Christopher Somerville

A fresh cold day with a dilute blue sky over the mid-Devon woods and fields. First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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The little Tarka Line train rattled away north from Morchard Road station into Henry Williamson country. I was glad to swap the rush of lorries on the Barnstaple road for the call and response of ewes and their new-born lambs in the steep green fields. The farmer had been deep ploughing around Oakview; I stumbled among the ruts, and came down to Middle Yeo Farm with boots as heavy as the Emperor of China’s famed iron shoes.
Beyond Old Mill I threaded a resinous pine plantation and took the stony lane up to Zeal Monachorum, where a feeble spring sun was shining on the thatched roofs and thick cob walls. The village lay tightly stretched along its ridge-top, the sloping lanes full of sparrow twitter and the cooing of ring doves. In the rough lane down to Tucking Mill Bridge, a robin gripped a hawthorn twig six feet away in the hedge and sang quite unafraid into my face. The old tucking or cloth-fulling mill lay among daffodils. and periwinkles just above the two-arched bridge, its tin roof and timbers sliding into a green ruin, the double hoop of the mill wheel still attached to the outside wall.
In the fields at Oak Tree Farm two black-faced lambs bounded for safety in the hedge, their mother’s cracked bellow of a call as throaty and querulous as a gin-soaked duchess. ‘Come hyyyaaaah!’ The farmer at Lower Thorne found me fumbling with a tricky horse-proof gate. ‘Pull it up! If you were a proper walker,’ he teased in a gentle Devon burr, ‘you’d have known that!’ How long had he lived here? ‘Oh, about seventy years. See that old house?’ He pointed at a beautiful thatched cottage across the fields. ‘Lammacott – I was born in that house, so I haven’t travelled far.’
Up at Down St Mary, another ridge-top village, I admired the tympanum carved over the south door of St Mary’s Church, a calmly smiling figure assailed by demonic beasts with palm-frond tails. Seven hundred years old? Eight hundred? The drama, the vigour and humour of the work shine through, now as then – a contact with the medieval stonemason as warm and direct as a handshake across the centuries.

Start: Morchard Road station, EX17 5LR (OS ref SS 750051)
Getting there: Rail (thetrainline.com; railcard.co.uk) to Morchard Road.
Road: Morchard Road station is between Copplestone and Lapford on A377 Crediton-Barnstaple road.
Walk: (6½ miles, moderate, OS Explorer 113): From station cross A377; take B3220 (‘Winkleigh’). In 300m, left through gate (747051, yellow arrow/YA) up Ellicombe Farm drive. Don’t fork left to Ellicombe House. By entrance pillars to red brick house, left through gate (745050, YA); follow fence round to right. Pass house; continue along hedge; through kissing gate to right of tin shed (744050). Right through metal gate (YA); immediately left through another metal gate (YA). Pass a tree (ignore gate on skyline to right here); keep ahead up bottom of shallow valley, rising to go through gate at far end (741049). Left (YA); over stile into lane.
Left for 200m; right up steps, over stile (742047). Down left-hand hedge; cross stile and turn left (741047, YA) along hedge. At end of field through gate (741045); right (YA) along irregular edge of field for 400m, with Oakview house on your left. At end of field, right over stile (737045, YA) over stream and stile beyond. Half left across field to cross 2 stiles in far top left corner (737046, YAs). In 30m, left over stile (YA); follow hedge to Middle Yeo Farm lane (733046). Left to road (733045). Right downhill. Just before bridge at The Old Mill, left through gate (732044, fingerpost), and follow YAs and stiles with river on right for ½ mile. At end of plantation, turn right across river by tall footbridge (726039); follow stony lane opposite uphill to road in Zeal Monachorum (721041).
Left; at phone box by church, left downhill (720040, ‘Bow’). At foot of slope left along ‘No Through Road’ (720038; ‘The Waie Inn’) past Waie Inn and on downhill to cross Tucking Mill Bridge (724035). Right (‘Bridleway’). At cottage, left (YA); in 20m, left up track. In 100m at field entrance, bear left and follow inside edge of wood to cross stile (725034, YA). Cross field; through gates; follow hedge on your right. In 200m, at bottom of dip, right over stile and through gate (729034, YAs); left along hedge, cross stream and go through gate (731033, fingerpost). Cross field, aiming for left-hand of 2 trees ahead. Through gate into lane (733033).
Ignore footpath fingerpost pointing right along lane; go through gate to right of Merrifield drive; diagonally right across field; through gate on far side (735031, YA). Left with hedge on left; at far end of field, descend to go through kissing gate (YA) and cross stream in dell (738032). Keep hedge on right to reach gate into lane at Lower Thorne (741032). Left; in 20m, sharp right (fingerpost) through several gates and farmyard. Continue on path across fields (YAs). In dip, through wood (744032), crossing stream and bearing left downhill to stile. Cross field to bridleway by cottage (736033). Left for ½ mile to road (741040); right uphill through Down St Mary.
Pass church (743045) and on (‘Morchard Road’). In 150m, left over stile (744046, YA, fingerpost). Follow right-hand hedge, then centre of long field downhill to two neighbouring metal and wooden gates. Turn right through wooden gate (744050); retrace steps to Morchard Road station.
Lunch/accommodation: Waie Inn, Zeal Monachorum (01363-82348; waieinn.co.uk); Devonshire Dumpling, Morchard Road (01363-85102; devonshiredumpling.com)
‘Tarka Line Walks’ by Peter Craske (Crimson Publishing) – 60 walks in the locality.
Exmoor Walking Festival: 27 April-6 May (exmoorwalkingfestival.co.uk)
Info: Exeter TIC (01392-665700)
visitdevon.co.uk vistengland.com www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk
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Rain, rain, rain. For goodness sake, Clerk of the Weather, give it a rest, will you? Ah, here we go … half a day of respite, tentatively forecast. Right, where’s the boots? Quick, now – down to the east Devon coast, to the steep green valleys around beautiful, tucked-away Branscombe. First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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There was scarcely another soul out on the South West Coast Path as we climbed west away from the pebbly beach at Branscombe Mouth. At the top of West Cliff we stopped and stared back at the majestic eastward view – the long grey skirt of the beach with its lace hem of surf, the towers and spires of Hooken Cliffs, and the giant landslips that had exposed white chalk faces above jungly undercliff ledges of fallen rock, tier upon tier, poised to crumble in their turn onto the foreshore 400 feet below. The cliffs of this dynamic coast seem massively weighty and immobile, yet they are forever slipping and sliding seaward.

Wild flowers grow here in generous variety – pyramidal orchids, yellow rockrose with crumpled petals, royal blue spikes of viper’s bugloss, the weird-looking bell flowers of psychoactive henbane with petals varicosely veined in purple. Out on Berry Cliff the forward view showed great red cliffs of sandstone, Sidmouth a huddle of houses shining white in a rare shaft of sun, and the Devon coast trending south and west in a sweep of rain-washed blues and pinks.

From the grassy ramparts of Berry Camp hill fort we turned inland past Berry Barton where peacocks stepped fastidiously through the farmyard muck. Steeply down to Cotte Barton, steeply up again and over the ridge; rollercoaster country where the path swung through wet woods past houses ancient and modest, modern and brash. The sky lowered and spat every so often, the flowery hillsides wept streamlets and sprouted rain-pearled yellow flags and intense blue trails of brooklime. A soaking wet walk, and a sensationally beautiful one.

Back at the Old Bakery in Branscombe, home-made leek and potato soup was on the bubble. Treacle tart, too? Sure. Clotted cream with that? As Brian Ferry said – you can guess the rest …

Start & finish: Branscombe Mouth car park, Branscombe, Devon EX12 3DP (OS ref SY 207882)
Getting there: Bus – 899 Coasthopper (Seaton-Sidmouth, jurassiccoast.com). Road – Branscombe is signposted off A3052 Exeter-Lyme Regis

Walk (5 miles, moderate/hard grade, OS Explorer 115): From car park go to sea front; fork right up track past Sea Shanty Café. Through kissing gate (‘Coast Path/CP, Weston Mouth’); on across 2 fields; steeply up to your left to go through kissing gate (205882); up steps, and follow CP through woods for ¾ mile. By a gate, left (192883; fingerpost); follow CP along Berry Cliff. In ⅓ mile, pass through kissing gate (187882; yellow arrow/YA) at western end of Berry Camp rampart; in another 300m, at 4-finger post (184883; ‘Berry Barton’), hairpin back to right across field. In 300m, left at stone-walled kissing gate (187884; fingerpost) up farm lane to road at Berry Barton (184887). Left for 150m; right through gate (183888; no YA); immediately right through adjacent gate (no YA); on above Berry Barton farmhouse. In 150m, left at YA; follow hedge and YAs over ridge and down at edge of trees (NB very steep and slippy!) to road near Cotte Barton (186890).

Left for 100m; right past fingerpost, through wicket gate at left side of house, and up path through scrub and long grass (beware nettles!) to edge of field (185892). Right to fence; left along it, soon crossing through and continuing up fence/hedge to cross airstrip (186893; warning signs, take care!) and then Northern Lane (186894). Go through gate opposite (‘Bridleway, Hole House’); follow green lane for ⅓ mile down to Hole House (191894). Bear left past front of house and down lane; in 50m, right over stile (fingerpost). Follow contour of hillside ahead, then steeply down to cross brook by footbridge (193894). Right (YA) along hillside path for ¼ mile, rising to gate into road (196891). Right; in ¼ mile, right at staggered crossroads (198882) to Branscombe Forge and Old Bakery. Back to crossroads; right along lane (‘Branscombe Mouth, Coast Path’). Follow path through fields to Branscombe Mouth and car park.

Branscombe Mouth car park – Coast Path west for 1⅔ miles. 300m past west rampart of Berry Camp, right (184883) across fields; up farm lane (187884) to Berry Barton (184887). Left along road for 150m; right over fields past house; left (YA) over ridge, steeply down to road at Cotte Barton (186890). Left for 100m; right past house, up hillside; over airstrip (186893) and Northern Lane (186894). Green lane opposite for ⅓ mile to Hole House (191894). Left down lane; in 50m, right over stile (fingerpost); along hillside, down to cross brook (193894); right along hillside for ¼ mile to road (196891). Right to crossroads in Branscombe (198882); right to Forge and Old Bakery. Back to crossroads; right (‘Branscombe Mouth’) to car park.

Conditions: Some paths very steep, slippery, narrow. Walking stick/pole, shoes with good grip advised.

Lunch: Old Bakery, Branscombe (01297-680333) – excellent home-made food
Accommodation: Mason’s Arms (01297-680300; masonsarms.co.uk) or Great Seaside B&B (01297-680470; greatseaside.co.uk), Branscombe
Info: nationaltrust.org.uk/branscombe-bakery-mill-and-forge/
Sidmouth TIC (01395-519333); visitdevon.co.uk
Subscriber Walks: Enjoy a walk with Christopher Somerville in the Mourne Mountains, Co. Down, N. Ireland, 8 July. Email timespluspartners@newsint.co.uk to book. Tickets £10.
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk

Blues and folk, cream teas, own bakery, story-telling, art exhibitions, and a perfect setting by the River Otter at the edge of a village of cob and sandstone cottages under thatch.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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No wonder Otterton Mill café is as popular in summer as a cold beer on a hot day. We could have squeezed there in for a pre-walk cuppa, but the call of riverbank, estuary and rugged red cliffs was too strong on this beautiful afternoon along the South Devon coast. We crossed the three old arches of Otterton Bridge instead, and walked off downriver along the slow-flowing Otter.

This is flat green river country bounded by low hills, the Otter running shallow and red over ridges of shillets that trailed green hanks of weed, rippling silkily like mermaid hair. ‘Have you seen the grey mullet?’ enquired a fisherman. ‘In the shallows, look.’ There they were, a long shoal sinuating with the stream. ‘I’m going to attempt to catch one – but they’re pretty shy.’ He flicked a lure into the water and drew it wobbling and flashing past the noses of the unmoving mullet.

We crossed the river and went on beside ripe wheatfields glistening in the sun. Down at the river mouth a pebble spit has almost closed off the Otter’s estuary from the sea. Gulls called mournfully over the piled roofs of Budleigh Salterton, wetsuited youngsters shrieked the echoes out of caves, and surf sighed on the stony ridge – essence of the sounds of summer.

The dusty coast path led north along cliffs striated and weather-bitten, their strata dipping eastward in a mighty curve through the white sprinkle of Sidmouth, the tall red triangle of Dunscombe Cliffs and a far white smudge of chalk at distant Beer Head. Fulmars and kittiwakes planed along the line of the cliff edge, and the dark purposeful shape of a peregrine went dashing by at head height. Inland, a bare field of pigs rooted among pink stones, seagulls whirled, and a farmer in a red tractor got his straw bales organised in a newly harvested field.

Above Smallstones Point we pulled up to stare across the great layered rock stacks in Ladram Bay, lambent and crimson in the late sun – a famous view, one that always delivers a pure jolt of delight. One more glance along the pink and white coast, and we headed along green lanes through the stubble fields towards Otterton and that well-earned cream tea.

Start & finish: Otterton Mill, Otterton, S. Devon EX9 7HG (OS ref SY 080851)

Getting there: A3052 (Exeter – Sidmouth); B3178 at Newton Poppleford (‘Budleigh Salterton’). In 3 miles, Otterton signposted at Brick Cross. Park in village.

WALK (6 miles, easy grade, Explorer 115):
From Otterton Mill cross River Otter bridge; left along riverbank footpath. In two thirds of a mile don’t cross Clamour Bridge: continue on right bank to cross next bridge (075830, ‘Ladram Bay, Coast Path’/CP). Don’t turn right immediately along river; keep ahead on road for 100 m, then right (CP) on path to coast. Follow CP arrows to left along cliffs for 2 miles. At ‘Otterton half a mile’ fingerpost (094848), ahead for 50 m to view Ladram Bay; return and follow path (soon green lane) inland. Left at gate of Monk’s Thatch to road (089849). Left for 100 m; right along Lea Lane (‘Unmetalled Road’). Just after right bend, keep ahead (085847; black arrow) to road in Otterton (085852). Left; follow lane past church to village.

LUNCH: Otterton Mill (01395-568521; www.ottertonmill.com)

MORE INFO: Budleigh Salterton TIC (01395-445275); www.visitdevon.co.uk
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk
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A brisk, blowy, blustering day on the North Devon coast, with a scudding grey sky and big Atlantic waves racing onshore to smash against the wicked black rock teeth of the cliffs. I actually felt the ground quake beneath me as I pushed north into the wind along the line between sea and land, wondering whether leaving the warmth and light of the Hartland Quay Hotel had been a good idea after all.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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Tides are strong and cross-currents treacherous out at Hartland Point, where the Devon coast cuts at right angles from north to east on its outer entrance to the Bristol Channel. Curved and contorted bands of sandstone, ground by the sea into upturned razor edges, lie just below the surface – they have brought thousands of sailing ships to grief down the years. I paused by the lighthouse on the point and took a last breathless prospect of dark sky, dark sea and black rock before heading inland along the high-hedged lanes so characteristic of this part of the world.

In the shelter of the lanes the wind, roaring high overhead, scarcely trembled a leaf. The loom of the ground shut away the hiss and crash of sea against rocks. I threaded the deep holloways past farms with Betjemanic names – Blagdon and Blegberry, Berry and Wargery – with the sounds of trickling water and tentative robin song for company.

In the ridge-top village of Stoke, master craftsmen down the centuries have beautified St Nectan’s Church. I admired the Tudor panelling of the rood screen, all slender ribs and exquisite floral detail, and the roof with its coruscating stars and carved bosses. Then it was out and on along the field lanes, dropping down to the cliffs and the roar of the wind once more.

The great waterfall at Speke’s Mill Mouth was a lace veil blown to rags, the floor of the cove a seethe of white foam among black rock scars. Above the green shark’s tooth of St Catherine’s Tor a raven was struggling unavailingly to fly north, kept at a standstill in mid-air by the counterblast of the wind. I put my head down and shoved on, a midget in motion among the huge forces of nature. Later, sitting in the warm bar of the Hartland Quay Hotel, I found my cup of tea tasted salty – legacy of all the sea wind and spray absorbed by my beard on this wild and entrancing walk.

Getting there: M5 to Jct 27; A361 to Bideford; A39 towards Bude. ¼ mile beyond B3237 Clovelly turning, bear right on minor road to Hartland and Hartland Quay.

Walk (7½ miles, moderate/hard grade, OS Explorer 126): South West Coast Path/SWCP (fingerposts, acorn symbols) north to Hartland Point. Just before radar station, inland. In 100 m, ahead (‘bridleway, Blegberry’) past Blagdon Farm; bridleway for 3/4 mile to road. Right to Blegberry Farm. Left (‘unmetalled road’); green lane for ½ mile to road. Ahead past Berry Farm, across Abbey River; road up to Stoke. Left; immediately right up lane by Rose Cottage. In 200 yards pass ‘Unsuitable for Motors’; keep ahead for a good half-mile. At Wargery, right to road at Kernstone Cross; right (‘Kernstone’) for 450 m to T-junction; left through gate (‘Speke’s Mill Mouth’) on grass path; SWCP north to Hartland Quay Hotel.

NB – Online maps, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Conditions
Beware strong wind gusts on exposed cliff tops! Many steps, many climbs and descents. Allow 3-4 hours.

Lunch: Hartland Quay Hotel (01237-441218;
www.hartlandquayhotel.co.uk) – friendly, characterful and welcoming.

More info Bideford TIC (01237-477676);
http://www.visitdevon.co.uk/site/areas-to-visit/north-devon-and-exmoor;
www.ramblers.org.uk;
www.satmap.com

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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I hadn't made a mistake after thirty years – the ridgetop village of Drewsteignton, perched on the northern edge of Dartmoor, was still totally charming. There were the pretty cottages and the Drewe Arms as I recalled them, bowed low under thatch on the diminutive village square, all presided over by the tall tower of Holy Trinity church. When I was last here the pub had been run as a front-room business by Mabel Mudge, 83 years old and spry as a lamb. ‘Oh, you remember Mabel!’ smiled the man I got chatting to on the path over to the River Teign. ‘Yes, she retired when she got to 99. Seventy-five years she ran that place, and it never changed a bit.’

There was a wonderful view from the neighbouring ridge back to Drewsteignton huddled on its hilltop, and a sight of moor ponies grazing the gorse with streaming manes and tails. The bridlepath ran at the rim of the Teign’s steep wooded gorge, then slanted down through oak and silver birch to where the river ran flashing with sunlight under the three ancient arches of Fingle Bridge. I lingered, watching children skimming stones between the cutwaters, before following the Fisherman’s Path on its rocky, rooty, twisting way, close above the river.

A gang of four tiny tots hooted and squeaked as they fished for bubbles with sticks, and high overhead a buzzard went circling over the walls of Castle Drogo. At the bridge below the castle I struck up a side path, climbing past the L-shaped thatched house of Coombe, snug among fruit trees in its peach of a dell.

If there was ever a fairy-tale castle … Castle Drogo looks down from a spur of rock, 300 feet to the Teign in the wooded gorge below. Edwardian tea tycoon Julius Drew excavated himself a Norman ancestry, decided to build himself a proper old castle, and got Sir Edwin Luyens to make his dream come true in stark granite. No Mad King Ludwig touches here – all is plain, strong and massive, a triumph of restraint. Marked ways lead from the gorge paths to the castle by way of beautiful gardens of roses and spring flowers. No wonder Drogo is called ‘the last great castle in England’.

When I got back to Drewsteignton and into the Drewe Arms, I saw it had changed – more than a bit. But it’s still a cosy place to raise a glass under the beams in celebration of Mabel Mudge and all that’s great about the West Country village pub.

Start & finish: Drewe Arms, Drewsteignton, Devon EX6 6QN (OS ref SX 736908)

Getting there: Bus – Dartline 173 (Exeter-Chagford), Country Bus 279 (Totnes-Okehampton; Sundays, public hols). Road: From A30 east of Okehampton, A382 through Whiddon Down. In ½ a mile, Drewsteignton signed to left.

Walk (6 miles, moderate, OS Explorer OL28): From Drewsteignton Square, left; round right bend; 20 yards past old school, left (‘2 Moors Way’/MW) down lane. Ahead in bottom of valley (‘Castle Drogo/CD’) up steps. Follow fence up fields and over ridge. Through kissing gate; in 15 yards, left (732900); follow ‘Fingle Bridge’ fingerposts for 3/4 of a mile down to road (743901). Right to Fingle Bridge; don’t cross; right along river (‘Fisherman’s Path, CD’) for 1 ½ miles to bridge below Castle Drogo (721895). Right uphill (CD). In 1/3 of a mile, right (720900; ‘Hunter’s Path’); follow MW back to Drewsteignton.

Some steep steps; some rocky ledges in gorge with handrail (watch kids/dogs!)

NB – Online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Lunch: Drewe Arms, Drewsteignton (01647-281224; www.thedrewearms.co.uk); Fingle Bridge Inn (01647-281287; www.finglebridgeinn.com)

Castle Drogo (NT): 01647-434118; www.nationaltrust.org.uk/castledrogo/)

Mabel Mudge: http://yeosociety.com/biographies/Aunt%20Mabel.htm

More info: Okehampton TIC (01837-53020); www.visitdevon.co.uk; www.ramblers.org.uk