The tides off this sharp right-angle of cliffs are turbulent, the winds fierce and the reefs many. The lighthouse, built in 1874, was continually undermined by the waves until a sea wall was built to protect it.

Hartland Point marks the realignment of the North Devon coast from south-north to west-east. Geological upheavals hundreds of millions of years old are recorded in the wildly tilted and contorted strata of the cliffs. Inland, the rolling farmland and fields conceal all this ancient subterranean violence.

This walk goes up and down a lot! Your reward is seeing some of the most stunning coast views in the West Country, and certainly one of its finest waterfalls. Starting at the Hartland Quay Hotel, bear left (south) along the Coast Path for a little under a mile to reach Speke’s Mill Mouth and the spectacular fall, more than 200 feet high, that crashes over the cliff and down to the sea in several sections. Then make inland by farm lanes to Kernstone Cross, north to Stoke village and St Nectan’s Church with its painted roof, and back down the road to Hartland Quay.

There have been more than two hundred shipwrecks off Hartland Point and the neighbouring stretch of the North Devon coast; and arriving here on a wild and stormy day you can see why. These black cliffs are not outstandingly high, but they are amazingly sharp and of deadly unevenness. At low tide the sea draws back like a dark lip to expose this coast’s teeth: submerged reefs and snags hidden just under the water. They are remnants of horizontal rock strata turned on end by violent earth movements millions of years ago, then ground down by the sea to wicked points.

Hartland can be a frightening place in a storm, even from the safety of the land. But rough weather is the best weather to enjoy it, when the sea thumps and hisses moodily at the feet of the cliffs and throws the spray about in sheets. This was the scene as I struggled out of the warm bar of the Hartland Quay Hotel and made my way up the steep road to turn north along the South West Peninsula Coast Path. The wind whistled in from the sea, shoving and battering me like a bully on the 2-mile walk up to the lighthouse on Hartland Point (230278). The waves roared, reaching up towards me and then subsiding under a black racing sky. It was tiring walking, and fantastically exhilarating.

Start and refreshments: Hartland Quay Hotel (OS ref 228248)

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.

Map: OS Landranger 190 ‘Bude & Clovelly’

Hartland Quay Museum: Hotel opposite has the key.

Length of walk: 7 miles, circular.

Conditions: This can be an extremely windy walk – take care on the exposed cliff tops.