Short answer: The Pannier Market is a covered Victorian hall running Tuesday to Saturday with a different theme most days. Lydford Gorge, fifteen minutes north, is better after rain — though steep and slate underfoot.
Tavistock Pannier Market is a Victorian covered hall in the middle of town, running Tuesday to Saturday with a different market each day — antiques, crafts, produce — and the Charter Market on Fridays. Properly indoors, and free to wander.
Check the day before you travel. Sunday and Monday visitors find it shut, which is the single most common mistake here.
Lydford Gorge, fifteen minutes north, is the deepest gorge in the south west, and the Devil's Cauldron whirlpool and the 30-metre White Lady waterfall are both at their best after heavy rain.
The caveat is the ground: steep, rocky and slate underfoot, and slippery when wet. Pick one car park, do one loop, and take it slowly.
Buckland Abbey, twenty minutes south, is Francis Drake's house — a former Cistercian abbey with a great barn, a cider press and a good café. The interior gives you a proper hour out of the weather, and the volunteers are knowledgeable.
The high moor. Dartmoor in poor visibility is genuinely serious, the roads are unfenced with ponies on them, and in winter the light goes by four. Bellever Forest is the sheltered compromise if you want air — forestry tracks, a shallow river and a coffee trailer.
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