Devon Walks - 6 Great Hikes for Easter & Spring

Easter is a great time for walking in the UK - the weather tends not to bee too hot or too cold. And the beautiful county of Devon is one of the best places in the UK in which to find the sort of easy hike which can be done either in a morning or an afternoon…

Walk 1 - Ashclyst Forest - Central Devon

From our earliest age we are made aware of big dark forests – they are fairytale places where big bad wolves live and where we humans get horribly lost. Novice hikers might be tempted to take a bag full of white pebbles with them, like Hansel and Gretel.

Far be it from us to suggest readers deposit any kind of object into one of our environmentally immaculate forests. Instead, let’s go to Ashclyst Forest – one of the largest tracts of ancient woodland in the region – situated not in the back end of ancient beyond but just a short witch’s broom-ride from the M5. It is rich in way marked walks and it should be impossible to get lost.

Ashclyst is not only easy to reach, but hugely enjoyable - having been well preserved by its owner the National Trust. There are several car parks but the main one, situated at OS grid ref SY 001995, has an interpretation board showing the various way-marked trails which vary from 1.5 miles to a total of seven miles in length. 

The board also gives a brief potted history of the forest, which is interesting because you get the distinct feeling that up here - out of earshot of the modern world - this is how much of England used to be.

We recommend the Trust’s Butterfly Walk - leisurely stroll along sunken lanes and woodland rides and through broad-leaved and coniferous woodland, good for fritillary butterflies, white admiral and other butterflies. It can be a bit muddy in winter on this clay ground - for directions see the interpretation board or visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/killerton.

Distance: 4 miles. Time: 3.5 hours. Difficulty (when wet) 6/10

Walk 2 - Aylesbeare Common – South East Devon

Ever heard of the East Devon Pebble Beds? Don’t worry, not many people have – but they are well worth visiting, tucked away in their beautiful but strange and ancient looking corner of the kingdom.

The Pebble Beds are nationally famous due to the fact they provide a home for all sorts of rare flora and fauna – and you can find a prime example of the landscape in question by travelling along the A3052 from Exeter towards the village of Newton Poppleford.

You’ll see the heathlands before you reach the village and there are several car parks around this wide open and popular area. 

A good basic hike which will allow you to explore the pebblebeds is based on a figure-of-eight around north and south Aylesbeare Common with a bit of Harpford Common thrown in for good measure. You could, however, enjoy a shorter stroll by following the RSPB Reserve Visitor's Trail if you were limited for time.

The upper parts of the commons are quite high and you will see the English Channel glimmering way out past Budleigh Salterton.

Which ever walk you take around the commons (and there are many) you will be in the demesne of the elusive Dartford Warbler. This brown little fellow with a long tail is just one of the reasons why the RSPB runs a reserve at Aylesbeare Common. There are other reasons, but apart from the warblers, nightjars and stonechats, this is a rare chunk of ancient heathland that plays home to the largest number of butterfly species to be found in any RSPB reserve.

To see a good introduction to the area visit www.pebblebedheaths.org.uk

Figure of 8 walk distance: 4 miles. Time: 3.5 hours. Difficulty: 2/10 

Walk 3 - Branscombe West - East Devon Coast

Branscombe is one of the most beautiful villages to be found in East Devon. Tucked away in its own valley, you wouldn’t think there was a village in the area at all if you were viewing the coast from out at sea. Which is probably the reason why, centuries ago, Branscombe became a busy centre for smuggling.

One of the best basic hikes you can do in the area is from Branscombe Mouth west on coast path to Weston Mouth and back along the beach. It’s advisable to check the tides first, and be warned: walking along the shingle on the return leg is heavy going. 

So is the beginning of this walk. Climbing the Alpine-like slope that stretches up from the seaside car park at Branscombe is a puff. It is a slope of the house-roof variety.

Only when you get to the top do you realise that the southerly hill which protects the village of Branscombe is, in fact, one of those sham eminences - a bit like a street frontage on a movie set. The slope ascends steeply up through the beech hangar from the village - and then ends abruptly in a sea-facing abyss.

The South West Coast Path follows this ridge as it threads its way west, past various old quarries, towards a place called Berry Camp. As you stroll along here you can see the curious geographical layout and begin to realise why Branscombe became one of the smuggling capitals of the south coast. 

What looks like a remote and isolated stretch of coast is in fact just a few hundred yards (as the seagull flies) from the village which is hidden and protected by this curiously positioned ridge. Most coastal hills in the region follow river valleys from inland as the stream flows towards the sea - this one runs directly parallel with the coast and so hides the valley behind it.  

Eventually the path takes you down to Weston Mouth. Much of the territory covered on the route is, by-the-way, owned by the National Trust - including this latter chunk down the steep contours into Weston Combe.

If the tide is out you can head back along the beach. It's a bit of a trek, made all the more arduous by the fact the shingle is of the small and rolling variety. The actual distance is about two miles, but it feels more like five by the time you get back to Branscombe Mouth.

Distance: 4 miles. Time: 3.5 hours. Difficulty: 6/10

Walk 4 - Bonehill Down and Honeybag Tor - Dartmoor

We chose the walk over Bell Tor, Chinkwell Tor and around Honeybag Tor because it is surrounded by features which, even in a thick fog, should see you safely back to your car. Which sounds a bit dramatic, but this meteorological shutdown is not unknown on the heights of Dartmoor. 

We parked at Hemsworthy Gate, on the junction of the Haytor and Ashburton roads as they join in their bid to reach Widecombe, so that we could take the gentle stroll up to Top Tor and enjoy the rolling, unfoggy, views which stretch right across the South Hams. 

From Top Tor we walked due north, descending to cross the Widecombe road and reach Bonehill Rocks. This is as splendid a knot of granite as you’ll find anywhere on the moors and is very popular, given the close vicinity of several small car parks.

Here we are on the big north-south ridge which rises to the east of Widecombe and which guards its moorland vale from the higher land of Dartmoor’s main south-easterly bastion, centred on Haytor.

From Bonehill Rocks we descended to the north west (crossing the Bonehill lane) and, avoiding a bog, climbed Bell Tor. From there it was north-west again to Chinkwell Tor.

Here you get a fantastic aerial view that allows you to look straight down the valley where the East Weburn River is making its way south to join its sister stream.

From Chinkwell Tor, it’s north again down over the saddle and up to Honeybag Tor, which marks the end of the ridge. You have a number of options for the return route. We retraced our steps down to the dip of the saddle where a big man-made rut slices the hill.

A green path runs west down the edge of the rut into the vale, and this we followed until we gained the woodlands that fringe the North Bovey lane. Here, on the upper edge of the woods, a broad stone track follows the contours south under Chinkwell Tor, eventually climbing above the fields to regain Bonehill Down.  

Now we continued due south along the contours, re-crossing the main Widecombe-Haytor road to reach the Shovel Stone. Then it’s a matter of following a southerly arc around Top Tor - taking in Hollow Tor, Pil Tor and Foale’s Arrishes – before eventually returning to your vehicle. The two hour walk will give you some of the best views on Dartmoor.

Distance: 4.5 miles. Time: 3 hours. Difficulty: 4/10

Walk 5 - Heddon’s Mouth Woody Bay circular - Exmoor Coast

This walk always features in my Top Ten of Wonderful West Country Walks.

The perpendicular plod which meanders from Heddon's Mouth to Woody Bay and back again would certainly be up there among the best-sellers. It boasts views by the vista-load, history by the ancient, dusty, book-full and enough solitude to wither a lonesome pine.

The first part of this hike is down Heddon's Mouth Cleave - which really is one of the steepest, deepest valleys to be found anywhere in the West Country. It runs straight out of the depths of Exmoor down to the sea, and the fact that there's an excellent hostelry deep the bottom of the great gulch is almost thrown into insignificance by the grandeur of it all.

You can park near the pub in the small car park opposite the National Trust visitor centre which will tell you all about the remarkable terrain. Then, walk past the inn (you will need refreshment on your return) and follow the road around the bottom of the valley towards Trentishoe. After a quarter of a mile you will see the footpath leading to the beach on your right.

It's a riverside mile down to the sea - one of the most dramatic miles in England. In 1827 a local farmer called Jim Hoyle was caught with no fewer than £1,180's worth of brandy hidden under his stable floors. Customs and Excise confiscated the 262 tubs of booze, but lucky Jim escaped through a back window.

Trentishoe Church

And now we cross the river to find the coast path which heads in an easterly direction - albeit vertically - out of the valley and along the coast on a section of the right of way which is not for those who suffer vertigo. Eventually there's a climb through the woods towards the upper section of the scattered community of Woody Bay. 

Many of the paths around here were put in place by James Hannington, a local curate, and after that an African bishop - who found himself 'rusticated' from Oxford and forced to learn the duties of his calling at nearby Martinhoe. You'll see this rugged little hamlet across a few fields later, but you won't see poor old Hannington who was eventually done to death by irreligious natives deep in the Dark Continent.

Eventually we reach the old carriageway near Woody Bay, where we turn right back towards Heddon's Mouth to enjoy the breathtaking views that sweep across the Bristol Channel. 

The dramatic headlands which punctuate Exmoor's vertical coast fall over themselves in a queue as they enthusiastically line up to show just who's best at being jagged and dangerous.

There's Crock Point, Duty Point, Hollerday Hill above Lynton and Lynmouth and, of course the North Devon Foreland with its lighthouse blinking intermittently above the grey sea.

Along the way we pass the remains of the Roman signal-station in which Italian soldiers must have once frozen on guard-duty. After that the track turns into the massive Cleave and takes you dramatically back to Hunters Inn. 

Distance: 6 miles. Time: 4 hours. Difficulty: 6/10

Walk 6 - Fernworthy Reservoir Circular - Dartmoor

To find the three-and-a-half-mile walk that circumnavigates this reservoir high on Dartmoor you can either follow the brown road signs up into the hills from Chagford, or follow the signs from the Moretonhampstead-Princeton road. Either way is narrow and full of bends. But don’t be put off – Fernworthy is a wonderful place to visit – both in a watery and an arboreal sense.

Fernworthy Reservoir with a good compliment of water

There’s a visitor car park and a scenic picnic area for those who simply wish to stop and admire the reservoir and the magnificent forests – or there’s a choice of hikes for those who fancy some exercise. The round-the-lake walk is probably easiest and most desirable.

There seems little point in setting out directions here: a) because a large illustrated map adorns the interpretation board by the car park, and b) because the route around the lake is obvious. The only difficulty is in making up your mind as to whether you should walk clockwise or anti-clockwise.

Fernworthy Reservoir half empty during a drought in which you can see the ancient clapper birdge

Having looked at Fernworthy on the map, you could assume that the walk would be an unbroken belt of dark conifers. You’d be wrong. After a brief walk through the dark trees you soon find yourself on the other side of the gloom and walking across what used to be ancient fields belonging to the three farms that once made a living up here.

Indigenous scrub trees line the way and looked most colourful on the day when we did the walk.

It was in 1942 that Torbay council built Fernworthy Reservoir. There’s a plaque by the dam which tells you all about the wartime opening ceremony.

There’s a boardwalk that skirts through the trees to the western end of the forest.

The wooden way eventually ends in moorland – and now we were on the western shore of the lake. As the reservoir narrows towards the dam you can look across at the remains of a Bronze Age hut encampment on the far bank. 

Eventually the path descends under the dry side of the dam. Unlike some of the region’s larger reservoirs, Fernworthy doesn’t have a dam that you can cross.

The path winds its way down through a jungle of rhododendron before crossing the river and climbing sharply up the other side. Here we turn right and walk a quarter of a mile or so to regain the car park.

What more could you ask for? A lakeside walk complete with forests and moorland views - plus the novelty of historic sights you may never see again. 

Distance: 3.5 miles. Time: 1.4hours. Difficulty: 2/10

The dam at Fernworthy Reservoir