WALKS & DRIVES Jurassic parking – stop and enjoy the view

*** SUNDAY DRIVER Adam Hay-nicholls heads along the coast to Lympstone Manor in what he argues is the best-looking car of the century so far: the Range Rover Velar

Relishing the chartreuse-coloured hills behind East Devon’s Jurassic Coast, I’m en route to the dining table of top chef Michael Caines. As I like to match my vehicles with whatever’s in store for the knife and fork, I have chosen the Range Rover Velar for the journey: a luxurious status symbol steeped in country cred, but one that is silkily contemporary and reductionist from every angle.

Could this be the best-looking car of the 21st century so far? I would certainly class it as the world’s most gorgeous SUV. Gerry Mcgovern, Land Rover’s design director, is a man who wears shirt collars like Harry Hill and lives in a house called Mcgovern House. Yet he’s managed to design this incredibly tasteful piece of kinetic art.

Having left the A303 near Ilminster, I pass through Chard and Axminster and meet the English Channel’s Lyme Bay. From Seaton, the road leads to the seaside village of Beer – no doubt an epicentre of pint Instagramming – and my favourite pub in the county sits in the valley just beyond, in Branscombe. Here, at the 14th-century Fountain Head inn, the lunchtime locals – mostly farmers – devour hearty meals in the cosy remains of an old forge. CAMRA voted this place its 2018 Summer Pub of the Year thanks to its convivial and rustic character, Branscombe Vale ales and the hog roasts served in the garden on sunny weekends.

The picturesque cliffs and pebble beach of Branscombe form part of the 95-mile long, 185-million-year-old Jurassic coast, site of many a sea monster and dinosaur fossil find.

Branscombe hit the headlines in January 2007 when the container ship MSC Napoli was beached here following a storm, attracting hundreds of scavengers. Among the floating loot were 17 BMW R1200RT motorcycles.

There’s nothing lifted from elsewhere when it comes to the Velar, much less prehistoric. The interior, in particular, is a milestone of clean, modern and ergonomic design. There are very few buttons; almost everything is controlled by two high-resolution gloss-black rectangular screens on the CLIFF HANGER The beach, above, at the seaside village of Beer, with the road sign, below, that has featured on many an Instagram post; above right, Adam Hay- Nicholls with the Velar, at Michael Caines’ Lympstone Manor

‘Almost everything is controlled by two highresolution gloss-black rectangular screens’

Sunday 3 February 2019