked up the hill look better under a dark sky than a flat one.

The walk that works in the wet

The breakwater is half a mile of flat, level walkway out to a lighthouse, built in the 1840s to shelter the fleet. It is one of the few genuinely easy walks on this coast for anyone with mobility difficulties, there are benches along it, and the seals come close in. In a swell it is the best free thing to do in Brixham.

Berry Head

The nature reserve on the headland is free, and the Guardhouse Café up there is rated as highly as the reserve itself. Napoleonic fort ruins, Britain's shortest lighthouse and views the length of the bay — a bracing walk with somewhere warm at the end of it. Drive up or walk out from town.

Eating it out

This is where Brixham earns its keep. Rockfish on the fish quay serves what the boats landed that morning with unlimited fries — pricey for fish and chips, better value if you go for the specials. The Old Market House on the quay has plenty of indoor space, food that is cooked rather than reheated, and exceptional gluten-free provision that coeliac reviewers rate as the best they have found.

The Breakwater Bistro by Breakwater Beach has the best breakfast view in Brixham and is open from nine to nine. Smugglers up Church Hill puts you alongside the open kitchen, which is a good place to be on a cold day.

Twenty minutes away

• Kents Cavern in Torquay — underground, so weatherproof.
• Babbacombe Model Village — has an indoor enchanted section.
• The National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth is an hour, but your ticket gives free re-entry for a year.

What to skip

St Mary's Bay and Man Sands. Both involve long, steep, uneven descents that get slippery, and neither has any facilities at the bottom. Leave them for a dry day.