Lee Valley and Bull Point AONB Walk
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Devon’s Areas of North Devon Walk Lee Valley Colourful landscapes Colourful Landscapes Outstanding Natural Beauty This leafl et is part of a series of themed trails in Devon’s Areas and Bull Point of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB); helping you get out Start/Finish: Lee Cove car park there, enjoy, and learn more about the landscape around you. Distance: 5 miles (8 km) Circular walk: Yes Trail themes include Grade: Moderate to Strenuous Coast in Confl ict, Terrain: Coast path and public footpath. Some rocky, Man and the Landscape, uneven, slippery and muddy patches Trade and Settlement and Obstacles and steep gradients: 6 fl ights of steps; 14 stiles (4 can be avoided); 3 steep ascents; 2 steep descents A Colourful Landscape. Accessibility: This route is unsuitable 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 Filers Travel 35 from Ilfracombe. For further details contact Devon Traveline SSeeee www.northdevon-aonb.org.uk, 0871 200 22 33 or www.traveline.info www.southdevonaonb.org.uk and Toilets: Public toilets 75m up footpath along route from www.discoverdevon.com car park Parking: Lee Cove Car Park. Pay and Display/honesty box Other Facilities: Public payphone on right, 700m back up Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is the Government’s through Lee village from Cove car park designation for Britain’s fi nest landscapes; there are 40 in England and Wales. Together with Dartmoor and Exmoor Accommodation: Please contact Ilfracombe Tourist National Parks, Devon’s 5 AONBs cover 35% of the county. Information Centre 01271 863001 www.ilfracombe- AONBs share a common commitment to secure sustainable tourism.co.uk or www.discoverdevon.com living landscapes. Each AONB has been designated for special OS map: Explorer 139 Grid ref: SS 480464 attention because of the quality of their fl ora, fauna, cultural Countryside Code: When walking in the AONB always and historical heritage, as well as beautiful scenery. follow the Countryside Code, which is dedicated to helping Their care has been entrusted to local authorities, members of the public respect, protect and enjoy the organisations, community groups, individuals who live and countryside. Follow the link for more information work in them and those who value them. www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk The National Trust own and manage extensive tracts of coastline along the North Devon coast including the section between Bull Point and Lee, which it manages for wildlife and access for people to enjoy. 5. After 600m, ignore footpath Directions signed to right, and follow yellow waymarker down slope to the left. Turn right through gate, then left back onto track, following ‘Public Footpath’ sign. 6. Skirt around right side of Damage Barton, and follow drive. At a left hand bend after 250m, turn right at gate and stile. 7. Follow path along right hand fi eld edges (5), then down steps (6) and left around Yarde Farmhouse. Turn right Colourful Landscape in the yard, following a ‘Public Wembury to Plymouth Wembury to Plymouth Colourful Landscapes Footpath’ sign across small fi eld. Colourful Landscapes Devon offers a glorious tapestry of colour 1. From entrance to car park throughout the seasons. (1), turn sharp left to follow 8. At the houses, follow the little footpath up valley along cut through to the left signed From the dazzle of its coast and the inspiring Tarmac lane, then between ‘Footpath to Mortehoe’. Beyond open cliffs and heaths, to its richly wooded fences alongside pasture. the complex at Easewell, go valleys and the patchwork of rolling fi eld and straight on through campsite. pasture, this beautiful county offers a feast 2. At the end of the fi eld (2), turn for the eyes. right over stile following ‘Public Footpath’ fi ngerpost. Cross It is a land of lush greens, in more shades further stile, then take left hand than you would think possible. The exquisite footpath following stream (3). lightness of spring’s uncurling leaves, the deep greens of late summer’s shaggy hedgerows, 3. Just beyond the next stile turn and the quiet beauty of winter meadows are right signed ‘Public Footpath to just some of the delicate and delicious tones Damage Barton’. on view. Amidst all of this, a ploughed fi eld 4. At top of the hill (4), follow here and there reveals the rich red or deep footpath across fi eld, over brown of the fertile soil, and as summer fades, the road, and on through the autumn colours light up the land. hilltop fi elds, following ‘Public Down by the sea, the bright blue and Footpath’ signs and yellow fresh white of the waves invigorate the senses, while up on waymarker arrows. 9. At end of camping fi eld, turn the cliffs, purple heather mixes deliciously with the yellow right through gate and along gorse. Drop down into the valleys, and the peaceful woods the lane (7,8) to Bull Point are thronged with wildlife, while Devon’s hedgebanks are a Lighthouse (9). (Alternatively, glorious riot of wildfl owers in spring and summer. turn left at fi eld end to visit Mortehoe. Refreshments in Artists, whether poets, painters, sculptors or musicians have village include two pubs). always been drawn here, seeking to capture the rich essence of the county. Yet colour is not confi ned to the landscape 10. At the lighthouse turn right here. Charming villages, seasonal traditions, quirky place signed ‘Lee 1½m’. Follow the names, and even quirkier individuals all contribute to Devon’s coast path along the cliffs for vibrant character. 1¼ miles (10) until you drop down to road. These guides introduce you to a few of Devon’s larger than life characters. Some have lived within the law, and some 11. Turn left down the hill to Lee. beyond it, so be prepared for tales of smuggling, skulduggery, At the bottom turn right to and eccentric antics! return to car park. North North Devon Devon spot sweet chestnut, with its campion, with smaller blooms Points of Interest long serrated leaves and spiky and fi nely cut leaves, it forms 1. Tucked away, and awkward to seed cases. This woodland lost low clusters. many of its oaks to the demand get to for the law enforcers, Lee 7. Alongside the lane down to for timber during the two was a perfect spot for smuggling Bull Point grows Alexanders. It world wars, but some stately activity. The illicit cargoes would has dark glossy leaves shaped specimens remain. be landed here on moonless a little like overgrown celery nights. Then, the smugglers Not content with adorning tops and produces massed would transport the contraband gardens, the glossy leaved heads of clustered yellow inland using trains of donkeys, Rhododendron has, like the fl owers in the spring. It was their hooves wrapped in rags to fuchsia, jumped the garden gate originally brought to Britain by prevent any noise. into the wild. It thrives here the Romans as a vegetable, Although the smugglers often in Borough Valley, producing and was being grown to eat as got clean away, there are massed heads of glamorous recently as the 18th century. purple fl owers which light up the records of government seizures 8. Gorse grows thickly on this Wembury to Plymouth Wembury to Plymouth Colourful Landscapes scene. Unfortunately, this woody Colourful Landscapes of brandy, wine, silks, and salt hilltop, fi lling the air with the shrub also shades out native at Lee, found buried beneath coconut smell of its fl owers on plants. It is poisonous to many fast growing timber tree from the sands and hidden in warm days. You can usually creatures, sours the land, and North America. In the midst of villagers’ homes. fi nd some gorse in bloom at spreads like wildfi re. Like many the spruce grows a large stand almost any time of year, which Lee was also famous for its of our ‘problem’ plants, it was of Larch. accounts for the convenient old wrecking activities and many an introduced to this country by The larch is a lighter green folk saying, ‘when the gorse is unfortunate ship ran aground adventurous Victorian gardeners. than the spruce, especially in on the treacherous beach, in fl ower, it’s kissing season’! 4. A glance back across the valley the spring when its delicate mistaking the small harbour for new growth emerges. It is also that of nearby Ilfracombe. from here offers fi ne views of the conifer plantations on the one of the few conifer trees to 2. The valley at Lee is known as opposite slope. The dark green lose it leaves in the winter, and ‘Fuchsia Valley’. The vivid red, areas are Sitka Spruce, a in the autumn its needles turn pink and purple bells of the a beautiful light golden colour. fuchsia can be seen in bloom 5. On the right just beyond the stile here, there, and everywhere is a wonderful example of ‘stone during the summer months. A hedging’, the traditional art of stretch of fuchsia bushes stand facing a bank with stone to retain to the left of the path here, and support it. Lichen forms a just before you cross the stile beautiful sage green coating on into the fi eld. the stones here. Lichens, which 3. Borough Woods is a are actually a combination of tremendously rich and varied a fungus and an algae living woodland. The pointed oval together, cover almost 10% of 9. Bull Point Lighthouse was built leaves of the smooth limbed the earth’s land surface.