28 Babbacombe to Paignton

Cliff fall at Oddicombe Beach

Day 2 of our latest Coast Path trip. Yesterday we walked from Shaldon to Babbacombe. I had found a walk around Babbacombe on the Royal Geographical Society's  Discovering Britain website and so we started by investigating a house called Babbacombe Cliff. It was not particularly inspiring as a building, but its main claim to fame was that Oscar Wilde wrote A woman of no importance there.

 

We retraced our steps across the grassy Down in front of the hotel and then went down past the funicular to Oddicombe beach, the site of a major rock fall in 2010. We followed the coast path as it skirted the bay and at sea level got the clearest view of the cliff fall and what it meant: if you look closely at the photo you can that one of the houses on the top of the cliff tragically seems to be missing its whole right side.

Now began the inevitable long climb up from sea level to begin to walk around the series of headlands that separate Babbacombe from Torquay. Pevsner comments on the "exceptionally fortunate geographical situation" of Torquay, which has allowed it to keep "its various parts in attractive isolation from each other".

I thought I had better capture the sturdy new style signs which are in use in this part of the coast path.

We walked across the flat grassy area known as Walls Hill. The Discovering Britain walk guide explains that these flat cliff-top areas are known as "plains"and were formed tens of thousands of years ago when the sea was much higher than it is now: "wave-cut platforms" is the technical name.

We next passed Redgate Beach, closed to the public since 1998 because of falling rock. Apparently there was a local outcry at the time, but no doubt there would have been an even bigger one if someone was killed by a rock slide.

Soon we came to Anstey's Cove, with Devil's Point at its left side. We had noticed these points of rock on our walk yesterday and it seems they are nothing more than bits of a former quarry that proved too difficult to cut. Why not rename them the Dragon's Teeth?

At Black Head there was good view towards Hope's Nose with Ore Stone beyond it.

Now we finally turned the corner of Babbacombe Bay and found ourselves facing the fine sight of Thatcher Rock.

A bit further on, behind Meadfoot beach, we passed an intrusive modern block flats and then came on the Osborne hotel, offering "elegance at modest prices". It is a large Georgian style building with an elegant frieze and fine pediments at either end. It was built as Meadfoot Crescent in 1848 and renamed Hesketh Crescent in 1949. It was very striking how much better it fitted into the environment than the vast modern structure at the other end of this bay. 

Now we climbed to a grassy area (the strangely named Daddyhole Plain) by the Coastguard station where there was this lovely group of presumably early Victorian houses painted in delightful pastel shades - all except the one in the middle.What must the others be saying?

Turning another corner, we began the final approach to the centre of Torquay. The path passed through a delightful folly tower ...

... and descended to pass the Living Coasts coastal zoo. It was a surprise to see penguins on this walk!

Then down to the harbour, past a row of house with lovely iron balconies.

The view across the harbour was very pleasing, with GE Street's St John's church in the background.

Advance study of Pevsner had alerted me to the fact that the church features stained glass by Morris and Co, designed of course by Burne-Jones, who also painted two walls in the chancel. To our intense frustration, it was locked.

Also on the landward side of the harbour was this delightful clock tower. I imagined it must be another Jubilee Clock for Queen Victoria, but it turns out that it was a memorial for Richard Mallock who owned nearby Cockington. It was designed by John Donkin and erected in 1902.

After a break for lunch in Hoopers department store, we headed across to the Pavilion, which dates from 1912 in a mixture of classical and art nouveau styles. It is currently closed, pending re-development.

We walked along the sea front and were struck by the wide expanse of sand.

Set back from the beach is Torre Abbey, dating originally from 1198. After the dissolution of the monasteries the former gatehouse was remodeled into a house and later a Georgian extension was added. This is all closed for restoration at present. To the right is the Tithe Barn, which Pevsner thinks could date to the 13th century. It is a handsome structure.

The last leg of the walk was a plod along the main road, finally relieved by the first glimpse of Paignton.

We followed the road down to the sea front which we followed down past the pier to the small harbour, where we called a halt.

Conditions: cold, grey.

Distance: officially 7 miles, but it seemed rather longer. Distance now covered 137.6 miles.

Map: Explorer 110 (Torquay and Dawlish).

Rating: Four stars.

Sightings

Quite a lot of colour: white bluebells, violets, red campion and this lovely yellow shrub growing in profusion on the slopes as we made our approach towards Torquay.

25 Buddleigh Salterton to Exmouth

The west end of Buddleigh Salterton beach

Refreshed after an excellent dinner at Tobias restaurant and a good night's sleep, we awoke to a lovely sunny day and set out reasonably early to walk to Exmouth.

We didn't, sadly, get to see East Buddleigh, where Sir Walter Raleigh was born and where Millais traveled to paint The Boyhood of Raleigh.

The west end of the beach, with yet more red sandstone cliffs looked lovely in the morning light. The red cliff along this section of coast are variously described as being 200 or 250 million years old. The beach at Buddleigh is interesting, being formed of smooth flattened oval pebbles, some quite large.

We chatted to a man who had just bought fresh plaice and brill from a fisherman on the beach, and seemed appropriately happy about it. As we followed the path upwards, a fine view of the whole beach looking eastwards became visible.

The path crossed a level grassy area and then began to climb through heathland. Helpfully positioned benches offered ever more wonderful views back to the east.

At Littleham Cove we encountered the first of two closely located holiday parks, but the views back along the coast were exquisite.

We crossed the headland behind Straight Point (isn't that a bit of a contradiction in terms?), forced inland by the existence of an MOD firing range, to skirt another, even more massive holiday park behind the very reasonably named Sandy Bay.

This was interesting for its depth and shallowness - and for its yellow sand. We watched people taking a brisk stroll along the beach and round the corner to Orcombe Point, then back along the Coast path.

At Orcombe Point, which marks the end of the Jurassic Coast we saw the impressive Geoneedle, with Exmouth in the background.

This area is also the oldest part of the Jurassic Coast. The Geoneedle contains nine different stones found along this coast embedded into a frame of Portland Stone and was unveiled in 2002. It was commissioned from the artist Michael Fairfax to mark the recognition of the Jurassic Coast as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

We soon descended from the cliff top to reach sea level and then followed a promenade for the best part of two miles into Exmouth. The white facades of its hotels stood proudly by the wide mouth of the river Exe.

As we approached the centre we came on the modest Jubilee Clock of 1887.

We thought it similar to the one back up the coast in Seaton.

Finally, we reached the ferry across the Exe and the nearby marina, where we were really taken by the varied and brightly coloured apartments.

Conditions: sunny, warm.

Distance: 6 miles. Distance now covered 116 miles.

Map: Explorer 115 (Exmouth and Sidmouth).

Rating: four stars. Some great photographic opportunities.


Reflections

One odd and rather annoying feature of this walk was that although it was very well signposted, the distances on the signposts were wildly inconsistent. At the outset we saw a sign saying Exmouth 4m. This surprised us because the SWCP guide describes this section as 6 miles. After a while we began to see signs pointing in each direction: Buddleigh 2 / Exmouth 2. But then all of a sudden, half a mile later Buddleigh 2 1/2 / Exmouth 2 1/2. We even found a combination adding up to 5 1/4. Then later it was back to 4m. From the time taken and my pedometer reading we are pretty sure that it was in fact 6 miles to the Starcross Ferry.

Having said that, I must say that in general East Devon council are doing a grand job of signposting. There is always one when you need it and most, if not all, have the grid reference on a white label: invaluable if you know where you are going, but are not sure where you are.


Flower of the day

What is this ubiquitous yellow flower?

Butterfly of the day

We saw lots of seemingly freshly-minted Red Admirals. This one offered the rare opportunity of a photo of the underwings from below as it basked on an ivy flower.

22 Seaton to Branscombe

Haven Cliff at the east end of Seaton Bay

Day 2 of our three day walking trip to Devon. We are staying in a small hotel right on the sea front at Seaton, so we started today's walk by simply turning right outside the front door. A first! We walked along the fairly uninteresting sea front and made a slight detour to get a closer view of the clock we had noted last night. It is another Jubilee Clock from 1887 (we have seen others recently in Usk and Margate).

At the end of the sea front, there are red cliffs (iron ore) and beyond them chalk cliffs. There was clear evidence of the recent landslips which have affected this area.

We then walked up the road towards Beer, passing the well-named Check House, a residential home. A helpful blue plaque explains that it was formerly Calverly Lodge built for Sir Walter and Lady Trevelyan; Lady Trevelyan was an important patron of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and had a celebrated salon at Wallington Hall in Northumberland.

Further along the road was closed as the result of another landslip, necessitating a detour, but eventually we reached the cliffs at Seaton Hole and enjoyed a spectacular view across the bay.

A short cliff-top section led to the the pretty village of Beer.

At dinner last night I saw a (very poor) photograph of some Almshouses in Beer, so we decided to make a detour into the village in search of them. The first thing of note was a lovely pair of thatched cottages at the head of the main street.

The almshouses were difficult to photograph - although I am not trying to sell my picture - and seem to now be privately owned. They are of an unusual design with lovely arched gothic doorways and windows. Pevsner says they were given by Lady Rolle in 1820.

After a break for coffee we resumed the path at the back of the beach, walked up the road and made our way to Beer Head, with fine views in both directions. This is the view west: Sidmouth can just be made out at the point at which the coast bends. The high ground is Hooken Cliffs.

The path descends steeply to follow another undercliff - Under Hooken - behind three fingers of chalk, on the left in the photo above.

This path continues through a caravan park, rather incongruously located in this otherwise wild and isolated section of coast, to descend to Branscombe Mouth, where the restaurant and shop were doing a good trade.

We made the steep ascent of West Cliff and enjoyed another fine view back over the pebble beach.

A bit further on we took a path to the right leading down to Branscombe Church which we had identified as the place to end today's leg. We did not fancy trying to do the full 10.5 mile Seaton to Sidmouth section in one go and this was one of the few possible places to break the walk. The church has a Norman tower (except for the very top according to Pevsner) and nave, while the chancel is 14th century. Inside there is a fragment of a 15th century wall painting.

The rather spread-out village also has an old Forge and a Bakery owned by the National Trust.

We now hit a slight snag. Neither of our mobile phones (on different networks) had a signal and the lone telephone box was "not commissioned", presumably some new euphemism for not working. (Surely BT must know that this is precisely one of the few places in modern Britain where a phone box is still a necessity?) Happily we were generously allowed to use the phone in the Bakery tea shop to summon a taxi back to Seaton.

Conditions: mild, but quite cloudy - and wet while we were in Beer.

Distance: just over 5 miles. Distance now covered 98 miles.

Map: Explorer 116 (Lyme Regis and Bridport) and 115 (Exmouth and Sidmouth).

Rating: four stars.

Flower of the day

We saw quite a lot of this yellow spiky flower, but I have been unable to identify it.

13 Osmington Mills to Ferry Bridge

Looking towards Redcliff Point

Our goal for the year is now in sight: Weymouth. We took the train from Poole to Weymouth and then a taxi out to Osmington Mills to pick up where we left off two weeks ago. The route initially goes inland, but soon you take a left to head parallel with the coast.

We skirted route a large sort of holiday camp for kids and regained the coast path above a long shingle beach, unnamed on the OS map, with Redcliff Point at the end.

 

As we approached the point the path goes over a grassy area, but is forced inland a bit by erosion of the cliff edge, which becomes more and more evident as the Point gets nearer. Looking further inland, there is a view of the Osmington White Horse. This was sculpted into the limestone hillside in 1808 and depicts King George III. There are lots of white horses, but this one is apparently unique in having a rider. George of course played a large part in establishing Weymouth as a seaside resort. I should really have used a more powerful zoom lens, but we were by now walking into a very strong headwind.

You descend to skirt Bowleaze Cove with the massive white Riviera Hotel (no longer operating, but perhaps being restored), an amusement park and a holiday park in close proximity. This gives way to a grassy cliff below a row of expensive-looking houses, until you reach sea level and the wide concrete walkway which speeds you along at the back of the shingle beach, with a sea wall behind.

I had intended to drop in to see the RSPB reserve at Lodmoor while we were passing, but I hadn't understood from the map that once on the walkway you can't get off until you are some way past it. I contented myself with a photo (the structure on the right is a hide) and a plan for another day trip especially for the purpose.

A little further on there were a number of fine beach huts. One set were in a cast iron structure and another in this imposing terrace. The beach hut evolved from the early wheeled bathing machines used by pioneers of sea bathing, like George III.

Soon you are on the Esplanade and you pass the wonderful Jubilee Clock, erected to mark Queen Victoria's diamond Jubilee in 1887.

A little further on there is the celebrated equestrian statue of George III (again) - Victoria's grandfather. It was erected in 1809 to commemorate his diamond jubilee (he came to the throne in 1760). The statue has only been painted since 1949.

At the end of the Esplanade we walked up beside the quayside, past the Customs House and paused for lunch at the Ship Inn. Suitably restored, we crossed the swing bridge and enjoyed the peaceful view of the harbour.

The path then follows the other bank of the river and climbs up to the Nothe fort - a route we followed when we had a lovely day trip to Weymouth earlier in the year. At the top of the stairs from the quayside, there was a great view through the masts of some ships to the Esplanade with its Georgian and Victorian terraces.

You pass through Nothe Gardens and descend behind a housing estate to get a view of the fort, with White Nothe on the coast behind.

A bit further on you pass the sad remains of Sandsfoot Castle, another of those castles that Henry VIII built in 1539.

The final section followed the Rodwell Trail down to Ferry Bridge, the point at which the long causeway to Portland starts. The Trail was very straight and had a sort of embankment on each side. We must have been getting tired by now, because it was only as we were chatting to the taxi driver on the way back to Weymouth station that we realised it was the route of a disused railway.

Conditions: cloudy, sunny intervals, about 12 degrees, extremely strong south west wind, muddy underfoot in places.

Distance: 7.5 miles, all of which, at last, were forwards on the Coast Path. Distance covered now 42 miles.

Map: Explorer OL15 (Purbeck and South Dorset).

Rating: three and a half stars.