Ever struggle to sleep? Here’s a mini fix. Spend a day skinny-dipping, looking for fossils, chewing bramble tips, and then stand under the Milky Way by a hill fort crag. The South West Coast Path is a pipeline of outdoor dreams. Secret swims, Arthurian myths, foraged food, views, hidden beaches, B&Bs, rock pools, caves, hotels, tin mines and farm shops. It offers more mini adventures than you can cram into 600 lifetimes, let alone 630 walking miles.
The South West has the greatest variety of beaches in the world. The tidal pull of the moon and breeze reveal everything from boulder-beached shipwrecks and sunken coves to shellfish larders and castle ruins.
Any walker who completes the entire South West Coast Path (SWCP) will climb a total of hills and peaks that are equivalent in height to climbing Mount Everest four times. The walker will also cross a total of 300 bridges, climb 30,000 real steps, navigate 2,400 signposts and hop over 900 stiles to finish.
But there are also slow mini adventures that beat in time with the rhythm of us, the tide, the moon, and wild sleep – the mental and physical fix we’re collectively rediscovering for the first time in perhaps more than 2,000 years.
You’ll find these five slow, simple treasures around any corner of coast near you, as well as the SWCP. But the path – through Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset – is a great place to start. So slow down, relax and start making plans… for sleep.
Swim
Woody Bay Pool, Parracombe, North Devon
Savour the yin and yang of where tide meets fresh water as part of a swim ritual. First look for the secret Victorian bathing pool carved into the rock at the east end of the beach for low-tide. Then go and feel the spray of fresh water under the waterfall to wash off salt, and then bathe between sunshine and clouds.
An August shower on this boulder-strewn beach is nirvana-like. The warm westerly breeze whips around the shade of pine and oak trees. If you swim outside of the low water, check tide times to appreciate the slack (safer) currents, either side of high tide. Look offshore for dolphins while climbing the two miles from here to Heddon’s Mouth Beach in the early evening to watch the sun set.
Find the car park off Berry’s Ground Lane and walk 1.5 miles down the cobbled track signed Martinhoe Manor to the beach, passing an ancient lime kiln as you go.
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Starwatch
Bedruthan Steps, Cornwall
There’s no access to Cornwall’s wildest beach due to a rock fall and because of dangerous sea currents. But the footpaths and cliff tops are still open for refreshing coastal walks and spectacular views. Eroded by time, exposed by tide, fully reclaimed by nature. To experience the best of Bedruthan, arrive on the cliff tops at dusk. There’s no need to stay into the witching hours. On a starlit night just after sunset, notice the air drop and the breeze stand still in a frozen moment around a zodiac of slow-motion stars.
Eroded steps have created a human-free beach zone. But it’s all the better for that. This place is one of the wonders of the Coast Path after dark. A temple of thin air.
Some travellers have tried to get beach access from the north at low tide during daylight, but tragically many have lost their lives when they can’t get back to beat the tide. Let nature have it for now. You, the spirits and the stars can inhale space, time and sea air while listening to waves of darkness over virgin sand.
Find Carnewas car park off the B3276. Facing the beach, walk along the clifftop to the north end of the beach
Forage
Hooken Beach, Beer, Devon
Fish for mackerel while resting on a deserted stone bay. You’ll need spinners and a telescopic rod (if walking), and a little patience if hungry. But there are always crabs and nettles to find around the sandy fringes and rock pools.
Foraging as part of an overnight adventure comes with an insect warning. If you’re wrapped up, have a twig of fresh elder tucked under your hat (flies avoid elder), burn a little mugwort (mosquitoes hate mugwort fumes) and all’s good.
Look out for grateful bats feeding on the insects you’ve dispersed. Climb the chalk pillars at dawn or find the secret cave at Hooken Cliffs. Peregrine falcons hunt overhead. It’s a wild food-fest.
Find beach car park next to The Sea Shanty Beach Café and Shop, off Beach Road, Branscombe. Facing the sea, walk three-quarters of a mile east, either along the stone beach or coast path, to Hooken Beach and cliff.
Packraft
Chesil Beach, east of Abbotsbury, Dorset
The sound of sea is a mental fix, but Abbotsbury is unique. A quiet moment over England’s most impressive natural wonder and the trumpet of swans. Chesil Beach is beyond words and human design. A blend of sea force, magic, pebble and hill backdrop, draped in a medicine cabinet of flowers and plants.
From shore to hillside, there are many plants here that you’ll know from childhood. Find sea holly and sea pea on the shingle. Blue holly flowers bloom from July to September, and there are mats of white-flowering sea campion. Look for yellow horned poppies flowering in June. They brighten up the dullest day and only flower by the beach. These are the yellow version of the red poppies that bloom mostly inland. The ancients used the plant as a herb and the root was used to cure bruising.
Between the views and the changing landscapes along Chesil rises the cacophony of a birds including swans at Abbotsbury Swannery. Keep walking east for the eight-mile saline lagoon landscaped by Chesil pebble like a lido crafted by gods. Packrafts are light and relatively easy to carry on short day walks. Packraft the lagoon to float on water and air.
Find the beach car park off Buller’s Way, Abbotsbury. Either walk one mile south-east along the beach to the four-mile-long West Fleet Lagoon or follow the SWCP up and east towards Chapel Hill and St Catherine’s Chapel for views over the Swannery and Chesil Beach.
‘The South West Coast Path: 1,000 Mini Adventures Along Britain’s Longest Waymarked Path’ by Stephen Neale is published 14 April (Conway, £20)
