Steps Bridge, Dunsford and Clifford Bridge

This walk involves a fair bit of water and bridges over it. There are weirs and bridges galore in this area alongside a set of stepping stones which also cross the river. The river is question here is the River Teign and in winter is nearly always running fairly high, on this day it was…

Wembury

The title says it all, nothing more than this location. The walk is an easy one, no more than a mile but between Christmas and New Year its sometimes all you need, just to get out for a bit of fresh air. This bimble bookended, nicely, the walk around Clearbrook, two days before. Being the…

Clearbrook and the West Devon Way

Its taken me a while to get round to writing up these walks from Christmas onwards, as I type I’m four walks behind. All four aren’t huge walks, in fact one is barely a mile but the others are 5 to 8 miles ish and all very enjoyable. This one was constructed around picking the…

Starcross to Dawlish

This perambulation was one of the 3 walks I needed to do in order to have completed a section of the South West Coastal Path reaching from Lyme Regis to Whitsand Bay. I’ll be honest I haven’t a clue how far that actually is but I might try and work it out for my annual…

Cox Tor and the lanes below

A day off work and a chance to make up for the previous weekends washout where walking was not possible. The plan was to head out on a short walk today and then bag another one in a couple of days. Fingers crossed for Sunday. This walk is a simple one, heading out from one…

Ilsington, Bag Tor and Ramshorn Down

When it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The theme of this walk was again, lanes on the edge of Dartmoor and a walk up to a couple of tors to give some fine views. This was my third of these type of forays and again allowed me to visit a couple of neglected tors in…

Soussons Down, Golden Dagger Mine and the boys

A bit of a gap since the last walk with the boys due to my eldest getting a bout of Covid (or Rona as he calls it). He had very little in the way of symptoms and spent the 10 days off school mainly playing games and lording it up over his friends. The 11th…

Caerhays Castle to Pendower Beach

A walk deep in the Roseland Peninsular in perfect weather which made for a spectacular walk. I was looking for walks for this weekend and was deliberating back and forth. Coastal or Dartmoor. I have plenty of Dartmoor to explore and the weather was set fine, but at this time of year the light is…

Shaldon to Petit Tor Point

Back on the coastal path trail and a walk I wasn’t expecting too much from. Look at the best days on the coastal path and this area won’t feature, but don’t be too quick to dismiss it, its a good walk along here. That said the walk back can be a bit scruffy to start,…

Buckfastleigh up to Pupers Hill and back

After the success of a moorland and lanes walk a few weeks ago up at Cosdon Hill (here) I tried another. Again this was a ticking list of Dartmoor 365 spots first and foremost and then an attempt to get up to Dartmoor and a tor but this time from a different way than previously.…

Slapton Ley to Strete

Time for another bimble with the boys, and carrying on with the coastal path at Slapton. We had previously done the section to the south of this last summer (here) and we enjoyed the area, so a return was in order. Again we weren’t great at getting out of bed and settled for lunch at…

Aira Force walk and the flooding in Keswick

The day after my mountain walk around Esk Hause, the weather was slowly taking a turn for the worse, we decided to make the most of the next day of maybe some drizzle but mainly low cloud. Aira Force is always a great outing for bad weather days, plenty of waterfalls and a nice loop…

Seathwaite Fell, Esk Pike and Glaramara

The big walk for this visit to the Lakes (apologies for the large amount of photos!), this was a bit of a concoction of fells thrown together to make a loop and pick off a load of Wainwrights. These fells would normally mean a couple of walks to pick them off, and all requiring a…

A Grasmere loop

This is one of our regular walks when we come to the Lake District, and one we rarely change. We really ought to include Rydal Water in the loop and walk back via the coffin route and make a bit more of it. However today the weather was a bit gloomy, cloud was down and…

Kennon Hill, Cosdon Hill and a closed pub at Wonson

A walk of two halves this one, the first on Dartmoor proper, tors, hills and boggy ground (which is prevalent in this area). The second half is around the lanes of north eastern Dartmoor, picking off the Dartmoor 365 squares. The weather was lovely all the way through, sunshine and a chilling breeze, which made…

Tintagel to Dannonchapel

Back to the northern coast this week and a good forecast which looks very promising indeed. I was a bit worried driving over Bodmin Moor area, driving through low and some very dark clouds. As I descended towards Bossiney to cloud cleared but not enough for the sun. I needn’t have worried, before long the…

Paignton

As is the case on the coastal path, sometimes you have to walk through a town, along streets and pavements with cars whizzing by. People all around being busy, the weather was warm for October. This walk was a result of me struggling to get the boys out of their pits at a reasonable hour…

Seaton to the edge of Devon

A walk to hopefully change the fortunes a bit with the weather, as a rule east is better than west for the weather and the same goes for coastal rather than moorland. So I went east and coastal hoping to double up the luck. The forecast itself was very positive with sunny spells forecast all…

All soggy on Scarey Tor

It was my birthday, a Thursday, I had 3 days off work (Wed-Fri) plus the weekend, meaning plenty of scope for walks. However as is the way, home chores pile up, gardening here, flat pack building there and plenty in-between. I decided, looking at the weather that any of Wednesday to Friday would do for…

Crackington Haven to Wanson

Those will a keen eye will recognise this starting point from earlier this year, when I walked the other direction towards Boscastle and back over High Cliff (here). Nothing quite that high today, but the distance was there and then some. The ups and downs where there as well, making this a tough walk but…

West Dartmoor on a day off

A different day today and not one I’ve done before, first I had a day off work as I had a eye appointment in Ivybridge, which meant I started reasonably early for that. Eye appointment done I had a coffee in Ivybridge and sat in the car looking for a plan. I needed to go…

All around the West Dart River

After a couple of weeks away from a walking path, still on antibiotics and not wanting to push myself too far I sought a route that didn’t involve too much ascent. Distance would be ok if I could find a way not to be heading up and down hills too often. That ruled out the…

Parke

No the title isn’t a misspelling, it is the name of the house, a Grade 2 listed property near to Bovey Tracey and is the headquarters for the Dartmoor National Park, despite being a mile or so outside of its boundaries. It offers a simple couple of miles of walking around the River Bovey, with…

Wheal Jewell wildcamp

We hadn’t camped since our visit and walk along the coast at Boscastle, back in July (here). It was time for another outing and the weather was forecast to be good for the bank holiday weekend. In fact we were in a bit of a warm section of weather in which it had been pretty…

Looe to Polperro

Another week and another coastal walk, and one I’d had my eye for quite a while and never got around to. This weekend I wanted not to drive as far, less than an hour and this one fits the bill nicely, especially as I found a nice National trust car park inland near to Hendersick…

Branscombe Church to Seaton

Back to the coastal path this week and choices of where to go. The south west coastal path is vast, and it can take a good 90 minutes or more to get to its furthest points to walk. Naturally I’ve picked off lots of the nearby spots and some of the good spots, but recently…

South Zeal and South Tawton

This was our first walk after returning from the Lake District and a pure Dartmoor 365 bagging walk, a list ticker! We’d had a lazy morning and eaten some lunch, before heading out to the furthest point away from our home on Dartmoor. South Zeal takes over an hour to get to and if I…

Sheffield Pike and Glenridding Dodd

After the visit to hospital I knew that my youngest needed to rest this holiday, so we had a couple of days just mooching around the house and Grasmere and doing very little. By Friday I wanted to walk again, however the weather had turned a bit and the fine weather of earlier in the…

Base Brown, Green Gable and Great Gable

Its taken a bit to get round to writing this post, a walk to one of the great mountains in the Lakes and picking up a few other Wainwrights on the way around, with any luck. The walk is a very good one and is a change from the previous walks on this holiday (Carrock…

Armboth Fell

After our first walk in the Lakes in nearly two years, we sweltered in a heatwave the next day, we decided to walk after tea that evening. This would hopefully give us a slightly cooler walk and meant the fell needed to be reasonably near to the house in Grasmere. I had Armboth Fell still…

Carrock Fell and High Pike

Well, finally, we could make our way to the Lakes to stay for a holiday. One Covid cancellation and one burst water pipe in the holiday cottage, had meant that the last time I set foot in Lakeland was October 2019. Which is far too long ago for me. Those that say that the hills…

Dewerstone, Wigford Down and Cadover Bridge

As we all know the weather recently has been hot, days without a breeze are rare down in the south west but when coupled with hot sunny weather, it makes for unpleasant walking conditions. This was one of those days and as a result I was up early and parked at 8.30am for my favourite…

Shilley Pool and Shilstone Tor

It was hot, too hot to do anything more than a gentle stroll for 15 minutes before returning home for a cold shower. Typical Britain, in that we all moan about good weather!! This weekend, I had one boy isolating due to being within a quarter of a mile of someone with a sniffle (no…

Broadsands to Paignton

A short walk today mainly due to the heavy rain forecast to arrive around midday at home. I headed east to try and extend that time a bit and actually found an area that missed the worst of the rain, whilst I was there anyway. I’ve walked from here with the boys last November around…

Corn Du, Pen y Fan and Cribyn

Back in February in lockdown I decided to stick some pins in a map of places I wanted to walk and visit, when we all could again. A few in the south west (Brown Willy in Cornwall already in the bag), some in south Wales, Snowdonia, Peak District and a few aspirational ones in Scotland.…

Sugar Loaf

New places and new walks, that’s the motto for this year. I’ve been extending my walks around the South West Coastal path, new places on Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor, and now a new area altogether in the Beacon Beacons. The choses of walks here are pretty wide and varied. However having driven up from Plymouth…

Walkers Hill and Wansdyke

A slightly different area this week, and not one to have featured on the website before. I’m in Wiltshire, staying with my boys at my brothers and his wife’s house. It had been nearly a year since the cousins last saw each other and it was time to sort that out. Whilst there my brother…

Staple Tors and a sunset

There are a few walks I look forward to every year. The bluebell walk (tick on that for this year here), a snowy walk in the winter (all the snow on Dartmoor was in lockdown so I missed all of that) and a sunset walk. Time to tick that last one off for this year.…

Boscastle to Tintagel, almost

The plan of getting out and getting away whenever possible continued. Things are booked for the future weeks and months and loads of plans for weekends inbetween. Revisits to places, new visit to places, the idea is not to stay in the same town that I’ve been forced to frequent these last 12 months and…

Holwell Bluebells and Haytor

Well its been a couple of weeks since my last post, not because I haven’t been out walking, far from it, this was down to a laptop failure (daughter board under the power button for those with IT knowledge). Most of my photos have been taken on my camera so I was unable to get…

The Lizard, Britain’s most southerly place

The one thing about these lockdowns imposed upon us is that they can damage and hurt people. Simple things such as staying overnight with your children is one of life’s simple things. I’ve not done that since September (two camping trips) with these two rascals. A combination of not having enough rooms for them to…

Hollacombe, Cylinder Bridge and Brixton

Now I know what your going to say. He’s been away from posting for a couple of weeks and he returns with a walk from home, “what’s happened to Dartmoor or the coastal paths” I hear you say. Well the weather has happened, constant forecasts of heavy, potentially thundery downpours hasn’t encouraged me to get…

Crackington Haven to Boscastle

I felt I’d done walking in Cornwall a bit of a disservice last week with my post on walking in northern Bodmin Moor, so I set out to put that right. This walk should do that nicely, and then some. This is arguably one of the best days coastal path walking in the country, you’ll…

Bodmin Moor, Rough Tor and Brown Willy

Somewhere different this week and one I was looking forward to. It was about time I headed to the highest point in Cornwall, for some reason I had never made it this far north on Bodmin Moor but today was about putting that right. I’d previously walked around the Minions area of Bodmin Moor, which…

Templer Way, Yarner Woods and Knowle Rocks

This is another walk around the Lustleigh area, having visited Knowle Woods previously last November (here) I thought I might have finished finding new things around these parts. Not so, a bit of tweaking to my 500 list has brought 3 more fine outcrops and the last one on this walk is a cracker. I…

Fur Tor, The Queen of Moor

After last weeks successful foray into the centre of the South moor, I fancied something similar. Fur Tor is always a trek, no matter which way you approach it. You can go from Postbridge, along the East Dart. You can head from Bagga Tor, across rough ground or from Lane End, through Tavy Cleave. I…

Plymouth seafront

It had been a while since I’d been to the seafront of Plymouth, probably about 18 months. Which seems ridiculous when I live here. So I thought I’d put that right and take the boys for an ice cream. I expected it to be busy and it was with plenty of cafe’s open selling the…

Zeal Tramway, Redlake and the River Avon

Restrictions loosened, I decided to head further into Dartmoor. Still on its southern side but the walk is straight into Dartmoor proper, once at Redlake you leave behind the last few remains of people and head off for some solo time. The best part about this walk is the route to Redlake, using the Zeal…

Berry Head and Brixham

Back, back to the coast and further from home. Finally a release and a chance to move a bit further and get back to some coastal path walking which I have missed hugely. If you had told me this back in 2019 then I would have said you were talking c**p. Last year was my…

Sampford Spiney, Pew Tor and Whitchurch Down

The last walk before restrictions on distance you can travel are lifted. You can’t stay overnight, but out and back home is all I need for now. This walk however stayed fairly local and included parts of a walk I did with the boys a few weeks back (here). This walk headed up towards Pew…

Saltram

A chance of a walk with the boys, but not very far at all from home. We’d spent the morning planting seeds to grow veg during the year, had some lunch before heading out for a walk in some sunshine. This walk is around the National Trust property of Saltram, the normal route around the…

Devonport Leat, Black Tor and Crazywell Pool

I wasn’t sure what to title this post and walk, its a walk in the area of Burrator but most of it tries to avoid the crowded hotspots around the reservoir itself. In fact if you headed uphill from Leather Tor Bridge you could miss out Norsworthy Bridge and the busy road section at that…

Brent Hill, Gidley Bridge and Harbourneford

I’ve been slowly creeping further east on each of my walks recently, with this walk being about 15-20 minutes from home. I probably won’t go any further east until we get into April now and have a couple of walks in the Yelverton area planned next, to finish off this lockdown. This walk is a…

Three Barrows, Wacka Tor and Corringdon Ball

Another walk on the edge of Dartmoor, however this one also walks a bit into the moor before returning to the edge. This one follows, yet again, a short drive. For those that question it, a week earlier the NHS has seen it fit to send me for a diabetic eye screening to this distance…

Horrabridge and Plaster Down

Well Spring has sprung, or at least an early version has. We may well get another blast of the cold stuff but for now we all are looking forward and willing to fight anyone who wants to stop our plans, we all know what I’m talking about. This walk was a beauty, the weather was…

Cornwood, Stalldown Barrow and Rook Tor

This is another walk, after a short drive which has inched me slightly further east. The start point was within a mile of the last starting point however the views were very different, gone were the clay works (until I got round to Rook Tor), replaced by open moorland. The weather started a bit damp,…

Mothecombe

Whilst the rest of the country has been covered with a blanket of the white stuff, us down here in Devon have endured (rather than enjoyed) day after day of strong winds from the east and plenty of rain. This was another of those days, but we managed to pick a gap in the weather…