Devon Coast to Coast

There’s something about a coast-to-coast walk that stirs the imagination and lifts it above other long-distance routes. And the Devon Coast to Coast Walk, which runs from the English Channel to the Bristol Channel through the National Parks of Exmoor and Dartmoor, is one of the finest in Britain. Not surprisingly, the Devon Coast to Coast Walk passes through some beautiful scenery. It starts with the golden sands and rock pools of Wembury Bay; crosses the wild heather moorland of Dartmoor with its dramatic granite tors, Bronze Age settlements, medieval crosses, ancient clapper bridges and hardy ponies; meanders through the unspoilt farmland of mid-Devon, a landscape of flower-filled hedgerows, scattered farmsteads and sleepy villages of cob and thatch cottages; and then explores the wooded valleys and grass moorland of the former royal hunting forest of Exmoor with it’s wild ponies and red deer before descending to finish at the attractive village of Lynmouth with its lovely little harbour.

Highlights of the Devon Coast to Coast Walk include the abundant prehistoric remains on Dartmoor which include cairns, cists, menhirs, barrows, stone rows, hut circles, hill forts and enclosures; the ancient waymarkers dotted over the moors such as Hobajohn’s Cross, Bennett’s Cross and Huntingdon Cross; the remains of Dartmoor’s tin industry including workings, tinners’ huts, blowing houses, mould and mortar stones; the stunted and contorted ancient oaks of Piles Copse; the Goreous Stone, an engraved stone over 1,400 years old which commemorates a British chieftain who embraced Christianity; the ancient "Shell" petrol pumps at Withypool; Castle Drogo, England’s newest castle, completed in 1930; the inviting wayside inns such as the Church House Inn at Holne, the Drewe Arms at Drewsteignton, and the Masons Arms at Knowstone; the wealth of medieval churches reflecting the county’s prosperity from the late Middle Ages to the seventeenth-century; the wide variety of bridges of all ages; the many attractive villages such as Wembury, Holne, Ponsworthy, Drewsteignton, Morchard Bishop, Witheridge, Knowstone, Lynmouth and Widecombe-in-the-Moor which has many interesting buildings Widecombe-in-the-Moor, which has many interesting buildings such as the Church of St Pancras which is known as the ‘Cathedral of the Moors’, the adjoining Sexton’s Cottages and the Church House; Chagford, one of the four Stannary towns to which all of the tin mined in Devon had to be brought for assay and stamping in medieval times: buildings of note include the Church of St Michael, St Catherine’s Guild House, the Bishop’s House and the Market House; the glorious views over the Teign Gorge from beneath the walls of Castle Drogo; and the wealth of wildlife which includes skylark, golden plover, raven, pergrine, buzzard, kingfisher, dipper, wheatear, ring ouzel, Dartmoor ponies, Exmoor ponies and red deer.