Overview
Discover challenging and dramatic walking trails shaped by the footsteps of traders, smugglers, saints and pirates. Cornish walking trails will reveal ancient tin mines, clifftop castles, timeless fishing villages and wild moors as you travel through a landscape of huge cliffs and hidden coves that goes back to the depths of time itself. In between the coastal drama, iconic harbours such as St Ives and Padstow give walkers access to some of the UK‘s best restaurants and coastal hotels. A county encircled by the wild Atlantic ocean, there is over 330 miles of spectacular world class coast path here taking you around the farthest corners of England - put simply it feels like walking on the edge of the world.
Stretching from coast to coast across the southwest of England, Devon is a richly diverse county with rugged shores and cliffs in the north, and classic Victorian seaside resorts in the south. In between you'll find tranquil green pastures, wooded gorges and the two dramatic wild moors in the National Parks of Dartmoor and Exmoor. Choose Devon for its walking variety, and you'll find that the popular image of cream teas and thatched cottages is true - but that Devon is so much more once you explore it on two feet. Coast to coast routes like the Two Moors Way will offer a journey through it all from the wild northern shores that inspired the Romantic poets to the maritime ports of the south coast.
Free your soul and clear your mind! Walking on the wild moors of these National Parks is a wonderful antidote to modern living. England's last true wilderness, Dartmoor offers 365 square miles of virtually uninhabited freedom with high moors and twisted dramatic granite tors a land of myths, ghosts and legends. Exmoor, its smaller and more gentle neighour, is 250 Square miles of near perfect and unique beauty, with high uplands swathed in heather and steep, wooded gorges and rushing streams. See Dartmoor ponies and Exmoor stags in these wildlife rich areas, home to 30 species of mammals and over 240 types of bird. The moors offer a unique opportunity for more challenging walking where the only human sound you will hear is the rhythm of your own breath.
Avoid the crowds and discover “Secret Somerset” missed by so many rushing headlong for the far South West. The 'land of the summer people' was named in a time when this area could only be visited in the summer months as the sea receded. Today its a rich, fertile and 'for real' landscape crowned by the fine walking ridges of the Mendip and Quantock Hills both protected areas of outstanding natural beauty. Rising up over King Arthur‘s Vale of Avalon along with the magical Tor at Glastonbury, walkers will find hidden gorges, wooded combes and the best inland panoramas of the South West. Also boasting its own Jurassic Coast Path, providing a gateway into the wilds of Exmoor National Park, Somerset offers walking routes without the crowds for those who want to find..... what the rest miss.
Dorset has a comfortable old world “English” feel to it and its walking routes traverse a rather more green and agricultural land of thatched cottages, cream teas.... and fossils ! Walkers here will find the more gentle rolling farmland, pretty villages and chalk ridges beloved by Thomas Hardy that sweep down to end abruptly at the World Heritage Jurassic Coast. Here, alongside the sea, those after more challenging routes can take a walking holiday through time itself amongst the dramatic chalk stacks, cliffs and arches of the Dorsetshire fossil coast. An area that can be very busy in high season but often suits walkers looking for more gentle and less exposed walking than the far west of the region.
Wales offers some of the best walking and outdoor activities to be had anywhere in the world. The 870-mile Welsh Coast Path was only fully opened in 2012 and is the world's first walk along the entire coast of a nation. The terrain is on an equally grand scale with towering cliffs, vast stretches of unspoilt golden sands, imposing castles, offshore islands and to the north there is the backdrop of Snowdonia National Park with its stunning mountains. Wales in general offers walkers great value for money compared to more popular areas like Cornwall with walking options to suit everyone, from those who want the cosmopolitan restaurants and facilities of towns like Tenby and St Davids, through to isolated and remote forests and coastal hills that sit on the very cusp of the Snowdonian Peaks. Bursting with confidence and pride in its “Welshness”, its Celtic history, language and culture there has never been a better time for walkers to enter Wales.
The South West Coast Path is the UK's longest National Trail and one of the top ten walking routes in the world. It snakes, dips and rises continuously on its way through a staggering 1014km (630 miles) of pristine coastline, 450 miles of which is through nationally protected areas. It's a challenge too; walking the entire South West Coast Path is the equivalent to scaling Mount Everest four times! From towering cliffs to hidden coves, ghostly tin mines to lush subtropical wooded creeks. One minute a dramatic rock theatre hewn out of the cliffs, the next a prehistoric fossilized forest or a 20thC Art Deco Island Hotel. What sets The South West Coast Path apart from other trails is that around almost every corner is yet another surprise as you retrace the footsteps and histories of the tin miners, fisherman, smugglers, wreckers and the customs men who chased them.
1st March 2023 - We are now fully booked on our coast path routes until the end of May but please send quote requests in for June onwards as there is availability for the rest of the year. If you do plan to walk between now and June then our inland routes, Coleridge Way, Mendip Way, Saints Way Dartmoor Way and Two Moors Way still have availability for most dates so please get in touch.
Distance - 9 miles Grade - Mainly Stenuous with short more Severe sections - what these grades mean
Dramatic scenery is earnt today as the cretaceous rocks start to appear on what is a strenuous but rewarding day’s rollercoaster walking through the cliffs and coves. After crossing the tiny River Sid on the ornate footbridge you have four energy sapping climbs and descents through valleys that cut through the Jurassic Coastline to contend with. The first, the climb to the top of Sidmouth Gap at Salcombe Hill 500 feet above the waves, is marked with the well named Frog Stone and the Norman Lockyear Observatory. It’s a long descent on steps to the beach at Salcombe Mouth before yet another challenging ascent this time zigzagging above bizarre green tinted cliffs at Dunscombe. All along this section you can still spot small piles of flint waste thought to go back to Neolithic Settlers. Pass through the Wildlife reserve at Weston Mouth and one of those glorious secluded beaches to a run of hairpin descents, remote coves, wild flower meadow and steep cliff climbs including the remains of an iron age hill fort near Littlecombe Hollow in amongst abandoned chalk and lime pits.
A pleasant distraction on the route today is the tranquil village of Branscombe with its Mill, tea rooms, working smithy and pub set around a huddle of cob and thatch cottages in a beautiful and gentle valley. Don’t miss stunning St Winifred’s Church complete with sections of medieval wall paintings and its three tier pulpit and priests hole. All this a far cry from Branscombe’s most recent history when the MSC Napoli beached below the village in 2007 and spilled its load leading to anarchic scenes with an influx of modern day bounty hunters who made off with everything from BMW motorbikes to container loads of nappies. Looters or Modern Day Wreckers you can decide as you reach the same beach on the Devon Coastal Path.
Approaching dramatic Beer Head late in the day a real treat waits, as you enter the rather unearthly and burrowing path that traverses the Hooken Landslip an area where the cliff collapsed back in the 18th Century leaving a chalk undercliff and wide trench.
The whole area is now a draw for both fossil hunters and those seeking the rare fauna that abounds in the chalky undercliff. A final climb from the landslip trail brings you to Beer Head and you have now left the red cliffs for white chalk country and rock now from the Cretaceous Period guides you down to the former smuggling haven of Beer. A breathtaking location this place managed to shed its shady past to earn respectability as a centre for lace production a craft, introduced by its Dutch immigrants. Here you will overnight in a narrow cove wedged below the Chalky Heights, a place where the fishing boats are still launched from the pebble beach and you can explore the famous Beer Stone Quarry Caves a subterranean treat, started by the Romans, used by Beer’s more notorious smugglers and well worth a visit before your final days walk to Lyme Regis.
Overnight stops in Beer and Seaton on the South West Coast Path
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