the sights and sounds of the south west coast path
We stayed in Sidbury for the week a couple of weeks back when I was walking the coast path in Devon and Dorset. Every morning I would get woken by birdsong so I popped my recorder outside one morning to record the dawn chorus. Blimey! What a racket!!
The folks over at Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site were after some volunteers to test some walks along the route of the X53 bus in Dorset. Since I was down in Devon and Dorset I thought I'd give a couple of the walks a try. These are the instructions (with some of my modifications) for the walk from Portesham to Abbotsbury.
It was a filthy day for walking so the photographs are rubbish!
Alight from the X53 bus at either the Village Hall or Kings Arms bus stops in Portesham.
Walk on the pavement by the main road towards the minor road junction by the Kings Arms.
kings arms
Go up the road past the pub, the old schoolhouse and St Peter's Church to the right hand bend in the road by the duck pond.
st peter's church
the duck pond
Go left along the road for 100m and take the signposted footpath to the right and along behind the houses.
Continue to a gate onto a farm road, turn left along the road, then at the junction go straight on, through a gate and along a field path with the hedge to the left, to another gate.
Go through the gate and take the path which bears right and down through some trees, with a muddy patch - it was very muddy when I walked it - , to a gate into a field.
Take the field path to the right for 100m to 2 large stones then do a hard right turn up the hill to a gate and fingerpost marked for Abbotsbury.
two big stones
Ignore the gate. Instead, turn left uphill with the fence on the right, then across the field to a path through the bushes.
Ignore the stile on the right. Carry on this path to a path junction with a marker stone.
marker stone
Go straight on, up to a minor road and gate. Turn left along the road for 50m to a gate on the right and farm track which is the South Dorset Ridgeway.
Go along the track to a gate on the left with a fingerpost to Abbotsbury. There are good views of the village. It was foggy when I walked it so I didn't have any views.
fingerpost to abbotsbury
Take this path leaving the South Dorset Ridgeway down over the fields to arrive at a minor road.
Take this path leaving the South Dorset Ridgeway down over the fields. There was no discernible path through the fields when I walked it and the sign is pointing too far to the right but head to the left of St Catherine's Chapel and towards the Fleet and you'll find a small ridge of grass which leads to a gate marked 'Abbotsbury round walk, old railway walk'.
Go through the gate and head along a path downhill to a sign for Abbotsbury half a mile away.
abbotsbury half a mile
Continue down hill to a gate and a minor road.
Turn right down the road to Abbotsbury. At the road junction, take Rosemary Lane to the Swan Inn bus stop (turn left at the main road through Abbotsbury to reach the Swan Inn) or Back Street to the Ilchester Arms Hotel bus stop.
swan inn
ilchester arms hotel
The weather forecast for today doesn't look too bad, if a little on the cold side, but it's a proper manky day as we arrive at Abbotsbury. It's raining, gloomy and foggy and it doesn't look as if it's going away any time soon.
Chesil Beach high tide: 11:04
Chesil Beach low tide: 16:20
Today's walk is perhaps, on paper, not the most exciting walk, largely being inland due to the presence of Chesil Beach, but it's great to be back walking on the Dorset coast. Apparently Chesil Beach consists of 180 billion pebbles but I've not got time to count them all.
At the end of the last ice age about 10000 years ago sea levels rose as the ice melted. Beaches made of sand, gravel and mud were driven inland. These joined to form the first Chesil Beach.
Since that time the sea has eroded enormous piles of debris created by landslides in the west. Thousands of tonnes of rock were turned into pebbles by the relentless power of the sea and washed eastward by longshore drift burying the older beaches and creating the Chesil Beach we see today.
Today's walk starts at the car park behind Chesil Beach just before Abbotsbury. The waterproof jacket gets straight on as I head down to the beach to admire it's majesty before heading back to the coast path. The path detours inland towards Chapel Hill where St Catherine's Chapel can be seen. At least it could if it wasn't so foggy. The photographs aren't going to be good today.
a gloomy chesil beach
Great! I don't have a mobile phone signal!!
I slip and slide over shingle behind Chesil Beach before trampling through damp fields to reach Abbotsbury Swannery and then take to grassy hills with some lovely views back over Chesil Beach, only I can't see anything in the fog.
The path passes above Clayhanger Farm and through loads of fields with the coast at some distance. In places the path is muddy, slippery and nettle infested. This is not a good start to the day, especially as it is now May.
I continue through sodden fields and even manage to come across a locked gate which I have to scramble over. WTF? The song birds don't seem to mind it around here though as they are making a magnificent racket.
I eventually come to a field of rape above Rodden Hive. This is supposed to be a promising spot for birds but all I can see is a solitary heron fishing in the Fleet.
rape above rodden hive
I continue along the coast path to reach West Fleet with a view over to Herbury Island. One high point of the day is that there are skylarks all over the place and they are making a terrible racket. I even stop to record one male skylark who hangs in the air for three and a half minutes chirping away.
a gloomy view over herbury island
The Fleet Lagoon, at 8 miles long, is the largest inland tidal lagoon in Britain. It has many designations including being a Special Area of Conservation under the European Union Habitats Directive, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Special Protection Area under the European Union Birds Directive and a Ramsar Site (wetlands of international importance designated under the Ramsar Convention).
The path continues past Gore Cove and the Moonfleet Manor Hotel and Restaurant, named after J.M. Falkner’s novel Moonfleet in which he describes a lake of brackish water full of “sea-fowl, herons, and oysters ... shut off from the open Channel by a monstrous great beach or dike of pebbles”.
Hmmmm ….. I still don't have a phone signal.
East Fleet Touring Park can be found here and some gallops are close by but I don't see any horses today. I do come across some wall brown butterflies fluttering around though.
wall brown butterfly
I attempt to take some photographs of the wild flowers around here but even they prove to be of the boring variety. I manage to find buttercups, daisies, dandelions, ribwort plantain and hogweed. I do finally see a bit of blue sky though.
blue sky!
I continue along the shore to reach East Fleet where the remains of Old Church can be found. Only the chancel remains and the rest of the church was destroyed in a storm in 1824 which breached Chesil Beach. A herd of friendly cows greets me here.
cows
That's about where the friendliness ends though as barbed wire seems to be covering every bit of wood I cling on to and I'm threatened by electric fencing.
I come across a blue butterfly but I have no idea how to tell the different species apart. Maybe a holly blue?
holly blue butterfly?
Chickerell Rifle Range is reached and I'm threatened by more signs. The red flags weren't flying today so I was able to cross through the range without any problems. It's a stinky, rutted, muddy path though. I do come across some dog-violets which try to brighten the day..
dog-violet
I come across one of the mankiest, overgrown, muddy and slippery, nettle infested footpaths I've ever come across and I'm now cursing the fact that I haven't had a mobile phone signal all day.
I carry on to reach Lynch Cove before having to head inland again to bypass the Wyke Regis Army Training Area. There doesn't seem to be any training going on.
I continue back to the coast before finally reaching a beach at Pirate's Cove. The path passes in front of a caravan site and the Crab House Cafe. It occupies a ragged boatyard of a site overlooking the eastern end of the Fleet lagoon, just before the bridge to the Isle of Portland.
ferrybridge
I finally come across some colour in the form of clumps of sea thrift.
sea thrift
I pass the Ferrybridge Inn at Ferrybridge which from behind looks like it is unoccupied - what a lovely sight to see - before heading on to the end of the walk at the Ferrybridge car park next to Chesil Beach Visitors Centre.
chesil beach centre
I still don't have a mobile phone signal. WTF! And none of my gps tracking apps have worked today. Turns out that on rebooting my phone I do have a perfectly good signal so I may well have had a decent signal all day if I'd done that at the start of the walk.
We drive past the Ferrybridge Inn on our way back to our cottage and it is indeed boarded up. What a sad end to the day.
Flora and fauna encountered on the walk today includes :-
The podcast of today's walk is now available. You can subscribe via the iTunes store or listen using the player below.
According to my phone I've walked I don't know how many miles today - maybe 12 miles - as my phone failed me, which amounts to 29199 steps. I'm torn by this walk as I love Dorset but the weather has been iffy, the paths have been overgrown, nettle infested, muddy, slippery, barbed wire encrusted, electric fencing bound, dog shooting threatening and militarized. To top all of that I've often been far from the sea and without a phone signal. Two out of ten! I may not be back here for a while.
My total ascent today has been, err, I don't know. Did I mention that my phone failed me?
No map today as my phone failed me. It has not been a good day.
It feels like the last two days I've tested the good weather to its limits so I may well be back to manky 2016 weather later on today. Still, it's better than the weather forecast for tomorrow which doesn't look good. I was going to have a rest day today but due to tomorrow's forecast I've decided to continue walking.
Lyme Regis high tide: 09:15
Lyme Regis low tide: 14:43
I start the day back at the car park above Lyme Regis. A sign here tells me that there are 114 steps down to the foreshore. This is all new to me so I climb the steps down to the foreshore where I have a view of the Black Ven landslip and the coast path walk for the day is laid out in front of me.
I can see over to Golden Cap and in the distance, East Cliff and West Cliff at West Bay and Burton Bradstock and just beyond those, Chesil Beach stretches out to the Isle of Portland. This is one of my favourite stretches of coast on the whole coast path.
I climb back up to the Charmouth Road Car Park where a sign tells me about the recent developments here. The Church Cliff to East Cliff stabilisation works were completed in 2014 at a cost of £19.5 million, providing protection to around 400 metres of the coastline and 480 properties. It includes the new footpath I've just walked on from the new sea wall to Charmouth Road Car Park.
Today's walk has typically in the past been dogged by landslips resulting in several inland diversions starting with an inland diversion at Lyme Regis and probably ending with a slight diversion inland at Burton Bradstock.
I cross the car park and head upwards through fields and woods where I come across my first bluebells of the day.
bluebells
I'm then dumped out onto a busy road above Lyme Regis which I follow until a sign points me to a path through Lyme Regis Golf Club. Dorset golfers seem to be rubbish! I watch one person tee off, the golf ball hits a tree and the ball pings off 50 metres behind where he teed off. His second shot hits another tree and lands on a green but not the green he was aiming for.
I continue walking along the golf course and come to a path made of scallop shells. Here the coast path signs run out so after pondering which direction to take I head through some woods and I come out onto the main road into Charmouth next to the Fernhill Hotel.
It is now an uneventful walk through the back streets of Charmouth.
It has been years since I've seen Charmouth because of the diversions so I decide that it is time I visited the beach here again so I head off of the coast path and descend down towards the beach where I come across some beach huts and the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre.
beach huts on charmouth beach
charmouth heritage coast centre
I wander along the beach here and do a bit of fossil hunting.
I head up from Charmouth Beach to rejoin the diverted coast path and gradually amble along the path, passing behind Seadown Holiday Park and past the fire station and the old toll house. I turn right at Stonebarrow Lane and it's now a steep and long climb upwards towards Stonebarrow Hill. I enjoy the wild flowers in the hedgerows.
I come to a break in the vegetation where I have lovely views from the lane back to Charmouth.
view from stonebarrow lane
I continue to the top of Stonebarrow Hill where I come across a National Trust shop located in an old radar station.
national trust shop
I have lovely views over to Golden Cap from up here.
view to golden cap
I head back down a footpath as it rejoins the coast just before Golden Cap, heading through a field full of buttercups.
buttercups as far as the eye can see
I climb slowly up on to the top of Golden Cap.
the climb up golden cap
It's a long way up at 627 feet and the highest point on the south coast. I enjoy the magnificent views from up here. In one direction I can see out to the Isle of Portland and in the other direction back to Lyme Regis and beyond.
golden cap back to lyme regis
golden cap towards the isle of portland
panorama from golden cap
Golden Cap is named after the distinctive outcrop of golden greensand rock at the tip of the cliff and is owned by the National Trust. There is a trigpoint up here which was covered in visitors.
I hang around for a while admiring the views before taking the long descent down to the Anchor Inn (@anchoratseatown) at Seatown.
anchor inn
I crunch my way across the pebbly beach before heading across a footbridge at the car park and then climb back onto the cliffs.
view back to seatown
I climb high above Seatown and then it's now another descent, this time down to the village of Eype where there's another pebbly beach at Eype Mouth
eype mouth
Another ascent and descent over cliffs takes me to the charming West Bay.
descending to west bay
I haven't brought any provisions with me today so I grab a bag of chips and happily munch on them next to the harbour, admiring the views out to sea.
I've lost count of the number of times I've visited West Bay, but it's an awful lot. I round the harbour passing The George (@georgewestbay), the Bridport Arms Hotel, The West Bay Hotel (@westbayhotel), the amusement arcade and all of the food shacks dotted around the harbour.
west bay
I pass the newsagent where I grab a much needed ice lolly and then pass the fishmonger and head out onto the sandy beach. It's definitely a beach day today so I ignore the iconic, crumbling yellow sandstone East Cliff and walk along the beach instead.
east cliff
At Freshwater Beach Holiday Park I have to head inland in order to cross over the River Bride.
freshwater beach holiday park
Normally I'd continue inland to walk through Burton Bradstock but today I stay on the coast path and dart back out onto Burton Cliff which is also crumbling away. The weather is now closing in on me and it starts to rain and become foggy so it's time for my waterproof jacket.
The coast path diverts inland slightly towards Hive Beach due to a fatal cliff fall in 2012 and I pass Hive Beach Cafe (@hivebeachcafe) on my way back down to the beach.
The distinctive cliffs between West Bay and Burton Bradstock date from the early Jurassic period and are a bright yellow colour, made of 190 million year old yellow Bridport sandstone.
Limestone beds made of Inferior Oolite, dating from the early to middle Jurassic period (180 million years or so ago) can be found below the cliffs.
I trudge my way above Hive Beach and then behind Cogden Beach before the coast path takes me inland behind Burton Mere. I continue on the path behind the beach and the path becomes shingle which is very difficult to walk along. I come across housemartins skimming across a stretch of water. I continue along the shingle to reach West Bexington where the beach is a lot more pebbly and noticeably now part of Chesil Beach.
The shingle path continues inland of the beach before finally becoming a metalled path and the walking becomes a lot easier. The weather improves slightly so it's off with the waterproof jacket and I can finally enjoy some more of the wild flowers around here. There are what appear to be some kind of allium, possibly crow garlic?, everywhere.
I continue along the path to reach the car park at Abbotsbury, and the end of today's walk. The views back along Chesil Beach where I've come from and onwards along tomorrow's walk should be magnificent, but unfortunately they are engulfed in fog.
Driving back to the cottage in the car, it doesn't half look and feel like I've walked a MASSIVE distance today! The body doesn't feel it though.
Flora and fauna encountered on the walk today includes :-
The podcast of today's walk is now available. You can subscribe via the iTunes store or listen using the player below.
According to my phone I've walked 19.96 miles today - again, I wasn't expecting that distance - which amounts to 45196 steps. Blimey! I love this stretch of coast despite the inland diversions and some iffy weather at the end of the day doesn't spoil things. Nine out of ten!
My total ascent today has been 837.70 metres, helped by the ascent of Golden Cap, or 2748 feet.
cowslips
bugle
The weather forecast for the day looks to be fantastic and I should get sun all day long and it might even be HOT!!
Sidmouth high tide: 08:03
Sidmouth low tide: 14:13
I start the day back on the seafront at Sidmouth and wander along the end part of the esplanade again, admiring the rather fancy houses-turned-into-hotels.
sidmouth
At the eastern side of Sidmouth I pass Sidmouth Lifeboat (@sidlifeboat), an independent lifeboat covering a good chunk of East Devon. I cross Alma Bridge over the River Sid, name after the Battle of Alma, before climbing back onto the cliffs via a tarmac path. It's quite a climb up here (525 feet) but there are some benches at the top to rest and admire the view. It's going to be a roller coaster ride from here until I reach Beer.
view back to sidmouth
I admire the bluebells up here on Salcombe Hill.
bluebells
The views ahead of me are spectacular.
the view ahead
The path continues past South Combe Farm and down some steps to Salcombe Mouth where there is a pebbly beach. I try to find an exit point but there isn't one. I do find some dreaded japanese knotweed though. After struggling to find an exit point I climb back up and find a sign pointing away from Salcombe Mouth. Must have missed that sign when I got here fifteen minutes ago. Whoops!
salcombe mouth
The coast path heads inland before climbing up on to the cliffs again at Higher Dunscombe Cliff. Did I mention that the views are spectacular.
more views back to sidmouth
Here can be found the Weston Plats where, in the 19th century, thanks to the unique micro-climate on these cliffs, local residents were able to produce early crops of flowers, vegetables and strawberries. By the mid 1960s the last of these plots had been abandoned.
After a walk along the clifftops the path descends on some steps to the beach at Weston Mouth where I come across a couple of optimistic anglers. The path climbs steeply yet again to the top of Weston Cliff.
weston mouth
The path ducks inland at Coxe's Cliff, where I pass a pig farm, before heading over grassy clifftops where the path goes through Berry Camp Fort, an Iron Age hillfort. Other lumps and bumps around here indicate the remains of an Iron Age field system. A sign on a kissing gate tells me all about lime burning that used to take place here.
The path descends once again, this time to Branscombe Mouth, and I once again have magnificent views.
view over branscombe mouth
The 62,000 tonne container ship MSC Napoli was beached here in January 2007 after experiencing difficulties during a storm. After containers started to get washed up on the beach, scavengers started arriving to 'recycle' the contents. Unfortunately there are no longer any spare motorbikes lying around! The anchor of the ship, weighing 14 tonnes, was presented to the people of Branscombe by the ship's owners and was installed here in July 2008.
msc napoli anchor
branscombe mouth
I enjoy the beach here before another climb takes me to the top of East Cliff and I enter another caravan park, the Sea Shanty Caravan Park and then the coast path heads through the Hooken Undercliff, formed in 1790 by a slump in the chalk cliffs. I'm thankful for the undercliff as it saves me a hefty hike to the top of the cliffs.
hooken undercliff
The Beer Blazer 10k race is taking place today and there are runners in florescent clothing everywhere on the undercliffs. It may be a running event but most of the participants seem to be walking rather than running. I don't blame them in this heat!
I zig zag back up to the top of the cliff and round Beer Head where I have lovely views over Beer and Seaton, before reaching the village of Beer.
view over beer and seaton
The Anchor Inn is on the seafront at Beer, just by the slipway, and loads of people are sat outside, on the patch of ground opposite the inn, enjoying the fine weather.
anchor inn
I continue through the Jubilee Memorial Grounds where I have views back over beer, before joining a road.
overlooking beer
Following exceptionally wet weather in 2012, there was a cliff fall severing part of Old Beer Road along which the South West Coast Path used to run. As a result Old Beer Road is closed for walkers. A new route was just about to be completed the last time I walked here and is now fully open.
For the first time ever though, the tide is far enough out for me to be able to trudge along the pebbly beach from Seaton Hole to reach Seaton, saving me a trek inland along roads.
sea wall at seaton hole
I wander along the esplanade and at the far end stop to grab a much needed ice lolly. It's getting rather hot now and I haven't walked in hot conditions for quite some time.
seaton
I continue past the Axe Yacht Club (@ayc_racing) and Axmouth harbour.
axmouth harbour
The coast path between Axmouth and Lyme Regis has been closed from March 2014 due to a large landslip at Culverhole Point and a large inland diversion had to be taken. A new route close to the coast but avoiding the cliff fall has now opened as of April 2016, just in time for my walk! So, I head through the Axe Cliff Golf Club, sucking on my ice lolly as I go, and a sign warns me that it will take three and a half to four hours to walk to Lyme Regis and that the terrain is difficult and walking arduous. It won't and it isn't!
three and a half hours!
Actually, I've only previous walked this section at the start of a day's walk with fresh legs but today I'm starting to tire and it's very warm and the path is very muddy in places so this section does prove to be more difficult than expected so it does take me two and three quarter hours to walk to Lyme Regis.
The wild flowers here are looking lovely.
The route through to Lyme Regis is all new to me and promises stunning sea views which were a bit lacking the last time I walked here. Details about the new route are a bit sketchy so I hope that it's well marked. Fortunately I've already seen a video of the new route taken by a drone.
At Goat Island I come across a clump of early purple orchids. I'm rubbish at identifying flowers so I hope I've got them right!
On Christmas Eve 1839 an enormous section of cliff slid seaward in an event known as the Great Landslip. A deep chasm formed behind the landslide block, which later became known as Goat Island. I have no idea what goats have got to do with it!
I enter woods which will take me all the way to Lyme Regis and which provide me with much needed shade from a now intense sun. I've been seeing orange tip butterflies for a couple of days now but finally manage to find one who stays around long enough to be photographed.
orange tip butterfly
As it turns out the waymarking was perfect but the promised stunning sea views, except briefly at Pinhay Cliffs, were lacking. The rocks and tree roots are slippery and there is a lot more mud than I expected but it is a thoroughly pleasant walk to Lyme Regis.
Two and three quarter hours after entering Natural England's Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliffs National Nature Reserve I emerge from the woods above The Cobb at Lyme Regis. I descend down to the harbour and enjoy the beach here. The place is heaving with people. Not surprising as it is a beautiful Sunday afternoon.
the cobb at lyme regis
lyme regis
I head through a crowded Lyme Regis and walk up towards the car park above Lyme Regis where my lift awaits. What a thoroughly pleasant day's walking.
The giant cliffs, Salcombe Hill and Higher Dunscombe Cliff, either side of Salcombe Mouth consist of Mercia Mudstone capped with Upper Greensand. The Mercia Mudstone is Triassic and the Upper Greensand is Cretaceous.
Between Axmouth and Lyme Regis sandstone and chalk slipping over clay and limestone has left a ragged coastline dissected by some of the largest coastal landslides in the country.
This area is renowned for landslips and slips took place in 1775, 1828, 1839 and 1840 as well as in 2014 which forced the closure of the south west coast path.
The cliffs at Lyme Regis are largely made up of Lower Jurassic clays with bands of limestone.
Flora and fauna encountered on the walk today includes :-
The podcast of today's walk is now available. You can subscribe via the iTunes store or listen using the player below.
According to my phone I've walked 20.15 miles today - I wasn't expecting that distance - which amounts to 47317 steps. Blimey! It has been a beautiful day's walking on the South West Coast Path and for the first time this year it has been HOT!!. Nine out of ten!
My total ascent today has been 1032.20 metres or 3386 feet and it feels like it.
view back to sidmouth
early purple orchid
orange tip butterfly
