The weather seems to be warming up slightly, and now the wind and rain have left us, I decided to take the dog on another coast path walk today. The best thing about living in a beautiful County like Devon, is that we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to where to walk. Today I decided on the West Down Beacon walk.
This walk is linked to the South West coast path between Budleigh Salterton and Exmouth. I decided to start the walk in the middle of both, at Castle lane. There is plenty of parking along Castle lane, it’s a popular dog walking area, as it also joins onto the the old railway line footpath between Littleham and Budleigh. (Another favourite walk of ours)
Castle Lane
Once parked, I got the dog out, put my walking boots on, and headed towards the golf course. There’s clear public footpath signage throughout the walk, which is helpful, as you really don’t want to be walking in the way of any golfers! Although, at one point the footpath does go through the golf course, with warning signs to look out for incoming golf balls!
On this walk, every direction you look, there are beautiful views. Whilst walking through the golf course, there are views of Budleigh and Peak hill, as well as the blue sea in the direction we are walking…heading towards Exmouth. Once you leave the golf course, you can walk towards Exmouth, or Budleigh. I chose to do a bit of both today!
From this spot. We could see Exmouth, Devon cliffs holiday park, and of course the sea
First, we walked towards Exmouth. Amber enjoyed being off lead for most of the walk. She tends to walk fairly close to me, but if you have a dog that likes to run ahead or chase rabbits, I wouldn’t advise they go off lead, as the cliff drops are quite steep, and it’s happened a few times in the past, where dogs have gone running off, not realising they have ran towards the cliff edge. We walked towards Devon Cliff holiday park. It’s clear to see the holiday park, the town of Exmouth and the River Exe from this part of the walk. On a clear day like today, the views were gorgeous!
Quite a clear day, from one side you could see Budleigh, Ladram, Peak hill and the white cliffs of Beer. On the other side you can see the beautiful East Devon countryside
We then turned back the way we came, but then headed towards Budleigh Salterton. The views from this part of the walk are again beautiful. Today I could see the country side of East Devon (Newton pop, Yettington, Bicton area) as well as the Coast of Budleigh, Ladram bay, Sidmouth and Beer. This walk is fairly hard going in places, and can get quite muddy. Fortunately today, it wasn’t too bad, and there are plenty of benches along the path if you feel the need to rest, and they all have beautiful views of the coast!
Are we walking to Budleigh?
We walked towards Budleigh for about half a mile before deciding to turn back. I’ve done the whole walk before in the past, and it is well worth it! I was just short of time today. For those of you that geocache out there, this walk has quite a few caches dotted around the area, some really clever ones too! And some have great viewpoints. There is a multi cache based on the West Down Beacon, which is what this walk is named after. The beacon is now a trig point that stands on the edge of the golf course next to the coast path, you can easily access it, and it stands out quite clearly on the walk.
It’s worth standing up next to the trig point, as the views from here of the coast path are beautiful! You can get a clear view of Exmouth, Sandy Bay and Dawlish Warren from here. As well as Budleigh and the rest of East Devon from the other direction.
Beautiful Jurassic coast. You can see Budleigh in the background.
On the way back to the car, we were treated to the beautiful colours of Autumn in the woodland that runs through the golf course. There are other routes you can take from the golf course, towards Exmouth and Budleigh, other than the coast path, but this route is my favourite, especially on a clear day like today!