Christopher Somerville

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


A brisk day on the east Devon coast, with a grey and blue sky racing over the white houses of Sidmouth. From the coast path just east of the town the sea gave the impression of inexorable power as it picked at the sandstone cliffs, staining its shallows a dusky red.

All the flowers of spring were out along the cliff path – primroses, daffodils, celandines, coconut-scented gorse, a feast of yellows. The strong west wind whistled in the blackberry scrub, the waves sighed gently on the shore far below. Beyond the deep cleft of Salcombe Mouth, Higher Duncombe Cliff stood tall, capped with rock faces of orange and yellow exposed by recent falls.

A long flight of steps led down to the valley bottom, handing over there to a slog of a climb by zigzags to the cliff top once more. An oil beetle hauled its shiny carapace up the path among clumps of violets and just-emerging speedwell. Over in the valley of Lincombe we heard the first chiffchaff of the year broadcasting its two-tone claim to ownership of a few square metres of ash saplings and briar bushes: tzip-tzap, tzip-tzap, a proclamation of spring.

Robin and wren contested bragging rights nearby. A pair of jackdaws jousted in the wind, their playfulness contrasting with the furious cries of two herring gulls as they divebombed a circling buzzard.

Down at Weston Mouth we passed the old market gardens of Weston Plats, overgrown and neglected since the days when famous early spuds were grown in these sheltered cliff nooks. A steep path led inland to Slade House Farm where donkeys of all ages and stages find sanctuary. Oldsters trotted and brayed, foals raised their angelic little faces to the visiting children.

In snug little Salcombe Regis daffodils were out in the churchyard. Here lie two eminent scientists who loved this delectable spot – Sir Norman Lockyer (1836-1920), discoverer of helium; and Sir Ambrose Fleming (1849-1945), designer of the radio transmitter with which radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi made the first transatlantic transmission in 1901. Marconi took the credit; Fleming nursed his wounded pride in dignified silence. One hopes the beautiful little village where he chose to be buried soothed his spirit.

How hard is it? 5 miles; moderate/strenuous; clifftop and field paths.
NB: steep climbs and descents; many steps, slippery paths, several stiles.

Start: Salcombe Hill car park, near Sidmouth EX10 0NY (OS ref SY 139881). NT car park – £3, card only (members free).

Getting there: Car park is opposite Norman Lockyer Observatory, Salcombe Hill, between Sidmouth and Salcombe Regis (signed off A3052, Sidmouth-Seaton).

Walk (OS Explorer 115): Past NT payment sign; left on tarmac path; in 150m ahead on stony path to Coast Path (139876). Left; follow Coast Path for 2 miles to Weston Mouth (163880). Left inland (fingerpost/FP, ‘Dunscombe’). In 250m path rises to gate, then FP (162884). Fork right (‘Donkey Sanctuary’). In ½ mile at top of rise by sanctuary buildings, left (161892, 2 stiles, FP ‘Salcombe Regis’). Through sanctuary grounds to road (159851). Dogleg left/right (FP ‘Trow, Salcombe Regis’) and on. In 5th field (153889) half left to stile into road (152888). Right into Salcombe Regis. At road, left (149888), fork left past church; at Southcombe House fork right (148886, ‘South Combe Farm, Coast Path’). In ¼ mile fork right uphill through trees (145883, FP ‘Sidmouth’); at top of climb cross track (143882, FP ‘Salcombe Hill, Car Park); ahead to car park.

Lunch: Donkey Sanctuary, EX10 0NU (01395-578222, thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk)

Accommodation: Blue Ball Inn, Stevens Cross, Sidford EX10 9QL (01395-514062, blueballsidford.co.uk)

Info: visitdevon.co.uk

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

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The Otter Estuary is a remarkable place. Long and thin, it penetrates the English Channel on the outskirts of Budleigh Salterton. This is a place for binoculars and sharp eyes, where wintering birds in their tens of thousands have arrived just now to feed on the invertebrate life of the muddy tideway and marshes.

On this wild, blustery and sunny day it was easy to see why there’s concern for this East Devon coast on account of climate change and rising sea levels. The sandstone cliffs with their sandwiched layers of ancient pebbles are crumbling, the estuaries of Otter and neighbouring Exe eroding.

The sea, flecked with wind-driven whitecaps, was stained a rich red by the sandy mud and rock it had sucked away. It was an extraordinary sight, and a salutary one.

We followed the coast path inland up the Otter Estuary, where the last of the pale blue sea asters starred the saltmarsh and sandpipers pattered fastidiously on the muddy banks. The path in its tunnel of bushes was spattered scarlet with rosehips, crimson with hawthorn peggles and indigo with over-ripe blackberries. A flock of linnets went skimming up the hedge. Inland the ground rose in those steep green slopes so characteristic of the south Devon landscape.

Bright gold buttons of tansy flanked the path into East Budleigh. You can hardly escape the village’s connection with its most celebrated son, Sir Walter Raleigh, born just down the lane. We found a fine statue of the poet-courtier-colonist in doublet and padded hose outside the church where his parents lie buried, and a fine pint of beer and sandwich in the pub that carries his name.

West of East Budleigh ramifies a network of old-style country lanes, high-banked, stony and thick-hedged. From the gate onto bracken-smothered Shortwood Common we had a superb view east along the red and white cliffs of the Jurassic Coast, round the great curve of Lyme Bay as far as the distant hump of the Isle of Portland.

A ferny stretch of old railway path, the swift transition of a golf course, and we were walking down to Budleigh Salterton in a clifftop tunnel of gorse. Before us the wind whistled on, rocking the gorse, clearing the sky to china blue, and whipping up a lacy surf on the red sea shallows.

Start: Lime Kiln car park, Granary Lane, Budleigh Salterton EX9 6JD (OS ref SY 073820)

Getting there: Bus 58 (Exeter)
Road: Budleigh Salterton is signed from A3052 (Exeter-Sidmouth)

Walk (9 miles, easy, OS Explorer 115): Up Otter Estuary on Coast Path. In ⅔ mile pass bridge (075830); in ½ mile, ahead at fork (075839, ‘Otterton’); in 250m through left-hand gate (077841, yellow arrow/YA) on raised path. In 450m cross track (074844, YA); on to road (072844). Left; in 300m cross B3178 (070844); up Lower Budleigh – Middle Street – High Street. Opposite Sir Walter Raleigh PH, down Hayes Lane (066848). In 450m, opposite electricity substation, left (062849) up stony lane. In 200m, on over crossroads (061846); downhill to Hayeswood Lane (062845). Right for ½ mile. 150m beyond right bend, left (054842, kissing gate, fingerpost) on path; in 200m, stile/YA (053840) onto Shortwood Common.

Turn right; don’t go further right, but keep ahead (YA) south across common for 300m, descending to Shortwood Lane (052837, ‘Country Road’). In 250m, at gate on left (052835), sharp right downhill. At road, left (049833). In 100m, right (049832, ‘Permissive Cycleway’). In 250m, right along old railway (047830). In 600m, pass below B3178 (045825); in 300m, under next bridge (043823); in 200m hairpin back left (042821, ‘Castles Lane’) to road (043823). Right; in 200m, fork left (044821); follow lane (‘West Down Beacon’). At golf course, keep ahead (white sticks, YAs, ‘Coastal Path’) for ⅓ mile to coast (045811). Left to Budleigh Salterton.

Lunch: Sir Walter Raleigh PH, East Budleigh (01395-442510)

Accommodation: The Long Range, Vales Rd, Budleigh Salterton EX9 6HS (01395-443321, thelongrangehotel.co.uk)

Info: pebblebedheaths.org.uk; visitsouthdevon.co.uk; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

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

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It’s just as well that the Courtenay family, stout recusants and traditionalists, held such sway in the countryside around Molland back in the 19th century. They didn’t see why Victorian ‘improvers’ should be allowed to lay a finger on the tiny moorland village’s Church of St Mary. So no-one did. What’s survived here is the most perfect Georgian interior, a rare treasure.

We opened the church door on a maze of softly shining box pews, a fine 3-decker pulpit, and the Ten Commandments sternly admonishing us from their place above the low chancel screen. The north arcade leans so dramatically out of kilter that it had to be braced with wooden beams. And the elaborate, faded Courtenay wall monuments are a-bulge with cherubim, swags, scrolls and elaborate encomia.

Daffodils and primroses were struggling out in the churchyard, whipped by a cold wind from the south. We put our backs to it and went trudging up a stony bridleway over the moors that rose to the north in waves of creamy grass and black heather.

Up here it’s all airy bleak and open, proper Exmoor upland where the weather comes hard at you. The views are enormous, across the winter-dried moors to lush pasturelands lower down. A lark sprang up singing, the first of the year, and a group of moorland ponies champed their way along a combe bottom, shaggy manes and tails flailing in the wind.

We followed the hoofmarks of trekking ponies along the bridleway until it reached Anstey Gate. Just down the road we passed a memorial stone to Philip Froude Hancock (1865-1933), genial huntsman and international rugby player. A rugged monument to a rugged man, this 13-ton granite boulder was hauled up here in 1935 by a steam lorry, which almost blew up its boiler climbing the steep Exmoor lanes.

Below Guphill Common we turned back along a moor road, skirting its winter potholes and dipping into muddy combes. A bridleway brought us down into lower country of steep green pastures, where heavily pregnant ewes lumbered off and starlings whistled their jaunty vespers from the bare oak tops far below.

Start: Church car park, Molland, South Molton EX36 3NG (OS ref SS 807284)

Getting there: Molland is signed from B3227 (Hayne Cross intersection on A361).

Walk (6½ miles, rough moorland tracks, some short steep sections, OS Explorer OL9): Up lane between church and London Inn; left by church; in 30m, right on footpath past farmyard, across fields (fingerposts) and Moor Lane (810286). Ahead (yellow arrow/YA); down to cross footbridge (812288); steeply up to gate; up to far right corner of field (814290). Lane to Smallacombe. Follow bridleway (blue arrows) across ford (816291). Fork left; in 100m, ahead (not right; fingerpost). Follow bridleway hoofprints northeast, then east across moor. In ½ mile ignore left fork (821297); keep ahead on track bending gently right over hill ahead.

At Anstey Gate, right along road (835298). In 500m pass memorial stone on left; in another 100m, right opposite boundary stone (840296); between posts, and follow faint track running half-left across Guphill Common, heading for line of trees, then for their right-hand end. At road, right (845288); in 1 mile pass 4-finger post (830293, ‘Molland’). Cross Anstey’s Combe (827294), then the following ford (824294). In 300m, bridleway bends left with hedge-bank; on through gate (821291, fingerpost). Follow it down to road (819282).

Right (‘Molland’); cross stream; immediately right (817283, steps, stile, fingerpost). Steeply up to YA post; up to stile (YA). Follow YAs to road (813283); follow ‘Molland’ to village.

Lunch: London Inn, Molland (01769-550269, londoninnmolland.co.uk)

Accommodation: George Inn, South Molton EX36 3AB (01769-572514, thegeorgesouthmolton.co.uk)

Info: South Molton TIC (01769-572591); satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

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

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As we crossed Stowford Bridge on the northern outskirts of Ivybridge in proper summer sunshine, the slopes of Dartmoor rose to the north under a blue sky. A stony lane brought us up there, climbing between hedges thick with bedstraw and foxgloves, among which the velvety wings of small heath butterflies flicked open and shut.

Out on the moor cattle and sheep grazed, muzzles all down. Two contrasting landscapes lay in view – harsh green and brown slopes of bare moorland ahead, with a white scab of china clay workings to the west, and the broad stretch of the South Hams of Devon behind us, a patchwork of hedges, woodland, green pastures and the yellow squares of meadows just cut for silage.

Extracting china clay was one of the most important Dartmoor industries in bygone times. In 1911 a narrow-gauge tramway was built from Ivybridge to the Redlake works in the middle of the moor. We followed its snaking course along the flanks of Weatherdon Hill, across stream trickles where dragonflies with biplane wings and electric blue bodies hunted the sodden green jungles of moss.

Beyond the piled granite boulders of Hangershell Rock a stone row crossed the old tramway. No-one knows when this monument of stubby, shin-high standing stones was erected – perhaps 4,000 years ago – but here it still stands, defying time and weather.

A harras* of moor ponies was gathered round a pond, their manes and tails streaming like the steeds of pre-Raphaelite knights. Nearby stood Spurrell’s Cross, weather-beaten and stumpy, a marker of pink granite sparkling with mica, raised by medieval monks to mark the meeting place of two of their routes across the moor. Here we sat, munching chocolate eggs (nutritious, no – delicious, yes) and gazing north-east over thirty miles of tumbled lowlands.

From Spurrell’s Cross we headed south towards Wrangaton along the old monks’ road, a groove in the heather and grass worn by countless boots and hooves. We dropped down to cross Lud Brook at a ford of pink granite rubble. At the foot of Western Beacon we found the old tramway once more, and turned along it for home with half of south Devon spread out gloriously before us in the late afternoon sun.

*Please retain this word – it’s the correct term for a group of these wild ponies!
Start: Stowford Bridge, Cole Road, Ivybridge, PL21 0EY approx. (OS ref SX 641567)

Getting there: Rail to Ivybridge (half mile footpath to Stowford Bridge)
Bus 20A (Plymouth – Macandrew Walk, Ivybridge)
Road – Ivybridge is signed off A38 Exeter-Plymouth. Parking spaces on Cole Road near Stowford Bridge.

Walk (7 miles, easy underfoot, OS Explorer OL28): Cross Stowford Bridge (‘Harford’). In 300m, right opposite Stowford Farm (642570, ‘2 Moors Way’/2MW) up lane. In ½ mile, through gate onto moor (645576); half right on 2MW. In ½ mile, left along tramway track (651583). In 1½ miles, right at pond (658599) for 150m to Spurrell’s Cross. From here, south on broad grass track, keeping Ugborough Beacon on left. In ⅔ mile (663589 approx), keep stream valley close on right, descending to ford Lud Brook (662587). Left along right bank; in 400m through gate (661583); down grass path to gate (661579, ‘Private Property’). Right along edge of Access Land; in 100m, through gate; bear left on grass path round lower slopes of Western Beacon. In ½ mile (658572), right along tramway track. In ¾ mile, left (649575) to moor gate; return to start.

Conditions: Best avoided in mist.

Lunch: Picnic

Accommodation: Anchor Inn, Ugborough, PL21 0NG (01752-690388, anchorinnugborough.co.uk) – excellent, comfortable village inn.

visitdartmoor.co.uk; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

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

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Under a blue sky patched with summer clouds we set out from the hilltop village of Cadeleigh, across grazing meadows and hayfields where the grass lay cut but not yet gathered. A heady scent arose as our boots crushed clover and sweet vernal grass. It was perfect weather for summer walking – warm but not too hot, breezy but not too chill.

The fields plunged high and low. This mid-Devon farming country is steep with tree-crowned hills, the fields conforming their shapes to the roll of the land. The far perspectives were all tumbled between green grazing, yellow cut hayfields and the dense milky pink of ploughland. In a coop at Little Century smallholding, fifteen ducklings seethed around two old hens, their foster-mothers. At Well Town, Tommy the black-and-white terrier came out to bark us off his patch – and quite right, too.

Up at Kingdom’s Corner we found a wonderful old green lane of the kind that has threaded these valleys and hills since men began to move beasts across the land. Overhung with oak, ash, hazel and blackthorn, floored with stones and fallen bird cherries, it swooped and swung above the bends of the River Dart in its thickly wooded valley. A barn beside the lane was footed with stone, with upper works of cob – mud, stones and straw sun-baked into hardness. Rain, wind, mice and martins had burrowed it into a tissue of holes across which spider gossamer glittered in tightly drawn threads.

We reached the valley road near Burn Bridge, and turned along a field lane towards Cadeleigh. The green track skirted East Court, where wooden farm carts shared the hedge with an ancient crimson Commer lorry like great-gran’fer used to drive.

The path led between hedges of horehound, wood sage and flesh-pink centaury. We found ourselves passing through flickering clouds of meadow brown butterflies. They had all hatched at once, drawn out of their chrysalises by the sun’s warmth. The new butterflies blundered about the grasses and danced along the lane before us, whirling giddily round and round one another as though for sheer joy of the summer’s day.

Start: Cadeleigh Parish Hall car park, Cadeleigh, Devon EX16 8HW (OS ref SS 915081)

Getting there: M5 Jct 27, A361 to Tiverton, A396 to Bickleigh Bridge, A3072 (‘Crediton’); in ¼ mile, right (‘Cadeleigh’) to village. Pass Cadeleigh Arms PH on right; immediately right (‘Little Silver’). In 200m, Parish Hall on right; park opposite.

Walk (7 miles, strenuous, OS Explorer 114): Turn up Glebelands drive (‘footpath’). Through farmyard and on, following yellow arrows/YA along field edges. In 3rd field, go steeply downhill with trees on left, then bear right along bottom of field to driveway (911087, YA). Left; in 40m, left over stile (YA). Up track, then cross to right-hand hedge (YA). Continue, to go through hedge gap (YA). Down to cross stile under trees; over 2nd stile and cross stream (911088, YA).

Steeply up right-hand hedge to cross stile into Round Wood; left and follow YAs/red blobs through wood, to cross stream by stile (908091). Half left, steeply up field; through hedge (YA); up field with hedge on left. Half left across next field (YA) to cross farm road (906094). On through gate (YA); half left across field to skirt to right of house and garden at Well Town. Through gate (YA) onto drive; right for 350m to road at Kingdom’s Corner (905099).

Right along road, immediately right (‘Bridleway’). Follow green lane east for ¾ mile to tarmac lane; ahead for 100m to road (917096). Right; in 50m, fork left up stony lane. In 500m, descend through gate by barn (blue arrow/BA); right in front of cottage to road (921092). Left; in 50 m, right (‘Bridleway’) along lane. In ⅔ mile pass Dart Cottages (928085); at ford beyond, fork right (BA) along right bank of River Dart. Ignore YAs and continue along stony lane for ⅓ mile to road (931079).

Right; in 200m, opposite steps of The Coach House, fork left (‘footpath’) along lane. In ¼ mile, beyond barns, take right or upper fork (927077, YA; diversion notice on gatepost) past East Court. In another 150m take lower fork (‘footpath’) past barn and follow green lane. At gate into field before reaching Cadeleigh Court (922075, YA) aim half right across field to gate (hidden at first, soon in view, YA). On along track that skirts anticlockwise round farm. At T-junction by Manor House garden wall, right (919074, YA) on lane for ½ mile to road (911073). Right uphill for ½ mile into Cadeleigh.

Lunch: Cadeleigh Arms, Cadeleigh (01884-855238, cadeleigh.com) – excellent community-owned pub

Accommodation: East Dunster Deer Farm, Cadeleigh, EX16 8HR (01884-855386, airbnb.co.uk)

Info: Tiverton TIC (01884-230878); Cadeleigh village website, cadeleigh.com

visitengland.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk