Hartland Quay to Bude

Friday 15th May 2009

16.75 miles of walking including about 10 miles on South West Coast Path and 5.75 mile diversion

Click here for all our photos from this walk.

It was certainly a wet and windy day; I lay awake in the night listening to the rain and the wind and worrying about the walk ahead of us. Breakfast at the Hartland Quay Hotel was at 8.15am and arrived with our packed lunches. By the time we left the hotel I was sure that I would get no further than Morwenstow (which is where sensible people break this leg of the path), but having ascertained that there is both a pub and a phone box in Morwenstow (so we would be able to get a taxi to take us to Bude) I stopped worrying. It was drizzling as we left the hotel; the level of wetness varied during the morning but rain was never far away and it was also very misty and so atmospheric, but you couldn't see a lot.

For all the fuss made about this section of the path (apparently there are eleven steep descents and ascents), once you've climbed out of Hartland Quay, the first few miles are actually quite level. We passed a small waterfall and then the much more spectacular waterfall at Speke's Mill Mouth. Then we followed what the Cicerone Guide refers to as the inland route (this is the only route in the National Trail Guide) - up a flat-bottomed valley and across a stream before returning to the coast by way of a valley to the landward side of Swansford Hill. Eventually we emerged onto a country lane which we followed, with occasional forays back to clifftop paths, past radio antennae and then back to the clifftop at Nabor Point and the Iron Age Fort at South Hole (Embury Beacon).

At last we reached the first of the promised steep descents, to Welcombe Mouth, and boy was it steep! Indeed, with the added complication of the strong wind it was quite scary in places, though the scenery was spectacular.

As we descended we were very impressed by the waterfall above the beach at Welcombe Mouth, but when we got down to the stream we realised that the large volume of water that was making the waterfall so impressive also meant that there was rather a lot of water flowing over one of the stepping stones that we were meant to cross. With the fast flowing current and the strong wind we didn't feel it would be safe to cross the stream here, so it was time for a diversion inland... It was this inland diversion that saved us some of the steep ascents and descents of the coastal path and so enabled us to walk all the way to Bude after all. So if you're looking for a poor-weather or time-saving route from Welcombe Mouth to Duckpool, read on. [If however you want to follow the official SWCP path route, follow the link to 'Around Morwenstow'; we had the opportunity to walk much of our 'missing' section of coastal path when we were in the area again in September 2009.]

To return to our diversion - we started by following a small footpath alongside the stream we were trying to cross, through pretty woodland, then we crossed a footbridge and turned right onto the road, past a house called Strawberry Water. We ignored a path back to Welcombe Mouth (this would have been the most direct route back to the South West Coast Path) and climbed up the lane to the hamlet of Mead. We then followed a stony and muddy track (marked on the map as a bridleway) through more attractive woodland, down to the stream about a mile inland from Marsland Mouth. The county boundary is here, presumably at the ford at the bottom of the track. Fortunately there was also a footbridge; we celebrated this fact and our arrival into Cornwall by stopping to eat some of the packed lunch we'd been provided with (the flapjack was particularly welcome). We climbed back up the track and towards the top a sign told us that all the land around Marsland Mouth was bought by Christopher Cadbury (grandson of the founder of the chocolate empire) to ensure that it was preserved as a nature reserve.

We stopped on the beach to telephone Karen Fly at our B&B in Bude (given the weather conditions we thought she might be worried about us) and to eat some more of our packed lunch (apples and much appreciated chocolate), then we rejoined the South West Coast Path towards the end of its 'roller-coaster' section; we climbed up the steep slope to Warren Point, down to Warren Gutter, then up again. The weather was improving at last, though it was still extremely windy and so quite difficult to walk along the clifftops in places. Fortunately the terrain became gentler and we could see Bude in the distance. There was a sandy beach beneath the cliff, with rock formations. We descended first to Sandy Mouth, then to Northcott Mouth then, after Maer Down, to Crooklets Beach which was where we were instructed to leave the path. We walked past the car park and alongside the golf course as instructed, to reach Fairway Guest House, one of many B&Bs, guest houses and residential homes on the Victorian terraces of Downs View. I suspect Fairway Guest House is one of the best of these establishments and Karen Fly welcomed us warmly and showed us to a tastefully decorated room on the rear of the house. All the rooms are named after golf courses - we were in 'Gleneagles'.