Branscombe to Lyme Regis and Uplyme

Walked by Sally and Richard, Friday 26th April 2013.

About 15 miles, 11.5 miles on the official route of the South West Coast Path, 12.5 miles on the official JordanWalks route! About 8.5 hours, including stops.

Click here for all our photos from this walk.

We had an excellent breakfast at The Masons Arms. Our room (in the cottages shown on the right) cost us £80 for the night - that was good value; the room was a bit small but OK, the staff were friendly and the food was first class (I'd particularly recommend the mushrooms at breakfast). However our room was in their cheapest category -  would I pay £180 per night  to stay there? I'm afraid I wouldn't, maybe because I'm mean. And of course the other problem with hotels that charge that much (or much more) is the pretentious nature of some (not all!) of the people who stay there. Ah well, at least it provided amusement over breakfast.

We left The Masons Arms at 9.30am and walked back down to Branscombe Mouth, stopping to photograph Branscombe Church in its idyllic setting in the distance. At Branscombe Mouth we photographed the view back towards Sidmouth, which looked very different on this sunny morning, and we read the information boards about the break up of the Napoli, the geology of the area and the Great Hooken Cliff landslip - nearly 10 acres of land dropped nearly 100 metres one night in March 1790. 

There is a choice of route from this point, either straight up to the top of the cliff or across the 'Under Hooken'  - we chose the latter, which was probably harder walking, as the path meandered its way across the landslip, but it was most enjoyable. The path initially goes past holiday homes and static caravans - looking up to the cracks in the cliff above I'm not sure I would want to stay here for too long. Dark clouds were gathering and there were occasional spots of rain but it didn't come to anything.

The eventual climb up onto Beer Head was not difficult, and from here there were good views back the way we had come, past Tor Bay, and ahead to the Isle of Portland. We walked down to Beer which, to be honest, I found a bit disappointing. I'd expected a pretty little fishing village, but tourism now seems more important than fishing. Bizarrely, given that it was not a hot day, there was row upon row of deck chairs on the beach!

According to the signs, it is 2 miles from Branscombe to Beer, but our progress was slow. In contrast, it is also signed as being 2 miles from Beer to Seaton - I'm not sure which points they measure to and from, but it seems no distance at all and we were soon at Seaton Hole, despite having had to take shelter for the duration of a hail shower (the weather was then dry and sunny for the rest of the day). However the path from Seaton Hole to Seaton has been diverted, and we didn't realise that the alternative route along the beach would have been fine (the sign says that this route should only be used at low tide; it appears that this would be better phrased as 'the route along the beach is not accessible at high tide'). 

It didn't really matter, the diversion took us up an attractive wooded road to the B3174, then along this to Seaton. Then, diversion over, we cut through to the cafe at Seaton Chine, with good views back to Beer Head, and walked along the (not very attractive) Seaton sea front. It was midday, but after our large breakfast we didn't feel particularly hungry, so we just stopped for an ice cream at the 'Spot On' kiosk - it was spot on!

At the eastern end of Seaton we went inland slightly and crossed the River Axe by way of the oldest concrete bridge in England, alongside the modern road bridge. It was much more attractive than this sounds, with good views to the boats in the loop of the river separated from the sea by longshore drift of the pebble beach - another Chesil Bank in the making?

We climbed up to and across the Axe Cliff Golf Club, then took a right hand turning to bring us back towards the coast, with a warning sign indicating that we were about to enter the Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliffs, and that it would take us 3.5 to 4 hours to walk the 7 miles to Lyme Regis, with no escape routes from the path to either landward or seaward and, just past a land rover with keys left in the boot, we entered the Undercliffs National Nature Reserve.

The Undercliffs are the result of many landslips in the area, the most famous of which took place on Christmas Eve 1839. The vegetation has been allowed to largely do its own thing and you're warned that most of the time you will not be able to see either the cliffs above you or the sea below you.

The guide books and other walkers seem to either love or hate this part of the South West Coast Path and I wasn't sure which category I'd be in.  In summary, it was slower and harder walking than I'd expected - the path meanders all over the place, with steep ascents and descents - however it was also far more interesting and enjoyable than I'd expected. The path was extremely well maintained, thanks to the owner of the land rover and his chums. We met him a mile or so in mending some steps for the 'third time in as many weeks' - and that's the key to what is so special about this place. Landslips are still occurring regularly, and in most places where that is the case, walkers are kept out. Here, the path goes right through the middle! You are warned to look out for holes in the ground etc. (there were some quite badly faulted sections we walked through) and the path is re-routed from time to time. So you are protected from the dangers, but allowed to experience the Earth's surface processes in action. Combine that with the lovely green vegetation and spring flowers, the bird song and occasional views of the cliffs above us and the sea below. It was great!

We eventually left the Undercliffs and descended to the Cobb (Lyme Regis's historic harbour). We stopped to take some photographs, but our primary concern was finding something to eat, since it was nearly 5pm and we hadn't had lunch. Tea and cake at a cafe on the seafront were just what we needed. 

We phoned our B&B, Fingle, in Uplyme to tell them we were on the way, and set off up the hill. It was quite a climb at the end of a long day and took something over 30 minutes to walk but, as is often the case when we stay inland (on this occasion because of difficulty getting a single night booking in Lyme Regis for a Friday night) we found a real gem, close to the Church in a delightful village. We had crossed from Devon to Dorset on the way into Lyme Regis, but Uplyme is back in Devon! The icing on the cake was the realisation that tomorrow we could avoid some of the road walking that everyone moans about between Lyme Regis and Charmouth, by cutting down towards Charmouth rather than returning to Lyme Regis first.