Crodyde and Saunton Down AONB Walk
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Devon’s Areas of Croyde and North Devon Walk Man and the Landscape Man and the Landscape Outstanding Natural Beauty This leafl et is part of a series of themed trails in Devon’s Areas Saunton Down of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB); helping you get out there, enjoy, and learn more about the landscape around you. Start/Finish: Croyde Village Car Park Distance: 3.5 miles Trail themes include Circular walk: Yes Grade: Moderate Coast in Confl ict, Terrain: Coast path, public footpath, surfaced road. Fairly Man and the Landscape, even underfoot, with a few slippery stretches. Trade and Settlement and Obstacles and steep gradients: 8 fl ights of steps; 7 stiles A Colourful Landscape. Accessibility: This route is not suitable for wheelchairs or Have a look at these websites for further leafl ets in the series, pushchairs and ideas for other ways of enjoying yourself out and about! Public transport: Bus service 308 from Barnstaple and Braunton to Croyde. For further details contact Devon See www.northdevon-aonb.org.uk, Traveline 0871 200 22 33 or www.traveline.info www.southdevonaonb.org.uk and Toilets: Public toilets at entrance to car park. www.discoverdevon.com Parking: Croyde Village Car Park. Pay and Display Other Facilities: Public payphone at entrance to car park on left. Village stores and post offi ce opposite car park entrance. Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is the Government’s Accommodation: Please contact Braunton Tourist designation for Britain’s fi nest landscapes; there are 40 in Information Centre 01271 816400 or www.brauntontic. England and Wales. Together with Dartmoor and Exmoor co.uk or www.discoverdevon.com National Parks, Devon’s 5 AONBs cover 35% of the county. AONBs share a common commitment to secure sustainable OS map: Explorer 139 Grid ref: SS 444392 living landscapes. Each AONB has been designated for special Countryside Code: When walking in the AONB always attention because of the quality of their fl ora, fauna, cultural follow the Countryside Code, which is dedicated to helping and historical heritage, as well as beautiful scenery. members of the public respect, protect and enjoy the countryside. Follow the link for more information Their care has been entrusted to local authorities, www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk organisations, community groups, individuals who live and work in them and those who value them. Please recycle this leafl et by passing it onto a friend when you have fi nished with it. Don’t let Devon go to waste. 6. At the bottom of the hill just Directions before the road, turn right 1. Turn right out of car park signed ‘Coast Path’ (9,10). (1,2), then right again up Refreshments may be obtained Hobb’s Hill (main road). Where from Saunton Sands Hotel or the pavement ends, cross road car park opposite but take care with care, then turn left onto when crossing the road. Cloutman’s Lane. 7. Where Coast Path drops down 2. Follow lane, which heads up steps to main road, cross with hill and round sharp right hand extreme care and turn left. Just bend, then turn right through on the sharp left hand bend, fi ve barred gate onto public turn right through narrow gap footpath (3). and down steps, following ‘coast path’ sign on telegraph pole. 3. Go straight on at next junction, 8. Follow coast path down and Wembury to Plymouth Wembury to Plymouth signed ‘Public Footpath to Man and the Landscape round to the right, along low Man and the Landscape Man and the Landscape Saunton’. Path follows old cliff edge. The Devon countryside has been shaped and green lane up hill (4). affected by man for thousands of years, and 4. Cross fi rst fi eld diagonally the land has a fascinating tale to tell. to right up hill (5). Head for From scratching at the earth with sticks fi ngerpost and stile on the and bones, to fl icking switches in today’s skyline, and cross further two sophisticated farm machinery, we have left fi elds straight over the saddle our mark as we have sought to meet our of the ridge. needs from the land. The result is an epic 5. At gate overlooking Saunton story of quiet heroism and struggle, ambition Sands (6,7,8), bear left, and desperation, and triumph and defeat, following public footpath down etched indelibly into the Devon landscape. across fi eld. At next fi ngerpost Thousands of years ago ancient Celtic before abandoned farm, bear tribespeople were creating enclosures and right down hill, signed for huge earthworks. Saxon settlers imported Saunton Sands. their unique systems of agriculture, and 9. At path junction beyond two medieval farmers set out to claw the land benches, follow ‘Coast Path’ back from nature. Clearing heaths and sign left down steps and along woods acre by hard won acre for cultivation, beach to right (11). they made strides which have been built upon by generations 10. After 500m, follow edge of farmers and workers right up to the present day. of stream inland (12) to a The characteristic hedgebanks which enclose Devon’s fi elds are concrete pipe bridge, and bear jewels in the county’s crown. Many of them date back over 800 right up track. Around the years and some, incredibly, are up to 4000 years old. These corner, bear left to continue sturdy and beautiful boundaries, spangled with wildfl owers in following track. spring and summer, are a haven for wildlife of all kinds. 11. At fi eld, follow line of evergreen Thousands of years of toil and muscle have produced the trees up left hand edge, to the patchwork landscape of fi eld and farm you see today. The end of the row. Turn left here, earth has been cut, dug, ploughed and moved for as long as take the gate straight ahead, man has been here, and it is no exaggeration to say that, as and follow footpath. you look out over the countryside, Devon’s history really is 12. At the road turn left, then left laid out before you. again along Jones’s Hill. Car park is immediately on left. North North Devon 2 Devon 4. The route here follows a classic Braunton Burrows is ‘fed’ by fl at plots into the hillside was Points of Interest Devon green lane. These windblown sand from the broad carried out. However, it may be 1. The village of Croyde takes ancient routes formed the strand of Saunton Sands. A that they are a continuation of its name from a Viking raider rural communications network botanist’s paradise, it is home the Saxon agriculture practised called Crydda, who settled in before the coming of surfaced to almost 500 species of at nearby Braunton. the area. In the late Saxon roads. Farmers, traders, fl owering plant including many The best surviving example of period (10th Century), Croyde smugglers, and drovers relied rare and specialised species. It a Saxon ‘open fi eld system’ in was a manor belonging to on these byways in days gone is also one of only two sites in Southern England is found just one Ordulf II. The Lord of 19 by. This lane is known as Alf’s the country where the Amber down the road at Braunton. manors in Devon, Ordulf was Path, and was in regular use by Sandbowl Snail is found. In this method land was locals before the building of the said to be a man of exceptional 7. The dunes and beach form worked in huge communal coast road round from Saunton height and might, capable of the core area of a UNESCO fi elds surrounding the villages. in 1903. great feats of strength. International Biosphere Reserve. You can still make out where 2. These days, a wall encloses the This prestigious designation peasants would have ploughed stream running through the aspires to more than simple their skinny single strips of Wembury to Plymouth Wembury to Plymouth village. Before its construction, conservation. The aim is to bring land, sandwiched between Man and the Landscape Man and the Landscape however, it was not uncommon people and the land together in those of their neighbours. for someone, usually a late a harmonious and sustainable 10. Among the rocks at the bottom night reveller from the Thatch living relationship. of the cliff are boulders from Inn nearby, to take a tumble Western Scotland. They were into the stream. Local legend carried all the way here by the tells that anyone landing in the huge ice sheets which moved drink in this way automatically down over the country during earned the title ‘Mayor of the Ice Ages. These curiosities, Croyde’. Their period ‘in offi ce’ which include a 12 tonne would last until the next boulder of pink granite, are unsteady individual fell in! known as ‘erratics’. 3. Work has been undertaken 5. Farming techniques from 11. Croyde is rated by many as on land bordering this stretch well over a millenium ago the best surfi ng beach in the of the route as part of a local are imprinted on land on the country. The shape of the project to increase and enhance edge of Croyde. Back then, coast funnels waves towards natural habitat. Trees have peasants worked strips the the shore, producing fast, been planted to provide ‘wildlife width of a single furrow, within fulfi lling rides for experienced 8. Peer hard and you can just make corridors’ with a wild fl ower a very large enclosure. As time surfers. It is, however, not out Braunton Marshes. This is meadow created. went on, those who managed the place for beginners.