Ramblers Routes Ramblers Routes Britain’s best walks from the experts Britain’s best walks from the experts Southern England Southern England 09 Appledore, Kent 10 Looe, Cornwall 13/11/2015 14:4 l Distance 11.25km/7 miles l Time 3½hrs l Type Country and canal l Distance 16km/10 miles l Time 3hrs l Type Coast NAVIGATION LEVEL FITNESS LEVEL NAVIGATION LEVEL FITNESS LEVEL walk magazine winter 2015 winter magazine walk walk magazine winter 2015 winter magazine walk Plan your walk Plan your walk l Chelmsford Bridgwater l Windsor l KENT CORNWALL APPLEDORE LOOE Exmouthl l Eastbourne WHERE Circular walk from WHERE Circular walk from Appledore along the Saxon Looe to Polperro and back. PHOTOGRAPHY: FIONA BARLTROP PHOTOGRAPHY: Shore Way to Warehorne, START/END Looe railway MILES PAUL PHOTOGRAPHY: and back along the Royal station (SX253539). The charming village of Appledore ‘English Wine Producer of the Polperro was once a busy harbour West Looe. Continue downriver Military Canal Path. TERRAIN Coastal path with lies on the edge of the rich Year’. If you’d like to sample the where fishing boats disgorged with views of the beach opposite. START/END Free car park steep ascents and descents, pastureland of Romney Marsh. wine, the local shop sells bottles. catches of pilchards, and smugglers Follow the coast path along the behind the village hall minor roads, bridleway. It was once a port on the estuary brought sugar, tea, alcohol and road – or drop down on to the sea (TQ956297). MAPS OS Explorer 107; of the River Rother, but in the 1. START Turn L out of the car anything else ashore. Now, its defence walls by Hannafore and the TERRAIN Field paths and Landranger 201. 13th century, storms changed the park, along the main road, away dinky pedestrian lanes attract coastguard station – and continue canal-side path on the GETTING THERE There course of the Rother and gradual from the village centre. When tourists by the throng in summer. with the coast on your L until the edge of Romney Marsh. are trains to Looe from silting-up left Appledore several you reach the beginning of the Best to visit in winter, once the last house. Instead of following the MAPS Explorer 125; Liskeard, and to Liskeard miles inland. The Royal Military recreation ground on your R, with ‘emmets’ have gone and all’s quiet lower coast path, veer uphill slightly Landranger 189. from Birmingham, Canal, which runs for 45km from the public conveniences in the except the stormy sea. Polperro to the R to visit the excavated GETTING THERE Appledore Manchester, Plymouth Seabrook near Folkestone in Kent, corner, follow the direction of Heritage Museum of Smuggling remains of the 12th-century chapel train station is 2km from and Penzance. to Cliff End near Hastings in East the Saxon Shore Way sign, which & Fishing is open at weekends of St Michael of Lammana, built on the village, on the line EATING & DRINKING Sussex, passes the village. The points diagonally across the during the winter for the first time the site of a sixth-century Celtic from Ashford to Brighton Smugglers Rest, Talland canal was built in the early 19th recreation ground. If the field is this year and, with its wonderful monastery, before dropping down (connections to London from Bay ( 01503 272259). century, in anticipation of a being used, continue to its end collection of Victorian photographs to rejoin the coast path. Follow the both). Stagecoach bus service SLEEPING Holiday Bungalows Napoleonic invasion, and fortified and turn R. Go through the gate and displays on smuggling and coast for 3km to Talland Bay, 11B from Ashford to New Plaidy, Looe with pillboxes during the Second at the far corner of the recreation fishing, is well worth a visit (to where you join a minor road Romney via Appledore ( 01503 263122). World War. Today, it’s used to ground and turn L. Beyond the check it’s open, call 01503 273005). where there are two cafés – (www.stagecoachbus.com/ VISITOR INFORMATION manage water levels on the end of the houses on your L, keep This walk to Polperro starts from Smugglers Rest and, after the eastkent). Traveline ( 0871 Looe TIC, The Guildhall, marsh. The return leg of this walk a lookout for a waymark on a post Looe railway station, 8km away, junction, Talland Bay Beach Café. 200 2233, www.traveline.info). Fore Street ( 01503 262072, follows an attractive stretch of the on your L. Here, head diagonally R along the picturesque National EATING & DRINKING The www.looeguide.co.uk). canal path, which runs along the towards the corner of the field. Go Trust coastline. It returns to Looe 2. After the fashionable beach Black Lion ( 01233 758206, GUIDE BOOK The South West entire length of the canal, while through a kissing gate and across inland along an overgrown café with its stylish beach huts, www.blacklion-pub.com) and Coast Path, South West Coast the outward leg takes you along a footbridge. In the next field, bridleway and minor roads. turn L at Kiln Cottage and follow a Miss Mollett’s High Class Tea Path Association (2015 part of the waymarked Saxon cut across the R-hand corner to steep path out of Talland Bay. The Room, Appledore ( 01233 guide, RRP £12 – currently Shore Way, initially through the another kissing gate. Carry on original coastal path then turns L, 758555, www.missmolletts reduced to £7 – www.south 1. START Turn R out of the train vineyard of the Gusbourne estate. up through the next field, past station and follow the road to the but this was closed in 2014 due to westcoastpath.org.uk). ▲ tearoom.co.uk). Woolpack ▲ In 2013, Gusbourne was named vines, towards the tumulus at the cliff erosion, so continue on river bridge. Turn R and cross to P49-50_WALK49_RR_.REV2 .indd 49 P49-50_WALK49_RR_.REV2 .indd 50 Created withMemory-Map.©Crowncopyright2015OrdnanceSurveyMedia048/15 Created withMemory-Map.©Crowncopyright2015OrdnanceSurveyMedia048/15 START Continued... FINISH 1 Inn, Warehorne ( 01233 732900, www.woolpack 4 innwarehorne.com). SLEEPING B&B at Woolpack Inn (as before). Self-catering 3 accommodation at Walnut Cottage, an ideal base for exploring this and other parts of Kent ( 01580 720770, www.kentandsussexcottages. co.uk – ref EK226). VISITOR INFORMATION Ashford TIC, Church Road 4 (www.visitashfordand 2 tenterden.co.uk). 2 GUIDEBOOKS Pathfinder Guides: Kent – Walks by David Hancock (£11.99, Crimson, ISBN 978 1 1854585332); Walking in START 3 Kent: 40 Walks Throughout FINISH The County by Kev Reynolds (£12.95, Cicerone, ISBN 978 1852844622). LOCAL RAMBLERS GROUP Continued... To download this route and hundreds of others, Ashford ( 01580 762355, To download this route and hundreds of others, visit www.ramblers.org.uk/routes www.ashford-ramblers. visit www.ramblers.org.uk/routes LOCAL RAMBLERS GROUP org.uk). Caradon Ramblers ( 01579 an overgrown tunnel of greenery, 348973, www.ramblers.org.uk/ – past a bridge on the L, under a 3. Leave the churchyard by the find an information board about descending to a small ford, then go-walking/group-finder/areas/ sign for ‘House on the Props’. At kissing gate in the bottom corner it. Turn R along the north side up past another property, Walden, top (pictured, previous page). cornwall/groups/caradon.aspx). the junction, turn R to go steeply and follow the field edge gently of the canal and follow the path uphill on Talland Hill. Turn first R through a fern-edged holloway There’s a simple wooden seat here down. After crossing a footbridge back towards Appledore. As you and follow a minor road past the until you come out at Tencreek inscribed with the words: ‘Take a over Horsemarsh Sewer (a more approach, take the second school on the L until you join the Cottage. Keep following the pew – enjoy the view’. The views attractive watercourse than it footpath on your R up to the until you join a steep tarmac road. steep road you came up on. Back tarmac uphill to the road junction, over Romney Marsh are indeed sounds!), you need to bear slightly village, and turn R along the road At the crest, opposite static in Talland Bay, follow the road past turn R and follow the road round worth a pause to enjoy. L towards the top L corner of the back to the car park. caravans, turn L following a farm the café, bearing L at the junction. to the L, past the caravan park. field, where you’ll find another Route devised by Fiona Barltrop track marked ‘Coastal Path When the minor road approaches 2. Go down the other side of kissing gate. Head up the next Diversion’. At the end, turn R over 4. After Talland Bay Hotel, turn R near the A road, turn R, following the mound and bear R at the field, aiming to the R of the houses a stile, then L and you’re back on at Porthallow Farm – this turning signs for the pedestrian route to waymarked fork, still following ahead. Turn L along the access cliff tops with a National Trust sign is easy to miss as it’s not signposted the town centre. At a green the Saxon Shore Way. The path road and R to Warehorne. The ‘Downend’. Continue on the coast as a right of way and appears to triangle – a ‘pulpit’ for 18th- goes along a track with trees on 16th-century pub is connected path. Soon you see a lighthouse, be a private farm drive. Continue century Methodist preacher John the L and vines on the R, then to the church by a tunnel, which the edge of Polperro and the net past the farm onto an unmarked Wesley – turn L and follow the gently downhill through the was once used by smugglers.