Things to Do in Exeter, United Kingdom: Walking Guide

Exeter is a historic city in Devon, shaped by Roman, medieval and religious history. The best things to do in Exeter include visiting Exeter Cathedral, exploring Norman castle remains, discovering museums and following the route of the medieval bridge across the River Exe. Neywo offers a free audio guide for Exeter with 64 narrated places.

What to See in Exeter

Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter, is an Anglican cathedral and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter. The present building was largely complete by about 1400, after Norman origins in 1114 and a major rebuilding that began in 1270 under Bishop Walter Branscombe.

Its most remarkable feature is the longest uninterrupted medieval stone vaulted ceiling in the world. The building also brings together Norman and Gothic design, with fourteenth-century sculptures on the west front, early misericords, decorated ceilings and a fifteenth-century astronomical clock in the north transept. Other features include a minstrels’ gallery, a library of medieval books, relics and burials.

The cathedral sits at the centre of a group of historic churches and streets, making it a natural starting point for discovering England.

Rougemont Castle and Danes Castle

Rougemont Castle began taking shape in or shortly after 1068, when it was built into the northern corner of Exeter’s Roman city walls following the city’s rebellion against William the Conqueror. Its large early Norman gatehouse, made from the red stone found on the hill, is the most striking surviving feature.

The castle was besieged by King Stephen in 1136, and an outer bailey was added later in the twelfth century. The site also appears in Shakespeare’s Richard III, in connection with the king’s visit to Exeter in 1483. Rougemont Castle is surrounded on three sides by Rougemont Gardens and Northernhay Gardens.

Danes Castle is another castle site in Exeter, Devon, offering a further point of reference for the city’s defensive history.

Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery

The Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, usually called RAMM, is Exeter’s largest museum. Its collections cover zoology, geology, anthropology, archaeology and fine art, bringing together natural history and human culture under one roof.

Founded in 1868, RAMM occupies a Gothic Revival building made from local New Red Sandstone. It has been extended several times, while retaining its distinctive architectural character. The museum reopened on 15 December 2011 after a four-year redevelopment.

St Petrock’s Church and St Mary Steps

St Petrock’s Church is a small, distinctive church in the centre of Exeter. Its interior was described by Nicholas Pevsner as among the most confusing of any church in England, making it a rewarding place to examine carefully. The church may reach back as far as the sixth century, although other sources place its origins in the eleventh century.

Its history also reflects Exeter’s medieval civic life: William the Conqueror directed the City Provost to pay St Petrock’s one silver penny from public taxes, along with twenty-nine other churches.

The Church of St Mary Steps, also known as St Mary Steps, is another protected historic building. It is listed at Grade I and forms part of the city’s rich collection of medieval and later churches.

The Deerstalker

The Deerstalker is a sculpture by Edward Bowring Stephens. It provides a change of scale from Exeter’s churches, castles and museums, and a chance to pause and look closely at the artist’s sculptural style.

The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum and University of Exeter

The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum is a public museum and research facility on the University of Exeter’s Streatham Campus. Its two galleries explore the history and prehistory of cinema through a collection of more than 80,000 artefacts, ranging from the seventeenth century to the present day.

The displays include books, prints, film-related objects, publicity and merchandising material. They also look at the world before cinema, with material connected to magic lanterns, shadow puppets, panoramas, dioramas, optical illusions and peep shows.

The museum takes its name from filmmaker Bill Douglas. The original collection was assembled by Douglas and his friend Peter Jewell, and the museum was founded in 1994 before opening to the public in 1997.

The University of Exeter itself was officially founded in 1955, when it received a royal charter from Queen Elizabeth II. Its origins reach back to teaching in theology and music from 1840. The university has four campuses: Streatham and St Luke’s in Exeter, and Penryn and Truro in neighbouring Cornwall. Streatham contains most of the administrative buildings and is regarded as one of the most beautiful campuses among Britain’s non-ancient universities.

Exeter’s religious and civic heritage

Exeter’s historic centre contains a dense network of religious buildings and remains. The former Church of St Edmund is part of the Old Exe Bridge, a medieval crossing built between 1190 and 1214. It is the oldest surviving bridge of its size in England and the oldest bridge in Britain with a chapel still on it.

The bridge was at least 590 feet, or 180 metres, long, with probably seventeen or eighteen arches. It replaced simpler crossings that had been used sporadically since Roman times. The former Church of St Edmund served as the bridge chapel and was part of the original medieval project.

Other religious landmarks include the Baptist Church, also known as South Street Baptist Church, and Sacred Heart Church. Sacred Heart Church was built between 1883 and 1884 in the Gothic Revival style to a design by Leonard Stokes. It is listed at Grade II and belongs to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Plymouth.

The remains of St Catherine’s Almshouses offer another glimpse into Exeter’s historic institutions, while Exeter monastery represents the city’s long connection with monastic and religious life. St Catherine’s Almshouses, churches and the former bridge chapel can be explored together on foot.

Barnfield Theatre

Barnfield Theatre is a performance venue near the centre of Exeter. The building began as a hall constructed by the Exeter Literary Society near the end of the nineteenth century and became a theatre in 1972. It now operates as a charity and welcomes both amateur and professional theatrical companies.

Topsham Museum

Topsham Museum is a local museum in Topsham, a Devon town associated with the River Exe. It offers a place to learn about Topsham and its history, and can be included in a wider exploration of the town’s churches and former port setting.

Explore Exeter with a Free Audio Guide

An Exeter self-guided walking tour is a simple way to connect the cathedral, churches, museums, castle remains and the Old Exe Bridge without joining a group. Neywo has six walking tours and one bus route in Exeter, with narration available in 11 languages.

The walks include:

• Cathedral Close and the Churches of Medieval Exeter — 1.48 km, 99 minutes and 12 stops.
• Norman Rougemont and the Statues of Northernhay — 1.88 km, 93 minutes and 12 stops.
• Down the Hill to the Medieval Exe Bridge — 2.15 km, 74 minutes and 8 stops.
• Cinema, Theatre and Scholars on the University Hill — 1.39 km, 45 minutes and 5 stops.
• Topsham, the Old Port on the Exe: Towers and Chapels — 1.14 km, 36 minutes and 4 stops.
• Heavitree and the Ancient Yew — 1.44 km, 46 minutes and 5 stops.

There is also Bus E2: Old Exe Bridge to the Sidwell Street Churches, a 3.6 km route lasting 15 minutes with 7 stops.

Download Neywo and explore Exeter at your own pace. The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, so you can walk without a group and without a schedule. With six walking tours, one bus route and 64 narrated places, it turns an Exeter audio guide into a flexible way to discover the city and its history. After Exeter, continue exploring the United Kingdom or compare it with nearby destinations such as Falmouth.