High on Devon’s must-see list, the captivating summer home of crime writer Agatha Christie sits beside the placid River Dart. Part-guided tours allow you to wander between rooms where the furnishings and knick-knacks are much as the author left them. The bewitching waterside gardens include features that pop up in Christie's mysteries, so you get to spot locations made notorious by fictional murders. Car parking must be prebooked; the better options are to arrive by Greenway Ferry or on foot.
Christie owned Greenway between 1938 and 1959, and the house feels frozen in time: check out the piles of hats in the lobby, the books in her library, the clothes in her wardrobe, and listen to her speak (via a replica radio) in the drawing room. The gardens feature woods speckled with magnolias, and daffodils and hydrangeas frame the water. The planting creates intimate, secret spaces – the boathouse and the views over the river are sublime. In Christie’s book Dead Man’s Folly, Greenway doubles as Nasse House, with the boathouse making an appearance as a murder scene.
The Greenway Ferry runs to the house when it's open, or you can take the Dartmouth Steam Railway from Paignton to Greenway Halt and walk half a mile through the woods. You can also arrive by hiking along the picturesque Dart Valley Trail from Kingswear (4 miles).
