clovelly to hartland quay

September 12, 2022 by Mark Seymour in south west coast path

SOUTH WEST COAST PATH

tuesday, 7TH june 2022

Today’s weather forecast looks to be pretty good. It should be warm with some sun and not a lot in the way of wind.

Clovelly high tide 11:45

Clovelly low tide 17:52

I start today’s walk at the top of Clovelly in the car park next to Clovelly Visitor Centre, leaving via the road. I immediately come across a small paddock full of orchids - they look like they are southern marsh orchids again.

southern marsh orchids

I walk down the service road heading in towards Clovelly and admire the wildflowers. All of a sudden it starts raining lightly which I wasn’t expecting.

I continue down the road to Mount Pleasant, where I admire the views overlooking Clovelly.

I head back up the service road where a tractor passes me headed towards the top of Clovelly and towing dustbins.

I go through a heavy, black gate and walk along a grassy track heading towards the woods.

I enter the woods, passing a shelter, where a song thrush is singing loudly. I leave the woods and then re-enter them.

I reach Angel's Wings, a wooden shelter built in the 19th century by Sir James Hamlyn Williams, a former owner of Clovelly.

I cross a field at Gallantry Bower where a sign tells me that an ancient ring of earthworks is perched near the cliff edge. All I can see is a load of bracken.

The name Gallantry Bower is said to be either derived from the actions of lovers leaping to their doom (it is said that somewhere on Gallantry Bower you can jump off and fall to the base of the cliff without touching the side) or being the site of the village gallows.

The path here is a bit fiddly and I've got lost here before but the signposting seems to be better than I remember and I make it without event to the zig zag path that leads to Mouthmill Beach. There are wildflowers everywhere and I come across a plant which I don’t recognize and turns out to be bastard balm.

I cross a stream over a bridge to reach Mouthmill Beach. The tide is out far enough for me to be able to walk out onto the bouldery beach over to Blackchurch Rock, a spectacular sea stack with two huge natural rock windows.

Some nutters like to climb this rock for fun!

I leave the beach, passing an 18th century lime kiln. The limestone was brought here by ship from south Wales.

I climb up a zig zag woodland path through Brownsham Woods where the bluebells should be looking amazing but have already almost completely gone over.

I cross a field full of sheep and then enjoy the views back to Blackchurch Rock.

A foggy mist has descended and there is dampness in the air and no sign of the promised sun. I descend steeply on a winding path and then reach Windbury Hillfort which is again covered in bracken.

I walk through more wooded valleys and fields and eventually come to a memorial plaque in memory of the crew of a Wellington bomber which crashed here on the 13th of April 1942.

Along Beckland Cliff I pass fields with deliberately planted wildflower margins.

More fields, a wooded valley and a footbridge lead to trig point S5434 at 498 feet at Chapman Rock.

On top of the fog and mist it has now started raining as well. I should be able to see across to Lundy but there’s no chance of that. The skylarks seem to think that the weather is just about to improve as they’ve taken to the air and started singing. I watch one bird in particular sing for several minutes continuously.

I spot a hare running towards me along the coast path but as soon as it sees me it disappears into the undergrowth.

At Eldern Point I pass the site of another crashed aircraft, this time a B-24 Liberator Bomber which crashed on the 22nd of January 1943.

I can now see Hartland Point Radar perched above the misty cliffs.

I walk along East Titchberry Cliff which rounds Shipload Bay and I have lovely, if misty, views to Hartland Point. I enjoy the wildflowers around here even if they are now rather damp. I also get a glimpse of a deer.

A grassy track climbs above Shipload Bay and passes on the seaward side of Hartland Point Radar, originally built during the Second World War, it is now an automated radar station, maintained by the Civil Aviation Authority and linked to Swanwick near Southampton.

I walk down to the car park where there is a refreshment hut. It should be open from 10:30 until 5 but, even though it is close to 12, clearly isn’t open.

A sign tells me that it is 106 miles to Minehead in one direction along the south west coast path and 524 miles to Poole Harbour in the other direction.

A pod of dolphins (or porpoises) have gathered in Barley Bay and have attracted a small group of people’s attention. I take some photographs but you can’t really make out much.

I head towards Hartland Point Lighthouse, a grade two listed building. The lighthouse is still listed on the Trinity House website but was sold in 2011 and is now in private ownership. It looks like there’s some refurbishment work going on at the moment.

The path now changes direction and starts to head southwards and becomes a lot rougher and rockier.

I pass a memorial to the ship Glenart Castle, torpedoed by a U-boat in 1918 and I have a final views back to Hartland Point Lighthouse.

“In proud and grateful memory of those who gave their lives in the hospital ship Glenart Castle.”

I head over Upright Cliff before dropping into a valley and crossing a footbridge. I climb out of the valley and drop into another one behind Damehole Point where the views over Hartland Quay and towards Cornwall are amazing.

I climb steps up a steep slope and then drop down into another valley and climb again.

I descend into a valley again - this is becoming familiar! - and walk inland past a house and cross a stone bridge over the Abbey River. A little further upriver can be found Hartland Abbey (@HartlandAbbey), a former abbey and now the family home of the Stucley family.

I head back out towards the coast and head across Warren Cliff where there is a square ruined tower and sheep grazing the grass. I can see inland towards the Church of Saint Nectan in the hamlet of Stoke.

I suddenly come across loads of painted lady butterflies feeding on thistles and I can now quite clearly see Lundy out to sea.

I pass Rocket House to reach a road and from here it is a short walk along a track to reach the Hartland Quay Hotel.

I would normally head down the road to Hartland Quay passing the Hartland Quay Hotel and the Wreckers' Retreat Bar but my ankle has been playing up towards the latter part of the walk so I end the walk in the car park above the hotel where my lift awaits.

That's my walking over for the week!

FLORA AND FAUNA

Flora and fauna encountered on the walk today includes :-

southern marsh orchids
red campion
foxgloves
song thrush
bastard balm
ribwort plantain
sea thrift
bluebells
rhododendrons
pheasants
skylarks
honeysuckle
hare
deer
speckled wood butterflies
dolphins
painted lady butterflies
stonechat
germander speedwell

PODCAST

The podcast of today's walk is now available. You can subscribe via Apple Podcasts or listen using the player below.

MARKS OUT OF TEN?

According to my phone I've walked 10.9 miles which amounts to 28569 steps. It has taken me five and three quarter hours today which is way longer than it should have taken but I’ve been hampered by a dodgy ankle. The weather has been a lot damper and mistier than I was expecting but it has still been a lovely walk. Ten out of ten!

walk details

map

westward ho! to clovelly

September 11, 2022 by Mark Seymour in south west coast path

SOUTH WEST COAST PATH

monday, 6TH JUNE 2022

Should be in for a rather nice day today with little in the way of wind.

Clovelly high tide 10:48

Clovelly low tide 16:55

I start today's walk back at Westward Ho! and it’s a lovely morning so I amble slowly down to the seafront.

I follow the promenade passing some modern flats on the seafront before walking past a long row of colourful beach huts, decorated for the Platinum Jubilee.

I pass Rock Sea Pool, built in Victorian times, severely damaged in the storms of 2014 and refurbished in 2015.

I leave Westward Ho! on grassy slopes before reaching a tarmac path which was once the track bed of the Bideford to Westward Ho! railway.

I now have lovely views over towards Clovelly which looks a lot closer than it actually is. It must be at least twelve miles away.

At Cornborough Range the old railway track heads off to the left towards Bideford but my path continues along the cliff top and it's time for a roller-coaster ride.

I walk up and down over Cornborough Cliff, Abbotsham Cliff, Green Cliff and then Cockington Cliff, admiring the June wildflowers.

abbotsham cliff beach

I have plenty of birds for company including a load of stonechats and linnets. The views back to Westward Ho! and over to Clovelly are lovely.

I descend down to Babbacombe Mouth with its rocky and pebbly beach.

I climb steeply up onto Babbacombe Cliff and there are more lovely views. I amble up and down the cliffs but the paths are very overgrown and fiddly to negotiate. It doesn’t help that my walking pole is broken and won’t open.

After almost an hour of scrambling up and down the cliffs I finally descend to reach Peppercombe, where there is a pebbly beach. I have the whole beach to myself.

The cliffs at Peppercombe are carved from 280 million year old red Triassic stone (unusual around here) and I have lovely views eastward back towards Westward Ho! and grand sweeping views westward towards Hartland Point. I can just make out the Isle of Lundy out to sea.

Clovelly can now be clearly seen clinging to the cliffs in the distance.

The wildflowers are lovely and I pass scarlet pimpernel, herb robert, gorse and hypericum (or st john’s-wort).

I come across a group of orchids on a slope. They look like southern marsh orchids but I can only get to one. There’s also some lovely ragged robin here as well.

ragged robin

I’m now just two and a half miles away from Bucks Mills, a route almost entirely through woods.

I climb steeply out of Peppercombe, admiring the views back from where I've come, and head along wooded slopes. The woods should be full of bluebells but they seem to have finished early this year. Chiff chaffs are singing their hearts out everywhere as well as a song thrush.

At the end of Worthygate Woods I descend steeply and gingerly down to the tiny village of Buck's Mills.

On the slipway down to the beach I pass Buck's Mills Cabin, used as an artist’s studio by Judith Ackland and Mary Stella Edwards, from the 1920’s up to the 1970’s. The National Trust became custodians of the Cabin in 2008.

I’d normally wander down to the pebbly beach and admire the stream tumbling over the cliff before ascending back up to the village. But today I’ve been having problems with my knees and my left ankle - don’t know why, must be old age - so I head back up the slipway instead.

The coast path climbs uphill between houses to reach Buck's Valley Woods.

The path between Peppercombe and Hobby Drive has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The walking is lovely and chiff chaffs, wrens, robins, blackbirds, great tits and many more birds are singing their hearts out.

The path continues, sometimes through woods, sometimes besides woods and there are pheasants everywhere. The woods contain a number of rhododendrons.

I come across a farmer driving a tractor, cutting the grass for silage.

Eventually the path reaches Hobby Drive and I come across a stone memorial bench …..

“The new portion of road measuring 833 yards was added to The Hobby by Frederick and Christine Hamlyn in the year of Our Lord God 1901.”

This area has inspired artists, including the famous 19th century artist Samuel Palmer, whose work 'A study of Trees' captures the characteristic woodland forms still found in this area. Nope, I've not heard of him either!

The path continues downhill through woods and there are now glimpses of Clovelly through the trees. As I approach Clovelly I come across more and more dog walkers.

I reach the ancient Wrinkleberry Lane and the coast path continues high above Clovelly but it's time for me to visit the village and end today's walk.

The village of Clovelly tumbles 400 feet down a steep hillside from the visitor centre down to the harbour. I suspect the village is going to be too busy for my liking today so I briefly walk down the top part of the village to take a photo.

I climb back up through the top part of Clovelly and leave through the visitor centre where my lift awaits in the car park.

FLORA AND FAUNA

Flora and fauna encountered on the walk today includes :-

rabbits
honeysuckle
sea thrift
jackdaws
bladder campion
foxgloves
whitethroat
oystercatchers
stonechats
linnets
painted lady butterflies
meadow brown butterflies
pheasants
sweet chestnuts
southern marsh orchids
ragged robin
st john’s-wort
red valerian
bracken

PODCAST

The podcast of today's walk is now available. You can subscribe via Apple Podcasts or listen using the player below.

MARKS OUT OF TEN?

According to my phone I've walked 13.1 miles which amounts to 33241 steps. It has taken me six hours but I have been ambling quite a bit and it’s a tough section of the coast path. The weather has been lovely but the same can’t be said for my dodgy body parts!. Ten out of ten!

WALK DETAILS

map

clovelly to hartland quay

May 10, 2015 by Mark Seymour in south west coast path

SOUTH WEST COAST PATH

thursday, 7TH MAY 2015

After a filthy day yesterday with heavy rain and blustery gales, today's weather forecast looks to be by far the best of the week with some sunshine, no rain and an end to the ever present gales.

Bude high tide 08:17

Bude low tide 14:36

Today's walk is even shorter than yesterday's but there is very little civilization beyond Hartland Quay until you reach Bude so destination Hartland Quay it is!

I start the walk at the top of Clovelly in the car park next to Clovelly Visitor Centre, leaving via the road. The lanes are full of wild garlic.

I walk down the service road heading in towards Clovelly and immediately come across the friendly Clovelly donkeys in a field.

After stroking the donkeys for a while I continue down the road to Mount Pleasant, where I admire the views overlooking Clovelly.

I head back up the service road and go through a heavy, black gate and walk along a grassy track heading towards the woods.

I enter the woods, passing a shelter, leave the woods and then re-enter them. Hang on a sec! It's started to rain already and I've only just started the walk. I put on my waterproofs but fortunately it's just a shower and they soon come off again.

I reach Angel's Wings, a wooden shelter built in the 19th century by Sir James Hamlyn Williams, a former owner of Clovelly.

I stop for a spot of breakfast and then continue through the woods, admiring all of the bluebells.

I cross a field containing a couple of friendly ponies who proceed to pinch my sandwiches!

I cross a stream over what looks like a brand new bridge to reach Mouthmill Beach. I'm in the middle of nowhere and yet three land rovers pass me by the bridge

The tide is too high for me to be able to walk out onto the bouldery beach over to Blackchurch Rock, a spectacular sea stack with two huge natural rock windows.

Some nutters like to climb this rock for fun!

I climb up a zig zag woodland path through Brownsham Woods where the bluebells are looking amazing and then enjoy the views back to Blackchurch Rock.

I cross fields to reach a sign pointing to the small National Trust car park a little inland.

I walk through more wooded valleys and fields and eventually come to a memorial plaque in memory of the crew of a Wellington bomber which crashed here on the 13th of April 1942.

More fields, a wooded valley and a footbridge lead to a trig point at 498 feet at Chapman Rock. The various wild flowers are looking lovely.

I walk along East Titchberry Cliff which rounds Shipload Bay and I have lovely views to Hartland Point and for the first time this week I can see Lundy! There's no haze obscuring it.

A grassy track climbs above Shipload Bay and passes on the seaward side of Hartland Point Radar, originally built during the Second World War. It is now used for air traffic control of military and civilian aircraft.

The radar is surrounded by fencing and barbed wire and I can see some orchids insde, tantalizingly out of reach. However, I round the corner and come across some much more accessible orchids just next to the path.

I walk down to the car park where there is a refreshment hut and head towards Hartland Point Lighthouse, a grade two listed building. The lighthouse is still listed on the Trinity House website but was sold in 2011 and is now in private ownership.

The path now changes direction and starts to head southwards and becomes a lot rougher and rockier and the season suddenly seems much more advanced.

I pass a memorial to the ship Glenart Castle, torpedoed by a U-boat in 1918.

“In proud and grateful memory of those who gave their lives in the hospital ship Glenart Castle.”

I climb steps up a steep slope and then drop down into another valley and climb again.

I pass Rocket House to reach a road and from here it is a short walk along a track to reach the Hartland Quay Hotel. I head down the road to Hartland Quay passing the Hartland Quay Hotel and the Wreckers' Retreat Bar.

The quay was originally built in the 16th century but swept away in 1887. My walk is at an end and I enjoy the small sandy beach here and marvel at all of the folded rocks.

I trudge back up past the Hartland Quay Hotel again and head for my lift in the car park above the hotel.

That's my walking over for the week!

There's only one way to end the day and that's with a cold bottle of Sharp's Brewery Doombar.

FLORA AND FAUNA

Flora and fauna encountered on the walk today includes :-

swallows
donkeys
pheasants
cows
squirrels
primroses
bluebells
japanese knotweed
chiff chaffs
wrens
chaffinches
wild garlic
holly
speckled wood butterflies
peacock butterflies
skylarks
a wall brown butterfly
sheep

PODCAST

The podcast of today's walk is now available. You can subscribe via the iTunes store or listen using the player below.

MARKS OUT OF TEN?

According to my phone I've walked 11.5 miles today which amounts to 27000 steps. EXACTLY 27000 steps!!

Despite a short shower at the start of the day the weather has been great and the walking has been fantastic. Coast path walking doesn't get much better than this. 10 out of 10.

westward ho! to clovelly

May 06, 2015 by Mark Seymour in south west coast path

SOUTH WEST COAST PATH

Tuesday, 5th MAY 2015

Today's weather forecast looks to be a bit on the ropey side again. It was chucking it down when I woke and blowing a gale (again!).

Bideford high tide 07:22

Bideford low tide 14:04

I start today's walk back at Westward Ho! where the blustery winds are much higher than the promised 26mph and there's heavy rain. Westward Ho! looks filthy in the rain.

I follow the promenade passing some modern flats on the seafront before walking past a long row of colourful beach huts and then shelter from the wind and rain in a little hut while I prepare all of my equipment. I stumble out of Westward Ho! on grassy slopes before reaching a tarmac path which was once the track bed of the Bideford to Westward Ho! railway. The gorse is in full flower around here and there are lovely views towards Clovelly - well, there would be if the rain wasn't lashing it down and the wind wasn't blowing me all over the place.

At Cornborough Range the old railway track heads off to the left towards Bideford but my path continues along the cliff top and it's time for a roller-coaster ride.

I walk up and down over Cornborough Cliff, Abbotsham Cliff, Green Cliff and then Cockington Cliff. Suddenly I think that I spot a tiny bit of blue sky.

I was right! The winds blow away most of the grey clouds and suddenly it's a beautiful spring day. It's still blustery mind!

The views back to Westward Ho! and over to Clovelly are lovely.

I descend down to Babbacombe Mouth with its rocky and pebbly beach and stop for some breakfast. I admire the wild flowers here which include some bird's-foot-trefoil, dog-violet and sea thrift.

I climb steeply up onto Babbacome Cliff and there are more lovely views before reaching Peppercombe, where there is a pebbly beach. I have the whole beach to myself.

Clovelly can now be clearly seen clinging to the cliffs in the distance.

The spring flowers are lovely and I pass primroses, celandines, dog-violets and plenty more gorse.

I climb steeply out of Peppercombe, admiring the views back from where I've come, and head along wooded slopes. The woods are full of bluebells and wild garlic and chiff chaffs are singing their hearts out everywhere. Even the wind has let up a little.

I descend steeply and gingerly down to the tiny village of Buck's Mills.

I wander down to the pebbly beach and admire the stream tumbling over the cliff before ascending back up to the village. The coast path climbs uphill between houses to reach Buck's Valley Woods.

The path continues, sometimes through woods, sometimes besides woods and there are pheasants everywhere. Eventually the path reaches Hobby Drive and I come across a stone memorial bench …..

“The new portion of road measuring 833 yards was added to The Hobby by Frederick and Christine Hamlyn in the year of Our Lord God 1901.”

The path continues downhill through woods and there are now glimpses of Clovelly through the trees. As I approach Clovelly I come across more and more dog walkers.

I reach the ancient Wrinkleberry Lane and the coast path continues high above Clovelly but it's time for me to visit the village and end today's walk.

The village of Clovelly tumbles 400 feet down a steep hillside from the visitor centre down to the harbour. A shower passes over and I gingerly (my walking boots are more suited to rocks than wet, smooth cobbles!) make my way down the steep cobbled traffic-free (unless you count tourists!) street, passing all of the quaint cottages including the oldest cottage in the village, the former home of "Crazy Kate".

I pass the New Inn where the cobbled village street changes from ”Up-a-long” to “Down-a-long” and peak in to the little alleyways leading off to the left and the right. Charles Dickens stayed at the New Inn in 1860 and wrote about Clovelly.

There are lovely views across Bideford Bay.

I reach the Red Lion Hotel at the bottom of the village and the harbour with a small fleet of fishing boats where I rest for a while. The light rain is soaking my camera.

It's a damp end to a lovely day's walking.

I climb back up through Clovelly and leave through the visitor centre where my lift awaits in the car park.

There's only one way to end the day and that's with a cold bottle of Sharp's Brewery Doombar.

FLORA AND FAUNA

Flora and fauna encountered on the walk today includes :-

rabbits
sheep
gorse
red campion
bladder campion
bluebells
dog-violet
bird's-foot-trefoil
pheasants
primroses
chiff chaffs
chaffinches
robins
great tits

PODCAST

The podcast of today's walk is now available. You can subscribe via the iTunes store or listen using the player below.

MARKS OUT OF TEN?

According to my phone I've walked 13.5 miles today which amounts to 31347 steps. Despite a filthy start to the day and a damp end the walking has been great today. Possibly one of the best walks on the coast path. 9 out of 10.