Westward Ho! to Clovelly

Wednesday 13th May 2009

13 miles of walking, 11.25 miles on South West Coast Path

Click here for all our photos from this walk.

The path initially follows the bed of the former Westward Ho! to Bideford railway (slightly odd since you're definitely heading away from Bideford; it turns out the railway left Westward Ho! heading to the west and then, after about a mile, looped back round to Bideford, presumably to avoid the worst of the inclines). We followed the railway until the point at which it looped back away from the coast and then traversed Cornborough Cliff, Abbotsham Cliff and Green Cliff, with some descents and ascents in between. We'd seen what looked like the remains of a lime kiln just before ascending Green Cliff but wondered how the coal got here to fuel it; then we read that a seam of anthracite was exploited in the vicinity of Green Cliff in the early 19th Century.

There were views ahead of us to Bucks Mills, Clovelly and Hartland Point and, closer to us, some pink/red cliffs. Before reaching these we descended steeply and unexpectedly found ourselves right down on a stony beach; this point is identified as 'point A' on the map in the National Trail Guide. We almost immediately climbed steeply to Westacott Cliff, then descended and ascended several times through heavy vegetation, including high hedges, gorse bushes, lots of wild flowers and a 'delightful thicket of willow, hawthorn and hazel'.

We eventually emerged into the wooded valley at Peppercombe. We decided not to bother going down to the beach but it was around noon so we were starting to look for somewhere to stop for lunch. We managed to miss the remains of Peppercombe Castle (presumably because another couple of walkers, standing beside the path, were blocking our view) but we soon found ourselves in a very attractive oak woodland, made even better by the masses of bluebells underneath the trees. Both guidebooks skip over this wood, Sloo Wood, and also Worthygate Wood that it runs into; in doing this they omit to describe one of the very best bits of today's walk. We sat on a rather wobbly log to eat our lunch then, after meandering through the wood for another couple of miles, descended steeply into Buck's Mills.

Buck's Mills is also a lovely place, with whitewashed cottages and a steeply sloping road leading to a shingle beach. Lime was brought across from the Welsh coast and processed in the local lime kilns. The old harbour is no more, but the heavily buttressed lime kiln remains, and there were good views to Clovelly. We climbed back up the road and turned right between houses, back onto the South West Coast Path. This climbed steeply through Buck's Wood, though the climb wasn't quite as steep as I'd thought it would be. The wood was again very pretty and we followed the path as it meandered its way through it, occasionally emerging into fields at the top of the wood.

Eventually we reached 'The Hobby Drive', built early in the 19th Century under the direction of its owner, Sir James Hamlyn Williams. The Hobby Drive was relatively level and had we not been through such beautiful woodland previously, we would have been impressed by the woodland now. However I was getting tired and we were keen to reach Clovelly with sufficient time to explore the village, and the 2.5 miles along The Hobby Drive seemed to take a very long time.

We cut down to Clovelly by way of a steep footpath through the woods, emerging towards the bottom of the village. We descended to the Quay (which apparently dates back to the 14th Century) then climbed up the extraordinarily steep cobbled street through the village, stopping to buy delicious raspberry ripple ice cream and postcards at the Post Office.

As we were emerging at the top end of the village two donkeys were making their own way somewhere. Donkeys used to carry people and pull goods up the village street, though nowadays they are mostly for show. However the fact that cars can only be parked at the top or the bottom of the hill remains, and goods are pulled (nowadays by people) on sledges. We were left wondering what they do if they want a new bed or freezer etc.

We followed an ancient cobbled path from the top of Clovelly to Wrinkleberry then across fields to Burscott where we were staying. Tim Curtis welcomed us to Fuchsia Cottage - we had a lovely room with views over farmland and to the sea in the distance. Sue and Tim Curtis were going out in the evening (to a get together for people involved in the tourist industry locally, including the current 'Lord of the Manor' of Clovelly) so they gave us a lift back to the top end of Clovelly. From there we walked down the main street to the New Inn. We had a pleasant bar meal and a chat with another couple of walkers who we'd met on the path earlier in the day. They had walked from Minehead but had their car with them so were driving on each day then returning by bus before setting out on the day's walk.

Following day