Minehead to Porlock Weir (10 miles)

Minehead is the beginning (or the end) of the Coast Path, and the precise point is marked on the seafront with a sculpture of a huge pair of hands holding a map of the south west – a good place to get your photo taken at the start of your journey. From the sculpture the Coast Path runs along the seafront, past the harbour, and continues along footpaths to just before Greenaleigh Farm . Here take the path that leaves the main track and climbs through the woods to join a higher track that will steadily lead you to almost to the summit of North Hill, a climb of almost 800 feet (250m) since leaving Minehead. This part of the route was changed in Spring 2007 (see news item below) and so does not yet appear on many maps.

As you walk along the ridge from North Hill and Selworthy Beacon you can see right across the Bristol Channel to Wales and looking inland to Dunkery Beacon, the highest point on Exmoor. In addition to the ponies that graze these moors, you may be lucky and see the herd of Red Deer that are often around here – the emblem of the National Park.

From Selworthy Beacon the path starts to descend back to sea level, and you have a great view across Porlock Bay. In 1996 the shingle ridge across the bay was breached by storms and seawater now inundates the fields behind each high tide creating an area of salt marsh (an increasingly rare habitat) and the Coast Path now follows the inland edge of this marsh, (it is not safe to try and walk across the breach in the shingle ridge). The marsh attracts much birdlife, and so it is worth taking your time to explore this fascinating area. For short periods during the highest tides, the new path gets flooded. If it is flooded when you arrive and you don’t want to wait for the waters to recede, than it is easy to divert inland via one of the paths into Porlock village and then take the ‘woodland walk’ to Porlock Weir.

A range of accommodation can be found in the villages of Bossington, Porlock and Porlock Weir.

Porlock Weir to Lynmouth / Lynton (12 miles)

Leaving Porlock Weir the Coast Path ascending up through Yearnor Wood to Culbone Church – the smallest complete parish church in England, and is normally open for visitors. About ¼ mile past the church, you come to a path junction, and you have a choice of routes. The Coast Path has recently been re-routed onto the lower path through Culbone Woods, an ancient mainly oak woodland, with whitebeams interspersed into the clearer areas. The path through the woods is fairly level, with streams cascading down beside the path and seasonal waterfalls in each of the combes you pass by. Alternatively you can take the alternative (old) route that goes left up the hill passing Silcombe Farm (B&B). This route is longer and steeper but offers much more expansive views (particularly in Summer). For the next few hours the path is a mix of woodland and coastal moorland, before reaching the Foreland - a dramatic headland. Off the coast of the headland is what looks like a small oil platform. This is a ‘tide turbine’ – sort of an underwater windmill that uses the strong tidal currents found on this coast to turn the blades of a turbine to produce electricity. It is proposed to install several more of these nearby, and they will apparently produce sufficient power to meet Lynton’s needs. From the Foreland it is a steady descent down into Lynton, where there is a range of accommodation.

Lynton to Combe Martin (13 miles)

Today’s walk has the highest ascent & descent (4429ft / 1350 metres) of any section of the entire Coast Path, with the final hill, Great Hangman (1043 ft / 318 metres) being the highest point on the Coast Path. Leaving Lynton the path zig-zags up the hill to North Walk, although you do have the easier option of catching the water-powered cliff railway, and then retracing your steps slightly down to join the end of North Walk. North Walk is a path created by the Victorians so that visitors could walk along the coast to the dramatic Valley of Rocks, where you may see mountain goats clinging to the cliff edge.

From the Valley of Rocks the path follows a minor road past Lee Bay, detours out around Crock Point before briefly rejoining the road. After a mile or so of oak woodland you will emerge into the sunshine (it’s always sunny here!) and the path runs along the steep coastal slope into Heddons Cleave. As you cross the bridge at the bottom of the cleave you may want to divert inland ½mile to the Hunter’s Inn for lunch. Leaving Heddon’s Cleave it is a steady climb back to the coast and the viewpoint of Peter’s Rock. The path then runs along the high coastal slope, past Holdstone Down before descending into Sherrycombe and then up the other side to Great Hangman. From here it is a fairly steady walk across to Little Hangman (its worth diverting from the path to go to the top), and then the final descent back down to Combe Martin.

Hopefully this first 35 miles will give you a good taste of what the South West Coast Path offers and will inspire you to come back to walk the other 595 miles.