Subscribe to our newsletter None saved

Romantic Walks

Love is in the air

For a truly special valentine’s day this year, why not head to the coast for a romantic stroll along the South West Coast Path before watching the sun set? Or for ladies looking for the perfect leap year location to pop the question, you'll find it here.

Discover secret coves and secluded beaches that can only be reached on foot. Or follow in the footsteps of generations of writers and lovers inspired by woodland walks and windswept cliffs to create some of the most profound and passionate love stories.

This walk takes in wonderful countryside, wooded creeks and stunning coastal views and takes you past the church where Daphne Du Maurier was married and which featured in her first novel The Loving Spirit.

 

Exmoor provided the romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley with material for their work around the turn of the 19th Century. However, nowhere on Exmoor has more literary associations than Badgeworthy, the location for Lorna Doone, the tragic heroine of the R.D Blackmore’s classic novel.

 

A walk along the Fleet Lagoon and Chesil Beach, with its abundance of birds and rare plants, to the picturesque village of Langton Herring. Nearby Lyme Regis is where John Fowles set his novel ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ and is also where the film of the same name was set starring Meryl Streep. Fowles wrote of Chesil Bank:
'It is above all an elemental place, made of sea, shingle and sky, its dominant sound always that of waves on moving stone: from the great surf and pounding “grounds of seas” of sou’westers, to the delicate laps and back-gurgling of the rare dead calm….

This is a bracing walk across the farmland above Sennen Cove, returning around the rugged and romantic coastline from Land’s End with its sandy beach and hidden caves.
The lost land of Atlantis was once thought to lie offshore and the mythical world of Lyonesse is believed to have drowned just a few miles off the tip of the land. According to Alfred Lord Tennyson, King Arthur fought his last battle here, while long before him Thomas Mallory asserted that it was the birthplace of Tristan.

This is a walk that's relaxing and bracing. Hop across the sand to pretty Burgh Island with its Art Deco Hotel popular with the likes of Agatha Christie and Noel Coward. At low tide you can walk across to the island from Bigbury on Sea and soak up the views from the Pilchard Inn or the Burgh Island Art Deco hotel. Watch as the tide rolls in and enjoy the sense of being marooned on this tiny island together.

Latest News

  • Simon Armitage to walk South West Coast Path as a modern troubadour

    Award-winning writer Simon Armitage hopes to walk from Minehead to Land's End along the northern half of the South West Coast Path without a penny in his pocket, by giving poetry readings in return for his board and lodgings.

  • The South West Coast Path comes to the big screen

    Discover the secret coves and sandy beaches that inspired the characters in Summer in February - the film that everyone’s talking about this summer, by following in their footsteps along the South West Coast Path.

  • 365 Paintings in a Year on the South West Coast Path

    Devon artist Dave Crocker, has just completed his final work of art, painting a series of 365 coastal   landscapes from the South West Coast Path.

  • Coast Path Motographer of the Year 2013 competition

    The South West Coast Path team is encouraging budding mobile phone photographers of all ages to capture a moment in time on the Coast Path as part of its Coast Path Motographer of the Year 2013 competition.

  • New record set for completing the Coast Path!

    A new record has been set for the fastest completion of the South West Coast Path! Contours Walking Holidays' Managing Director, Mark Townsend and fellow runner, Julie Gardener, completed the full South West Coast Path in a record time of 14 days, 14 hours and 44 minutes.

     

  • Great South West Walk exceeds half a million!

    The South West Coast Path Association’s Great South West Walk came to a grand finale on Tuesday 7th May, raising over £500,000 for 90 improvement projects to the entire South West Coast Path covering Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset.

  • Latest news on path diversions

    Following numerous cliff falls over the past few months, many sections of the Coast Path have been diverted. Click for details of route changes.

  • Cliff fall near Lulworth Cove

    Following the landslide at St. Oswald’s Bay between Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door on the morning of 30 April 2013, diversionary routes have been put in place by Dorset County Council and the Lulworth Estate, allowing the South West Coast Path to remain fully open and safe for visitors to this area. 

  • New slate waymarkers guide the way for Cornish walkers

    The sand dunes of west Cornwall attract thousands of local walkers and tourists every year who will now benefit from new slate waymarkers to guide the way along the South West Coast Path.

  • Five top family walks for summer

    Why not get out and about this summer and combine a family walk on the South West Coast Path with a host of other old-fashioned childhood pleasures, from crabbing in rockpools and exploring hidden coves, to following in the footsteps of giants.