Category: Walking

Porlock to Lynmouth

Marshy bits, ups and downs, a tiny church and a couple of ticks.

I woke up early after a good first night’s sleep in my tent and was raring to go. It would have made sense to start my walking by going to Minehead and walking back to Porlock and the campsite. Minehead is the beginning of the Southwest Coast Path after all. But as the first bus to Minehead doesn’t get in until almost 12 o’clock and I was ready to get going I decided to leave this walk until tomorrow and do the Porlock to Lymouth stretch today.

The way to the beach led through a marshy area

I started by walking down Sparkhayes Lane to the beach which is a good half mile or so. The beach isn’t a sandy sunbathing type of beach, but rather a pebbley and marshy affair. It was getting the full blast of the wind too. In 1996 the natural shingle ridge across Porlock Bay was breached by a storm, resulting in the flooding of the fields behind at each high tide. This means the official path has had to be moved inland a bit. The signs were quite confusing so I just walked on towards Porlock Weir. I thought I’d know if I was on the old path as it would become impassable and I’d have to turn back. However, once I got to Porlock Weir I saw a much clearer sign that pointed out that I had walked the closed part of the path. Hmm, was that why I’d had to wade through that bit of a slippery, green-slime-filled river?


Porlock Weir
Old groynes on the beach. 

Once I arrived in Porlock Weir (about 2 miles further on) the wind dropped and the sun came out. I sat at a picnic bench looking out to sea and ate my breakfast. Then I had a wander round the tiny village – thatched cottages, boats and an old pub – all very pretty. There’s supposed to be the remains of an ancient forest here which can sometimes be seen when the tide is out. Well, the tide was out, but I couldn’t see the forest. Unless of course, I was confusing it with all the old groynes that were around. 

From here the path was clearly marked all the way and very easy to follow. I only needed to refer to my map when I wanted to check distances or whereabouts I was. It became very wooded and was slightly inland. This meant that apart from occasional tantalising glimpses of the sea through the trees, it felt very much like a woodland walk. This was pretty much the theme for the rest of the day.

A couple of short tunnels in the woods

The path from Porlock Weir led upwards and into Yearnor Wood. A short while on I passed the end of the toll road with big arches for cars to go through. The signs said the toll road goes to Lynmouth but I wasn’t sure about this as on the map it seems to finish at the main road a long way from Lynmouth. Next I had to walk through a couple of tunnels and past signs pointing down to the beach. It was too much of a detour though as I had a bus to catch to get back to the campsite. So I had to be in Lynmouth for 5pm. There are so few buses on these routes that, although I enjoyed myself and saw and did plenty, I still felt rushed a lot of the time. 

Culbone Church

I did stop at Culbone Church. This is really hidden on the banks of a river down in a bit of a valley. The church is dedicated to St Beuno  and is apparently the smallest complete parish church in England at only 35ft long. It’s main structure dates from the 12th century. I had a look inside and immediately felt the hush. It made me realise just how noisy it actually was outside in the woods with so many birds everywhere. 

I didn’t see many people on the walk until I got to County Gate which is the border between Somerset and Devon. There is a car park and so a couple of groups of people had wandered down to the Coast Path from there. They didn’t seem interested in actually going anywhere once they got to the path though, so soon I was on my own again.

The path got a bit hillier and there were quite a few detours where the original path had slipped. One detour seemed almost vertical and was very sandy so my feet couldn’t get any grip. There was nothing to grab hold of and even my sticks kept slipping. That was the only tricky bit though, and even that was only a very short bit. 

Lynmouth can be seen in the distance

All in all I walked about 15 miles and climbed 934m (according to the coastal path website). This wasn’t one big climb, but was continual ascents and descents. By the time I was within the last few miles of Lynmouth my knees were causing me quite a bit of pain and I could feel them swelling up. This slowed me down a bit meaning I only got to Lynmouth about 10 minutes before the bus was due to leave, so I didn’t get chance to have a look around. Despite the pain, I’d really enjoyed my first day’s walking.


There were signs up in quite a few places warning of ticks in the area. I’ve been in plenty of places before with ticks but never had any attach themselves to me. So I had another first when I later got ready for the shower and found 2 small ticks firmly attached to my left leg. Tweezers easily got rid of them, so as long as I don’t contract Lyme disease they weren’t a problem.

Exmoor

I’m planning a half-term trip to Exmoor and want to start walking the South West Coast Path from the beginning.

The weekend after next is the start of half term. I’m planning to drive down to Exmoor to spend the week walking. Usually when I go to the south west I feel as though I have to go as far as possible and always end up down near Land’s End. But this time I thought I’d stop and see some of the places I usually speed past.

Continue reading “Exmoor”

The Ramblers

Joining the Ramblers and finding out their office staff aren’t very good at map-reading.

I’ve recently rejoined the Ramblers. I was a member a few years ago and although I only ever went on one walk with them, I did like the magazines and I like the idea of supporting them as a pressure group. They do a lot of good work keeping public footpaths open and fighting for rights of way. When my membership expired I couldn’t afford to renew it. I’ve always intended renewing but never got round to it. Now that I’m getting serious about walking and a future life involving the outdoors I thought it a good idea to rejoin.

My welcome pack has just arrived. I’ve got the latest magazine and a note saying I should receive the new handbook in the next few weeks. Unfortunately they seem to have signed me up to the Upper Wharfedale group. From what I can make out the walks all seem to be aimed at people living in Leeds and Bradford and their surrounding areas. There must be a group closer than a couple of hours drive away! I can’t remember which group I was assigned to last time; maybe Stockport or Derbyshire? So I’ll have to contact them and ask them to find me a closer group. It’s a tad concerning though that a national association involved with maps, distances, areas and so on doesn’t seem to know that Manchester isn’t a suburb of Leeds!

Hathersage Walk

A circular walk from Hathersage

Jean, the mother of a friend from Kent, has just spent the weekend with me. She wanted to see a bit of Manchester, but most of all she wanted to do a walk from Hathersage as she missed out on a trip there with her walking group earlier in the year. We planned to do the walk on Saturday, but changed it to Sunday when we saw the weather report. This turned out to be the right decision as we got a wonderful day, whereas on Saturday it had rained heavily for most of the day.

One of the tasks on my list is to get my walking group leader’s qualification. I would like to start on this fairly soon and to do it I need to log walks I have done in 3 different areas of the country. The Peak District will definitely be my main area as this is my regular stomping ground. I haven’t walked for months though. Firstly because I’ve been incredibly busy and secondly because I had an accident involving a car and a house that put me out of action for a while. So as it was my first time walking seriously in a few months we didn’t choose a particularly strenuous walk.

We started off parking in Hathersage and buying sandwiches (oven bottom muffins) and eccles cakes in the local bakery to have for our lunch. Jean was surprised to see signs on the local pubs and cafes saying ‘muddy boots and dogs welcome’. Muddy boots and dogs are usually not at all welcome in Kent!

path through dappled woods with wild garlic - Hathersage walk - www.invertedsheep.com
Foraging wild garlic as we walked through sun-dappled woods

Our walk took us across fields to join up with the River Derwent, which we then followed for a while. Our walk book did a slightly bigger loop, but this would have taken us away from the river and it was so nice walking along the bank it would have been a shame not to. We walked through a wood alongside the river with bluebells to one side of the path and wild garlic to the other. This meant lots of stops for photos and to munch on the wild garlic flowers. We crossed at the stepping stones and had fun taking more photos as we jumped across them.

large boulder stepping stones across the river - Hathersage walk - www.invertedsheep.com
Hopping across the stepping stones

We then headed up away from the river. When we came across a field of cows with a sign telling us we could buy ice cream from these very cows we felt obliged to take the slight detour involved to get to Thorpe Farm, home of Hope Valley ice cream. Well, it would be rude not to wouldn’t it? Especially when they’d gone to all the trouble of putting signs up. So after choosing our cow we strolled down to the farm. The ice cream (or hot chocolate if it’s a cold day) is made on the farm with milk from the cows. What a great example of diversification! After enjoying a very large cone of panacotta, chocolate and coffee ice cream it was with heavy legs we set off again. Really, it seemed to have gone straight to my legs. 

Sign on fence - Hathersage walk - www.invertedsheep.com
Choose your cow, then go get an ice cream

We continued walking to get to the northern most point of our walk which was near Green’s House. A local artist called Lyn Littlewood has a studio here and she had signs up saying she was open. I last did this particular walk 7 years ago with Louise, Jean’s daughter. We called in the gallery then and Lou bought a painting for which we later had to call back to collect with the car. It was only when I went in the gallery this time that I realised she only actually opens her studio one weekend a year. What a coincidence that both times I’ve done the walk it’s been when she’s been open! The garden was also open so after a look around the studio we walked round the garden so I could pinch ideas for my own tiny yard and garden.

2 ice cream cones - Hathersage walk - www.invertedsheep.com
Zero miles ice cream, fresh from the cow!

When we left Green’s House the walk headed south more or less in a straight line all the way back to Hathersage. When we stopped to look behind us we could see the magnificent Stanage Edge outlined against the horizon. We dropped into a wood and found a well-placed bench by a foot bridge where two small, but speedy streams joined. The whole area was full of bluebells and dappled by the sun. And we had it all to ourselves. We knew we wouldn’t find a better place to have lunch so stopped to eat our oven bottoms.

View across fields and woods to Stanage Edge - Hathersage walk - www.invertedsheep.com
Stanage Edge in the distance

As we continued our walk we passed more of the halls thought to have belonged to the Eyre family. We’d seen some earlier on in the walk too. This was the family from whom Charlotte Bronte borrowed the name for her most famous character and novel. They owned seven halls – they’d had to buy them for their children. No-one’s exactly sure which seven they are now, but they have a pretty good idea. Although these halls are nice and fit in with the area we did pass one on our right that can only be described as a monstrosity. It was a collection of over manicured gardens, precisely placed over-large Italian style vases, a long (very long) drive with horse head sculptures on the over-large gates … everything stood out like a sore thumb and was a total blot on the landscape. The only thing that could be said to be good about it, is that it is a good example of how money can’t buy taste! 

Rant over …

white building and large stone marking Little John's grave - Hathersage walk - www.invertedsheep.com
Little John’s Grave

Towards the end of our walk we called in at Hathersage Church to have a look at Little John’s grave and to have a cup of tea and a slice (ok, a wedge) of victoria sponge. There are quite a few Robin Hood connections in the area, the Little John grave being just one of them. It’s thought feasible (if he existed at all) as in 1784 when the grave was opened a thigh bone that could only have belonged to a man over 7 feet tall was found. 

This was our final stop and after our cake we walked back into Hathersage and to the car. We’d walked just under 7 miles and it had taken us 6.5 hours! This was because of all our stops. We’d had a great day though and felt like we’d done much more than just a walk.