This walk along the East Devon coast path from Beer to Branscombe and back is quite easy to follow as there are very clear signposts and paths leading you in the right direction so I won’t go into too much detail with this walk. We love this stretch of the South West Coast Path because Beer and Branscombe are two of our favourite beaches to visit. Both are small villages, with fishing boats moored on the pebble beaches. I’ve written a post before about Branscombe (here) and I’ll do another post in the near future about Beer as it deserves its own post; it’s such a lovely little Village to stroll round, visiting the independent shops and sitting in one of the deck chairs having an ice cream or chips on the beach, watching the fishing boats go out to sea.

We started this walk by parking in the main car park (Clapp’s Lane) in Beer as we first went down to the beach to have some lunch, but we resisted the urge to get an ice cream, instead promising ourselves we would have one once we reached Branscombe. If you aren’t planning on visiting the village or if there’s no space in the main car park, then there’s a larger one right by the start of the coast path called Cliff Top car park. To reach the coast path from Beer Beach, we walked past our favourite pub in the village, ‘The Anchor Inn’ and walked up Common Lane. From here we had beautiful views of Beer Beach, its white cliffs and the coastline over the well kept gardens, belonging to the beautiful terraced houses on the other side of this road. Once half way up this hill we then turned down a lane on our left called Little Lane. From here it leads us past the bigger car park I mentioned earlier, and a caravan park on our right. Going through a gate, and into a field, this lane joins onto the coast path.

For those of you who enjoy geocaching, there are some great ones along this route all the way to Branscombe. We actually ended up finding some of the ones we couldn’t find last time we walked this route, though it can be hard sometimes as this path can get fairly popular, so you need to have a lot of stealth!

Views of Beer and Seaton from the coast path.

As we carried on along the coast path the views just kept getting better, we did this walk on a hot and sunny day, but a word of warning, be prepared that there’s a steep hill on the way back from Branscombe, which can be made a lot more strenuous in the heat, there’s also a section of rather steep steps if you descend the cliff path, but the rest of the walk is rather easy going and the views make it even more enjoyable. On the way to Branscombe we took the lower path (called Hooken undercliff) when we were given a choice of two options, and on the way back we took the high path along East Cliff.

A lovely spot to sit and take in the views.

Views of Branscombe beach from the coast path.

The lower path takes you through twists and turns with the white cliffs on your right, and there’s a short cut to the Eastern side of the beach when you reach the end of this path. However, there are quite a few steps on this path, whereas if you choose the high path it’s just through several fields then down one set of steps and then down East Cliff hill. One thing to add, at the moment the path will be getting more and more popular as its peak holiday season, the lower path also gets quite narrow in places, meaning it will be difficult to socially distance from others at times.

Some of the steps you’ll encounter along Hooken Undercliff.

Both paths offer the beautiful views of the coastline and are clearly marked on how to get to the beach. Once we reached the end of the lower path, we could have walked further which would take us out to the bottom of the hill before the car park at Branscombe, instead we chose to enter the beach by a path on our left. This took us to the Eastern end of the beach.

This part of the pebble beach is a lot quieter than the main stretch close to the car park. We decided to sit here for a bit and watch a few dogs enjoying the water as the waves crashed against the pebbles. After a while, we decided to walk towards ‘The Sea Shanty beach cafe’ by the car park and the entrance to the beach, it’s a short walk along the beach to get here. This is the only cafe by the beach, but it has a good variety of food and drink options, including a good choice of ice creams which is what we came for!

The Eastern end of Branscombe beach is always a lot more quiet.

We sat and watched the waves crashing against the pebbles.

The busier part of the beach, with The Sea Shanty Beach cafe to the right.

After having a great ice cream and relaxing in the sun, we decided we had better start climbing the hill back onto the coast path, to return to Beer. From the Sea Shanty cafe, there’s an entrance to the hill ahead through a gate by the mouth of the river that’s just to the side of the car park. Look for the massive hill, it is hard to miss!

We sat and had an ice cream, while looking at the hill we were about to climb.

The hill does have some benches you can rest on if need be, we sat and looked at the views of the beach below before continuing on our walk, up some steps then through more fields which eventually took us back to Beer. Along the way we saw the remains of an old lookout building as we walked past a flock of sheep and down a path that took us through some gates and back to the fields we first started walking in.

The views of Branscombe village, beach and coastline from the top of the hill.

This walk took us about 3 hours to do, but we did it at a leisurely pace and stopped to do some geocaching. It’s best to give yourself plenty of time, as I’ve said before the hill and steps can be quite strenuous! The stunning coastal views really do make up for the hard work involved on some parts of this coast path though. Both beaches are dog friendly, Beer does have restrictions in place for certain areas (clearly marked) during peak season, but the whole of Branscombe beach is dog friendly all year round. If you are taking a dog on this walk, please bear in mind that there are steep drops from the cliff side so be very careful dogs don’t run off the edge, and as always, keep dogs under strict control around any livestock you may encounter (we walked through fields with sheep and cattle in them).

Views of Seaton from the coast path on the way back to Beer.

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With the nice weather we’ve been having lately, we decided to make the most of it and explore another coastal walk. We decided on North Devon, mainly because we haven’t explored a lot of North Devon walks, but also because there’s a lighthouse on this walk, and anyone that knows me, knows I love lighthouses. The walk we did starts off in a little village close to Woolacombe, called Mortehoe. Here we parked in the main pay and display car park and turned left up the road where we spotted a pub (The Ship Aground) and then the local church (St Mary’s), looking beautiful in the sunshine with lots of flowers decorating the entrance.

St Mary’s Church to the left, and local pub, ‘The Ship Aground’ to the right.

From here we carried on walking down the road to our left, keeping the Church on our right. We then passed lots of pretty houses and another Church. Here we spotted a public footpath to our right, but we ignored this one and instead walked down a bit further until we spotted the National Trust gated footpath that led onto the coast path. Once through the gate we were treated to some stunning views of the glistening sea and the spectacular Woolacombe beach where we could see many families and surfers enjoying the sun, as we walked past lambs grazing on the land.

Footpath leading to Morte point, with sea views in the distance.

As we followed the footpath up a hill, we stopped to look back and take in the views; as it was such a clear day, looking past the numerous surfers on the water we were able to see Baggy Point jutting out in the distance. This path soon descended down a hill, still with views of the sea and Woolacombe beach to the left, and the small Churchyard to the right.

Views of Woolacombe beach and Baggy Point.

As we followed this path through another gate, we found that it becomes a bit narrow as we walked between some gorse. We then turned left onto a wider path that would lead us to Morte Point. It was here that we realised we could have taken a clearer path earlier on, that would have also joined onto Morte Point and not been so narrow, but the one we walked was still passable and took us to where we aimed to go.

Views of Morte Point from the Coast path.

The views from this part of the coast path are far from disappointing. We stopped for a moment to watch the waves crashing on the jagged rocks below before climbing up some rocky steps to continue along the coast path. As we turned a corner we could spot our destination, Bull Point Lighthouse, in the distance. which in the intense heat felt like miles away!

Taking in the views of the sea and surf.

A glimpse of Bull Point lighthouse in the distance.

Looking down at the bay of rocks below, I remarked to Jo that we hadn’t yet spotted any seals, and at that moment, I then saw a seal pop it’s head out of the water, and then as we walked a bit further on, we spotted another seal, bobbing about in the waves. We decided to take a drinks break here on one of the benches at the top of the hill to see if we could spot any more seals (we didn’t!) before heading in the direction of the lighthouse.

Sea views and Bull Point Lighthouse in the distance.

As we carried on, we reached a fork in the path with a signpost telling us Mortehoe Village was to the right. In spite of the heat we thought we’d press on to the lighthouse, so we took the path to the left to carry on along the coast which eventually lead us through a gate and more steps to climb. From here we had views of Whiting Cove, which can sometimes be popular with sunbathing seals. As we got a closer view of the cove we looked out for any more seals but couldn’t see any, so we carried on down more steps, through yet another gate and followed the signpost for Bull Point.

Views of Whiting Cove below, before taking the steps down towards Rockham Bay.

We spotted Rockham Bay with a boardwalk staircase leading down to it, but as we got closer, we saw a sign saying these steps down to the bay were closed... We quickly realised why: the wooden steps had collapsed, possibly in a recent storm, and now left the bay inaccessible.

Rockham beach, you can just about see where the wooden steps have collapsed.

From here, we had a bit of a hill climb, which was made more strenuous in the heatwave we were having this week. Once at the top, we had a quick stop to admire the views around us before taking the steps down and then up yet another hill. From this post, you can probably tell there’s several hills and steps to climb on this stretch of the South West Coast path, but the views make it worth the effort! Once at the top of this hill we looked back at the frothy surf crashing on the rocks below before reading the Informative map about Bull Point. Once we reached the top of the next slope, we were greeted with Bull Point Lighthouse standing proudly on Bull Point itself. This lighthouse was actually relocated here from Mortehoe back in the 1970s. There is no public access to the lighthouse itself, but there are holiday cottages here that you can stay in, owned by Trinity house, which if like me, you have a (strange?) interest in lighthouses, you’ll know Trinity House are a charity that own and run most lighthouses in the UK.

Looking back at yet another hill we just climbed.

Bull Point Lighthouse and holiday cottages.

After a quick break to look at the lighthouse, we decided to take the road to the right, which as a signpost told us, would lead back to Mortehoe, 1 mile away. We would have carried on to Sandy Cove and Lee Bay but it was already nearly 5pm so we decided we would do that walk another day. This route back to Mortehoe took us up a country lane decorated with plenty of foxgloves. A short walk up the lane and we were soon met with a holiday park and houses. From here, we took the road straight down the hill into the village, with views of the sea peeking between the houses on our right.

I soon spotted the post office at the bottom of the road, which I recognised from the start of our walk as it sold quirky and cute holiday souvenirs that were displayed in the windows. After having a quick glimpse in the post office window, we crossed the road and entered the car park that we had began our walk in. For anyone wondering, I worked out we walked around 4.5miles today, it’s a little strenuous in places but can be walked at a leisurely pace and is worth the walk for the views of the North Devon Coast and beaches. If you have the time, Woolacombe beach is well worth a visit, and maybe try out a bit of surfing while you’re there!

Beer to Branscombe Coast Path (and back again)

Morte Point and Bull Point Lighthouse