Posted by DevonCountyCouncil

Length of route:

11 km (7 mi)

Suitable for:

Walking

Details:

Steve Church has devised a hike that starts and finishes in the county’s largest village – Braunton, taking in three imposing landscape features the Great Field, the Marsh and Burrows. It is Steve’s favourite Devon walk.

Fact File:

Walk Length: 7miles/11km The walk is completely flat with no gradients and has five stiles, mostly quite low ones. Note that one short length can be very wet after heavy rain. Please remember when walking through rough vegetation in early summer where deer and sheep may have been grazing to wear close-weave long trousers and long sleeved shirts to avoid being bitten by ticks which can cause Lyme disease.

Facilities:

Braunton has all facilities – there are none on the walk other than car parks.

For information pick up the free leaflet Discover Devon – Walking from local Tourist Information Centres or visit the website www.discoverdevon.com

Start at the Museum and Tourist Information Centre in Braunton, at the entrance to the main car park in Caen Street. Go to the road and turn left.

Almost immediately the road crosses the River Caen. Turn left into Caen Field, immediately after the river.

On reaching the little stone bridge over the river continue ahead for a short way, then turn right along a footpath.

Just before the path is Hordens Mill.

At the end of the path (Mill Stile) turn left and then, just beyond the Sea Scouts hut, there is a kissinggate on the right. Go through and on ahead alongside the cricket field to a stile. Cross this and turn right, now along the edge of the Great Field.

The Great Field is one of only three such communal open fields left in the country, although it is now worked by only a handful of farmers.

Keep ahead next to the Great Field then, at Second Field Lane, turn left onto a public bridleway on a track across the field. Keep ahead on the main track across the field.

Eventually, as the track leaves the field, it becomes hedged and then arrives at a surfaced lane. Continue ahead on this lane.

Having left the Great Field this lane now passes over part of Braunton Marsh, which was extensively drained during 1811-15 by the building of the Great Sea Bank, part of which will be seen later.

The lane crosses a marsh drainage channel and then passes one of the marsh barns, known as linhays.

The straight length of lane arrives at a junction.

Turn left here and follow this lane past a car park and on ahead past the No Unauthorised Vehicles sign.

Go on to a track. Here the line of the South West Coast Path and Tarka Trail is picked up. The South West Coast Path, together with its accompanying Tarka Trail, follows a line behind the dunes of Braunton Burrows here.

Biosphere

However, most Coast Path walkers probably walk the length of Saunton Sands on the far side of the dunes, unless the tide is really high, then pick up the official path near Crow Point, which is ahead. Keep on the track as it continues alongside the edge of Braunton Burrows.

The Burrows forms one of the largest areas of sand dunes in England, designated a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 2002 for its environmental and scientific importance.

Keep following the track to its end, where it broadens out into an open area. There is a boardwalk entering this area from the right.

Leave the track here, turning left along the obvious path. This leads to a car parking area.

Follow the access track ahead towards the obvious white house. Turn right along the path just before the house then turn left onto the embankment.

The White House is a prominent landmark on the Taw estuary. It was earlier the Ferry House, the slipway alongside being the site of the old ferry to Appledore.

The walk now continues on the South West Coast Path and Tarka Trail. Follow the embankment ahead. The embankment path bears to the left, away from the main estuary.

Keep ahead, and the embankment is joined by a road. The path soon passes the Toll House, used to collect tolls on the private road to the White House.

A little further on the path leads to Velator Quay. This was Braunton's main quay, although it is a little way out of the village, since the river becomes too small for boats of any size beyond here.

Keep ahead on the path past the quay on the grassy embankment next to the river, joining the road at Velator Bridge.

Cross the bridge and follow the road to the roundabout.

Turn left then bear right along the footpath and cycleway towards Braunton. This is the line of the old railway between Barnstaple and Ilfracombe, built in 1874. It was closed in 1970.

At the gate at the end bear right then at the railway signal go immediately left. Walk left over the old railway lines then right, next to the river, to arrive next to the main car park and the starting point in Braunton.