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County Town: Exeter
Population: 1,045,100
Area: 2586 Sq miles 6698 Sq k
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South West Coast Path Devon

Location: South West England (Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Dorset)
Length: 1014 km (630 miles)
Average number of days to complete: 56 days but most people choose to walk the trail in sections.
Users: 100% for walkers, 8% also available to either cyclists or horse riders; however only the Tarka Trail cycleway section (North Devon) offers a continuous length for cycling (21 km/13miles).
Highest point: Great Hangman, Exmoor 318 metres (954 feet)
Start point: Quay Street Green at Minehead in Somerset and South Haven Point, Poole Harbour in Dorset. Both marked by innovative sculptures.
Finish point: Quay Street Green at Minehead in Somerset and South Haven Point, Poole Harbour in Dorset. Both marked by innovative sculptures.
Landscape: Extremely varied from rugged and remote cliff tops to sheltered estuaries and busy harbours and resorts. Moorlands, plateaux incised by steep coastal valleys, intimate coves and long pebble or sand beaches, spectacular ‘drowned’ estuaries, landslips with undercliffs in East Devon and Dorset. 65% of length within AONBs, 56% Heritage Coast, 5% National Park. England’s first natural World Heritage Site between Orcombe Point, Exmouth, East Devon and Old Harry Rocks, Swanage, Dorset (95 miles).
Highlights: Exmoor, internationally important (UNESCO Biosphere Reserve) sand dunes at Braunton Burrows, Clovelly village, Hartland Point, Boscastle harbour, Tintagel Castle, beach at Bedruthan Steps, Camel Estuary, West Penwith (moors and engine houses), the outdoor Minack Theatre, the Tate Gallery at St Ives, Logan Rock (a rocking tor), Land’s End, the Lizard, Helford River, harbour town of Fowey, Thurlestone, South Devon estuaries (Yealm, Erme, Avon, Dart) the Axmouth Undercliff (a landslip), Berry Head, fossils at Lyme Regis, Golden Cap cliff, Chesil Bank shingle ridge, Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove, Old Harry Rock stacks. Coastal flowers and birds. Occasional seals, dolphins and basking sharks. Coastal historic and archaeological features including Iron Age Hill Forts, Cornish tin mining, World War II defences.
Famous Associations: Poet John Betjeman at Trebetherick, writer Derek Tangye, Thomas Hardy (restored St Juliot Church near Boscastle), nature writer W.S.Hudson (stayed at Zennor, Land’s End peninsula and wrote The Land’s End: A Naturalist’s Impressions of West Cornwall), Jane Austen, writer John Fowles (French Lieutenants Woman), Daniel Defoe (Wrote Robinson Crusoe), Virginia Woolf (Spent family holidays at St Ives where Godrevy lighthouse was the inspiration for ‘To the Lighthouse). Henry Williamson (North Devon coast and rivers provide the setting for many of his books). Rudyard Kipling (at school in Westward Ho!), Daphne Du Maurier (lived at Menabilly near Gribbin Head), Agatha Christie (Lived in Torquay as a child; also spent writing holidays on Burgh Island, South Devon), Sir Francis Drake (Completed the first circumnavigation of the world at Plymouth in 1580), Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, John Piper, Alfred Wallis and Stanhope Forbes (all St Ives or Newlyn based artists or sculptors in a variety of styles), Beryl Cook (artist from Plymouth), Rick Stein (chef and restaurateur in Padstow), Marconi (Sent first transatlantic radio signals from the cliffs at Poldhu, the Lizard in 1901), King Arthur (many North Cornwall associations including the castle at Tintagel), Lawrence of Arabia (stationed at Mountbatten RAF station, Plymouth).
Trail Officers favourite part: “Hard to choose one! - The wildness of Hartland on a windy autumn day, the sights and sounds of summer on Plymouth’s Waterfront, a dog walk with a pub lunch in West Dorset or the spring flowers on the cliff tops on the Lizard”
Nearest towns: Bristol is 97 km (60 miles) to the north and Taunton 36 km (22 miles) to the south-east of the Minehead start point. Bournemouth is 10km (6 miles) Southampton 55km (34 miles) from the Dorset start point. Ilfracombe, Barnstaple, Bideford, Bude, Padstow, Newquay, St Ives, Penzance, Falmouth, Plymouth, Torquay, Exmouth, Sidmouth, Lyme Regis, Weymouth and Swanage are some of the towns along the Trail. Access: London is 2 hours by train from Taunton, with a further 1¼ hours by bus or bus and train to Minehead. London is1¾ hours by train from Bournemouth, with a further 1 hour by two buses to South Haven Point via Sandbanks ferry. Stations also along the Trail at Barnstaple, Newquay, Hayle, St Ives, Penzance, Falmouth, Par, Looe, Plymouth, Paignton, Dawlish, Exmouth, Weymouth and Swanage. Continental Ferries – Poole, Weymouth and Plymouth.
Information available: National Trail Guides published by Aurum Press: · Minehead to Padstow by Roland Tarr - ISBN 185410 415 2; · Padstow to Falmouth by John Macadam - ISBN 85410 387 3; · Falmouth to Exmouth by Brian Le Messurier - ISBN 85410 388 1; · Exmouth to Poole by Roland Tarr - ISBN 85410 020 3. The South West Coast Path Guide - an annual guide with route and accommodation information published by the South West Coast Path Association ISBN 0 907055 06 0. Many, many local leaflets/booklets also available. Current examples include The South West Coast Path through Torbay, Plymouth’s Waterfront Walkway, Beneath the Skin of the Lizard.
Contact for all information and advice: Ros Love, The South West Coast Path Team, c/o Devon County Council, Matford Lane Offices, County Hall, Exeter, EX2 4QW.
For further information please call us on 0871 716 2438 - Calls cost less than 10p per minute
Website: www.nationaltrail.co.uk

For places to stay near this National Trail click here

For more information contact:
South West Tourism - 0871 572 2521

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Starry Starry Night, Look You – Dark Skies Tourism, South Wales | Mills and Hills in Central Lancashire, Lancashire | Get Fit on the North York Moors, North Yorkshire | A West Country Christmas – Dorset in December, Dorset | Nottinghamshire – Rural and Urban, Nottinghamshire | The Test Valley, Hampshire | Ashdown Forest, Sussex | The Rugged Northumberland Coast , Northumberland | The Resorts of North Devon, Devon | The Queen's London, London | Denbighshire , North Wales | York and Its Surrounds, North Yorkshire | The High Weald of Kent, Kent | Leisure, Luxury and Retail Heaven in Leeds , West Yorkshire | Rejuvenate Yourself in Rejuvenated Belfast , Belfast | Seasonal Fun in Brum, West Midlands | Autumn in the Southern Chilterns, Buckinghamshire | Cheshire Peaks and Plains, Cheshire | Essex’s Colne Valley, Essex | Cardigan Bay, West Wales | South Wales Valleys, South Wales | Highland Perthshire, Perthshire | South Downs National Park, Sussex | Royal Wedding London, London | Vale of Belvoir, Leicestershire | The Oxfordshire Cotswolds, Oxfordshire | Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire | Edinburgh at Christmas, Edinburgh and the Lothians | Marvellous Manchester, Greater Manchester | The National Forest, Derbyshire | East Lothian, Edinburgh and the Lothians | Regency Brighton and Hove, Sussex | Isle of Purbeck, Dorset | The Somerset Levels, Somerset | Llandudno, North Wales | Hereford, Herefordshire | Cheltenham, Gloucestershire | Bristol, the Great West City, Bristol | Weardale, County Durham | Festive London, London | Islay, Isle of Islay | Blackpool and the Lancashire Coast, Lancashire | The Vale of Evesham, Worcestershire | Land of the Prince Bishops, County Durham | The North Cornwall Coast, Cornwall | Torbay, Devon | Dumfries & Galloway, Dumfries and Galloway | West Highland Way, Argyll | Caithness and Sutherland, Highlands | Harrogate & its Surrounds, North Yorkshire | Sheffield, South Yorkshire

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