North Cornwall Coast Path Walks

This is just such a wonderful thing to do. Tune in to being in the darkness of the cave and enjoy the sounds and music that you'll be able to make with the help of a brilliant music teacher. Take care on the walk down but well worth the effort just to be on the beach at low tide. Enjoy!

Wishing you good walking if you are heading to a North Cornwall coast path next week for the school half term.

North Cornwall is certainly a place where you can look up and see the stars because it has darker skies than most other places in the UK. After all, on the North Cornwall coast, you are looking out over two thousand miles of light-free Atlantic Ocean.

The dunes at Rock under Brea Hill continue to be eroded by winter storms. These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago

Autumnal sunset across Port Isaac Bay to The Rumps iron age cliff castle (built before the Roman invasion of Britain in about 200 AD.) Photo taken from Tregardock Beach and cliffs today. 200 years ago the same beach was the site of a mine exploiting a rich seam of silver ore. In the early 1940's you would have seen aircraft towing targets flying off from Treligga (a couple of fields away from here).

I'm spending most of my time now on the opposite coast, so to speak, from the North Cornwall one. I'm in Cardiff and enjoying exploring the coast of the Vale of Glamorgan. This photo is looking down the beach to Ogmore by Sea as the rain clouds sweep up the Bristol Channel with the incoming tide. It's certainly been turning on the rain and I got a bit wet collecting sea buckthorn berries in the sand dunes. I returned to Cornwall last weekend to enjoy a classic walk from Polzeath to Port Isaac and return. Wherever you are I wish you happy adventures.

Travelling light. Starting in Hartland a few days ago he spent a treat night in the Castle Hotel in Tintagel but otherwise is wild camping with a lightweight tent that uses his walking pole as a tent pole. He's on his way to St Agnes at the moment from Padstow but I caught up with him on the beach in Polzeath yesterday. Looks like he'll have sun and fine walking weather over the next few days.

View from Roscarrock across Port Quin and Doyden to the site of the Iron Age cliff fort at The Rumps.

Beautiful Bedruthan Steps today. You can see more photos of the Beach Sand art at my page North Cornwall Beach Art

As anyone will tell you, September is a magical time to be in North Cornwall. Using bike friendly Sustran routes over the weekend I took in the blackberries and quiet lanes around St Columb (both Major and Minor) and then visited the northern Newquay beaches. Newquay really does have amazing beaches and is surrounded by them too, including historic Porth beach! If you want to do something a little off the coast then you will get a warm welcome if you want to pick apples at Haywoods Cider Farm at St Mabyn.

If you are interested in trying Beach Sand Art then the North Cornwall coast offers some spectacular beaches to practice on. This one is perfect for the vantage points to take some photos from before the tide comes in and takes your renewable art form away. The Strangles beach is not far from Crackington Haven. The rock formations are a work of art in themselves here with all their folding and faulting and well worth the climb down to just look up and wonder at the forces involved in creating these geological masterpieces. If you want to discover beach sand art yourself try my site North Cornwall Beach Art or just contact me here and I will be happy to advise how you can get started.

The Strangles. The name of the beach does not raise many laughs but it's a truly inspiring one to visit on a low tide. The rock formations around here are good enough to have created a few geologists as well as a lot of faults and folds. Crackington Haven, just up the coast from here, has given its name to a geological phenomena, the Crackington Formation, a fractured shale that has been shaped into incredibly twisted formations.

Hard to express how beautiful the North coast of Cornwall is for a walk at the moment. This one is in the green, green fields around Dannonchapel. Perfect. Download the walk and app at https://www.iwalkcornwall.co.uk/…/trega rdock_to_dannonchapel

Even on a sunny summer afternoon you'll have this magical valley, church and folly all to yourself! I did yesterday. The Pleasure House Folly on the cliffs above Hartland Quay, and a short circular walk around it, takes in the Church of St Nectan and some wonderful views from the South West Coast Path. It's the parish church of Hartland, and sometimes referred to as the "Cathedral of North Devon", with its amazing 128ft tower. It is the tallest church tower in north Devon, and overlooks a very rocky and dangerous piece of the coast. Film fans will enjoy recognising the isolated house down the valley used in The Night Manager and Sense and Sensibility.

If you want to get away from the madding crowd hanging around the new bridge at Tintagel, you just have to go a short way to find the source of the original cliffhanger. And you're not likely to meet anyone on the way. I've posted before about St Juliots, and where the word "cliffhanger" really comes from, and why Thomas Hardy was so inspired by Cornish cliffs. It's all walkable from Tintagel if you want an inspirational day out. I took the photos yesterday, the church was empty. There is a good inland walk you might like to try that includes the Valency valley and Hardy country near Boscastle at https://www.iwalkcornwall.co.uk/walk/lesn ewth_to_tresparrett

I've been telling people about iWalk Cornwall​ since early 2015. Today my daughter recommended we go on a walk with them and use the mobile app. While I've been in Australia this summer she's done quite a few iWalk Cornwall routes all around Cornwall and is a real convert. At just less than 2 quid a walk to download the guided walks they are great value; since you can't really get lost and they're so well researched. Inspirational too if you want to quickly find a new walk... in Cornwall as they cover the whole county. To be honest I had never used the app before because I didn't have a smart phone until this year (had just been using their website). Anyhow, this is the most beautiful walk and I can recommend it highly. We saw many seals on the beach, the wild looking goats on the cliff and the 30 mile view from the top of High Cliff (you get all that detail in the notes). Plus there was all the honeysuckle, heather in full bloom and we only met one family coming the other way the whole walk. Where were they all? Later we found the answer...Tintagel! The sun shone and the sea was that amazing Cornish blue and if you find a better two hour walk in England I'd be surprised. Go try!
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