Day 5 Lynmouth to Porlock: A Long Day on the South West Coast Path

For an OS map of today's walk click here.

Our kindly B & B hosts at Hillside House came out of the front door to wave us goodbye, a friendly sendoff for what would turn out to be a long, long day of walking—perhaps our longest walk of the trip in terms of the time it would take to complete. We began by walking to the Lynmouth seafront and then we turned westwards along the always ascending cliff path to Countisbury. The cliff edge wasn't often all that terribly sheer, but there was enough of a height to make us enjoy the ocean views rather sparingly and concentrate on moving forward and upward. The weather was gray and windy, varying between spots of sun and spits of rain.

Looking Back to Lynmouth and Lynton

When finally we reached the top of the cliff path at Countisbury, we stopped in St. John the Baptist Church and sang "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven," Ken surprising me with a descant. On leaving Countisbury we got a good view of Lynmouth and Lynton through the sun and mist, and Ken suggested a different route slightly further inland which avoided a long, exposed walk around a headland—and its cliff path.

This alternative led us on nice soft paths through pastures with sheep and more of those supposedly rare yet seemingly ubiquitous Exmoor ponies! Further on, we ignored a sign indicating that the path had been diverted, because we weren't certain it referred to our particular path. It did, but we didn't learn that till later. After walking through a group of curious red Devon cows, we found a nice spot for our lunch sheltered amongst the gorse.

We started off again on the trail, which eventually dwindled and then disappeared. We crossed a small stream and tried a path next to a fence, but there were several large trees that had fallen and blocked the path at intervals. We recrossed the stream and I led the way through the woods, where we reconnected with the South West Coast Path about where Ken thought we would. [Sara is good at bushwhacking—Ken.] This little adventure delayed us quite a bit, with the lesson being: don't ignore signs saying the path is closed!

On one of the best stretches of the Coast Path—"The Rhodo Ramble"

Eventually we came to a place where we had to make a choice about which path to take. Our guidebook indicated that the one we were choosing was a half hour shorter, not as rugged, and less steep than the other trail. Wrong on all counts. It was the steepest hill we had ever climbed, of slightly loose reddish rock that gave way under foot. After making it to the top, we met a group of walkers whom we had passed earlier in the day—they were doing a loop walk. We contoured a combe, and then had to walk straight up the side of another hill, this time grassy with another very steep grade. All in all, it was or at least seemed worse than the hill coming out of Grosmont on Wainwright's Coast to Coast path, mainly because it was so unexpected. After getting to the top, the path was better, though we could have done without meeting the five friendly dogs with muddy paws who jumped on us both. We did, however, have great views and saw some very cute lambs!

"Little Lamb, who made thee?"

Later, we took a side trip to get a photo of Ash Farm, where Coleridge apparently wrote "Kubla Kahn" (look up "Person from Porlock" in Wikipedia), and then descended to the tiny hamlet of Culbone, home of the smallest parish church in England. Not much bigger than the average living room, little Culbone church was delightful, though I think we were both getting tired by this time.

Ash Farm

Culbone Church

When we finally descended out of the coastal wood, we discovered that the road from Porlock Weir to Porlock was longer than we thought and (of course) uphill. We walked the road painfully but quickly since we were so late, arriving at our B & B around 7:30 p.m. Despite our very late arrival we received a very warm welcome from our hosts and loved our tiny room in thatched Myrtle Cottage, Porlock. After recovering for a bit, we staggered to the Ship Inn for dinner, Sara enjoying the best beef stew she's ever had.

[Sara's later note: our Lynmouth B&B hosts were so kind that they gave us a postcard of Watersmeet to take with us, since we had mentioned that in our haste to get to the B&B we had neglected to take a photo of Watersmeet's beauty.]

40,454 steps, 30.340 km, 1206.2 cal
OS getamap measured distance: 13.98 mi (22.50 km)

Ken at Myrtle Cottage, Porlock