I love this walk for many reasons, one being that I hardly see anyone on it. From leaving the cycle trail to arriving at East Budleigh I didn’t see a single person on the walk; Perfect right now when social distancing is a priority! It also brings happy memories of walking around Hayes woods and Hayes Lane with a good friend of mine and our dogs. I also just love East Budleigh and all it has to offer in its little chocolate box village! I did end up up walking quite a few miles in the end, but that’s also due to doing a detour to Hayes Barton, but if you like a quiet walk with equal views of countryside and coast then this one is for you.

Views of East Devon villages and coastline from the footpath.

I started this walk at the Castle lane section of the Old Railway line between Exmouth and Budleigh. To get here you just turn right after the recycling centre along Salterton Road, if you’re coming from Exmouth towards Budleigh, or if you’re arriving from the opposite direction, then its the first turning on the left after the main Budleigh roundabout into Exmouth. There’s normally plenty of parking available on the roadside and the entrance to the Old Railway line is obvious to see from the road.

Once you spot the entrance to the railway line, you’ll see a map showing you where this trail leads, if you aren’t familiar with it then I definitely recommend walking along here, it’s a popular walk amongst cyclists, walkers and horse riders. It’s also worth looking back at old photos of the railway line and stations that used to be here before Dr Beeching closed them in the 60s. After you’ve had a look at the map, walk down the path infront of you and then turn right, where you’ll spot the bridge you were just on, which I’ll now be walking underneath.

This trail is always a peaceful walk, hearing the birds singing above and squirrels scurrying about, the light glistening through the blanket of trees onto the path. I also find it especially beautiful in Autumn, which I’m sure I’ll post about in a few months. When walking this path you can almost forget you’re walking alongside a fairly busy road. I carried on walking this path and soon saw a footpath to my left, this leads to Knowle and East Budleigh common. The local forest school is also situated in this woodland, it’s a lovely area to explore, especially the lane into Knowle with the stream flowing alongside you. I’m not going that way today though, instead I walk straight ahead, up a slope, until I reach the end of the trail.

As I exit the cycle trail, I then turn left up Bear Lane where I soon spot a figure of Winnie the Pooh to my left. Sadly this isn’t where he lives, but it is home to ‘Pooh Cottage’, a holiday park that I find aptly named due to the lane it is situated on. I carry on up this lane which boasts beautiful views of fields and the sea to my right, tall pine trees towering over me and a beautiful thatched cottage to my left, before I reach the end and then turn right down a dusty track.

Once I get to the bottom of this trail, there is a path going off to the left… don’t go this way. Instead, I carried on ahead where I pass a farm gate on my right and then another one round the corner to my left. These fields are home to dairy cows owned by Dalditch Farm. From here, I look back over to my right and catch a glimpse of the rooftops of Budleigh Salterton and the vibrant blue sea in the distance. I make my way up between the foxgloves decorating both sides of the track which takes me towards a path sheltered by woodland. As I carry on straight ahead, I spot a rope swing hanging from one of the trees on my right.

I continue on ahead until I reach two public footpath signs to my right, then take the path of the sign pointing to the left and follow it all the way, where it opens out onto Shortwood Common and eventually leads to a stile with a field on the other side. Once over the stile, I keep to the right as I walk along the outside of the field until I reach a metal gate with a public footpath sign directing me straight ahead.

I pass through the metal kissing gate ahead and take in the stunning views on offer along this track. From here I can see the beautiful rolling hills of the East Devon Countryside, with the sea on the horizon. Today was a fairly clear day so i was able to see the coast line, Peak Hill and Otterton Village. As I walked further up this path I could also make out East Budleigh village, which was where I was heading.

I can imagine the sun rising and setting would look stunning from this viewpoint, on a day like today I could make out the white cliffs of Beer and Branscombe. See if you can spot Bicton Obelisk from the top of this hill, it stands out to the left of East Budleigh.

I follow this track all the way round where I now have beautiful views to my left of farmland and a glimpse of East Budleigh down the hill. I eventually meet a stile where I then turned left up a country lane which leads to Hayes lane with an electricity substation right infront of me. From here I stopped to greet some friendly cows in a field and spotted a buzzard circling above, I then turned right down Hayes Lane. As I walked down this lane I could just make out All Saint’s church poking through the hedgerows ahead. From here I enter East Budleigh over a stream where I’m greeted with plenty of thatched buildings adding the character to this village. The first one I spot is Vicar’s Mead (photographed below) which is the old Vicarage. It was also a school for boys taught by the local Vicar. Sir Walter Raleigh was one of the boys educated here.

Plenty of thatched buildings adding character to East Budleigh.

I followed Hayes Lane to the end where I spot the Sir Walter Raleigh pub ahead. From here I turned left, up the hill and past the church to sit on a bench next to the statue of Sir Walter Raleigh before I headed home. If you don’t know East Budleigh well, then it is worth exploring this little village; It boasts so much character with its thatched cottages, Budleigh Brook running through it, plenty of flower boxes bursting with colour and the local roots of Sir Walter Raleigh born and raised in Hayes Barton just up the road.

Houses selling eggs and marmalade with All Saint’s church in the background.

I headed back home the way I came, but first I took a detour 15 minutes up the other end of Hayes Lane (past the electricity substation) to see Hayes Barton. It’s been a few years since I’ve walked this way and had a glimpse of the home where Sir Walter Raleigh and his family lived. It’s worth a walk up if you haven’t been before but bear in mind it will add time onto this walk (I ended up walking about 7.5 miles today). From here I then walked back via Hayes woods and rejoined the field with the stile.

Hayes Barton, birthplace of Sir Walter Raleigh.

A glimpse of Hayes Barton in the background.

As I headed back to Castle lane the sun was getting lower, which then lights up the trees along the Old Railway line as I walked under the bridge, and back to my parking spot. The Old Railway is a lovely walk in its own right even if you don’t want to walk all the way to East Budleigh.

I took quite a few photos (as usual) of my surroundings on my walk today and also of the beautiful village, so I’ll add more photos to my instagram account which is linked on here if you don’t know it already. (Or you can click here)

With this beautiful weather we’ve been having lately, we thought we would take a trip to one of our favourite places in East Devon; the village of Branscombe. We’ve been quite a few times, but we wanted to explore the area more, instead of doing our usual walk along the beach then to the pub (which are all sadly closed at the moment!).

Views of Branscombe beach from the coast path.

This circular walk we did starts off at the main car park in Branscombe, right by the beach. We first enjoyed a picnic on the beach in the sunshine, then started on our walk towards the village. From the beach, we followed a public footpath to the left of ‘The Sea Shanty Beach Cafe’. and followed a path along side a stream which flows from the village into the sea.

I can imagine the stream is popular with dogs going in for a dip to cool down on a hot day like today, as there was quite a lot of worn down tracks leading to the water. It’s also handy to note on this walk there were a few picnic benches dotting around, so if you wanted a quiet place to sit and have a picnic away from the busy beach, this path, alive with meadow flowers and birds singing would be perfect.

We followed the path straight ahead, past the Manor Mill which is owned and run by the National Trust. Here there were sheep grazing in the field with their curious lambs watching us as we walked by. There were also doves cooing on a barn roof to the right. I stopped for a moment to watch the lambs playing before carrying on towards a kissing gate.

After we left the trail through the gate, we continued to follow the stream straight ahead and onto a road where we were greeted with the thatched roof of the National Trust Forge. Despite Branscombe being well known for its many quaint little cottages, the Forge definitely stands out amongst the others. Reading a little about the Forge on a notice board, it is known to be the oldest working forge in Devon, and was built around 1580.

Branscombe Forge, blacksmiths here make decorative ironworks to sell.

As we turned left towards the hill, we admired some of the ironwork the blacksmiths had made at the Forge and had on display outside. You can just about make out in the picture above, the gate on display to the left, which had decorative bluebells on it.

Forge Cottage, available to let through the National Trust.

As we continued up the hill, on the opposite side to the Forge is the Forge Cottage, a big yellow thatched cottage which I believe is a holiday let. It definitely stood out amongst all the other houses. As we walked up the hill I took one last look down the road, and couldn’t resist one last photo of the cottage and forge together before carrying on with our walk.

With the sun bearing down on us, we decided to take a break once we got to the top of the hill, but first we admired some more beautiful cottages along the roadside, this is one of the roads out of Branscombe I always remember, the cottages are all decorated with beautiful flowers which really bring out the character of Branscombe.

One of the beautiful cottages in Branscombe.

Once we walked past these cottages, we found a bench by the village church, St Winifred’s. We sat here for a drink and took in the views down into the valley and admired some more cottages as we walked further along the road. As well as the cottages, a garden just up from the church really stands out as you walk past, its called ‘Doreen’s Garden’, I assume because its owned by a lady called Doreen! She lets people walk around this garden for free, but does ask for any donations to Devon Air ambulance. We didn’t walk around the garden today, but next time we visit I definitely want to, especially when our little girl will be old enough to enjoy the full colour of the flowers, ornaments and the doves cooing above in the dovecote.

Just a small section of Doreen’s impressive and intriguing garden.

Once we walked past all these pretty cottages, we then approached a public footpath on the left. We didn’t follow this route, instead we carried on towards yet more cute cottages, and towards the Fountain Head Pub. Normally, it would be a perfect place to take a break and grab a bite to eat, but today it is of course, like every other pub, closed due to the pandemic currently happening, so we sadly had to walk past and remember it will soon be back to business and open again to enjoy.

Some more beautiful cottages Branscombe has to offer, and the Fountain Head in the background.

We turned left at the pub, and once we had rejoined another road, we needed to find a footpath sign heading towards the coast. We first walked up the hill, as we couldn’t easily see the sign, but once we were up the hill, and failed to see it, we walked down again and realised it was in fact slightly down the road, hidden by a hedge. If you decide to do this walk, don’t make the same mistake as us!

This footpath takes you up towards a trail shaded by trees and surrounded by wild garlic, which welcomes you with a National Trust sign informing you it is called ‘Pit Coppice’. We followed this path for a while until it then leads you through another gate and into an open meadow. We followed this path all the way along until we reached a signpost pointing us to the left, back towards Branscombe.

Once turning left towards the coast path, you’ll follow another trail for a short while, it will boast beautiful views of Branscombe village to the left when it opens out into a field occupied by cows. Carry on walking the trail and eventually you’ll spot a lookout point to your right, which teases you with views of the blue sea and Branscombe pebble beach below.

The view of the sea and Branscombe beach from the coast path.

We carried on this coast path until it opens out to beautiful views of Branscombe beach and the cliffs beyond. You can also see the green hills that are part of the coast path leading to Beer. We’ve done that walk before, and although quite strenuous it is worth doing for the views and feeling of accomplishment. Here there is a bench you can sit and take in the views before heading down towards the beach.

Beautiful views of Branscombe beach and the coast path to Beer.

The walk was now quite easy going as we walked down some steps and through a gate into a field of grazing cows with their calves. From here we followed the path along side a beautiful house on the hill, and soon spotted the familiar beach huts and the pebble beach infront of us.

Beautiful houses on a hill overlooking the beach.

From here we had one last look at the beach, I love the iconic fishing boat that’s always here, representing Branscombe beach well. As we walked back to the car we were reminded of the shipwreck that happened on the beach in 2007 with the anchor of MSC Napoli that now sits at the entrance to the pebble beach greeting everyone who walks by. For anyone who hasn’t visited Branscombe before, its definitely worth a visit, the drive into the village is narrow country roads, but the character this East Devon village has to offer is a must see.

Branscombe beach with the iconic anchor and fishing boat.

Castle Lane to East Budleigh Footpaths

Branscombe Circular Walk