5 Best Hill Walks In South West England
We are going top be allowed to move about the countryside a little more freely soon - and a great many people might be looking to gain a little altitude in order to survey the world around them. Hills are popular places - you only have to go to some of the more easily accessible uplands of the West Country to know that in normal times.
Here are five of the best hill-walks in the South West region for when the sun. shines and we are free to wander where’re we will…
Dunkery Beacon
A hike up Exmoor’s highest hill offers tremendous views - which is an obvious thing to say about any big eminence - but Dunkery really does boast panoramas others fail to reach.
Where else could you see the Pembrokeshire Coast, the distant Cambrian Mountains, Brecon Beacons, Black Mountains, Forest of Dean, the Malverns, the southern bastions of the Cotswolds, both Severn bridges, the Mendips, Quantocks, Blackdowns, Dartmoor and even the English Channel sparkling through Sidmouth Gap?
Tregonning Hill
There’s a hole in the ground on a hill in Cornwall where ravens go to be lonely and not a lot else happens at all.
This is the old quarry where Cookworthy first found China Clay in Cornwall
This crater on Tregonning Hill led directly to the employment of hundreds of thousands of men. Its story bequeathed the county countless £millions. Its white powdery progeny is to be found everywhere – a large percentage of the man-made things you touch will contain it.
For Tregonning is the place where one William Cookworthy discovered what we now call china clay just over 260 years ago. The hill has many public rights of way and a basic circumnavigation of the eminence offers fine views of Western Cornwall.
Culmstock Beacon
Anyone who has ever travelled on the M5 will have seen it - the great, flat-topped, steep-sided escarpment that seems to reach out like a lonely diving board into the patchwork green pool of lowland mid-Devon - just south of the motorway between the Tiverton and Wellington junctions.
It's called Culmstock Beacon - an unexpected chunk of wilderness which seems to have no right to jut so rudely into the soft Devonshire contours.
And there’s a great four mile walk to be enjoyed hiking up Culmstock Beacon hill from Culm Davy - go left to the ancient beacon house on the edge of the spur, before returning in a loop over the moor and back down to hamlet
Steeperton Tor
If you really want to go to a hill that is lonely and remote, try Steeperton Tor. It is difficult to reach - but that difficulty means enjoying wild Dartmoor scenery every inch of the way.
The walk begins at Belstone (near Okehampton) south into the moors following the Taw. At Taw Marsh our route climbs Oke Tor and continues south up Okement Hill, before returning alongside Oke Tor to gain the ridge leading to Steeperton Tor. Then it’s simply a case of descending over Belstone Common back to the village.
You can return vid Metheral and White Hills - but be warned, this whole area is subject to closure if there’s a military training exercise
Steeperton rises like a dark pyramid above a marsh
Golden Cap
Golden Cap is the highest point along the entire English south coast. Climbing its 191-metre summit from sea-level is a pure joy if you are a lover of maritime views.
To find the altitudinous demesne you reach a hilltop village called Morcombelake on the A35 between Charmouth and Chideock. Just past the garage, over the hilltop heading east, watch out for a lane on the right. Follow signs to the National Trust’s Langdon Hill car park.
Golden Cap summit
There is the basic level walk which follows the contour around the top of Langdon Hill, but for hale and hearty folk the additional climb to Golden Cap is a must.
