The weather in Cornwall can be atrocious, especially in winter when the storms roll across the Atlantic Ocean to batter the coastline and cover the county in torrential downpours. Which is why it is valuable local knowledge to know where you can go for a sunny walk when the weather looks bad everywhere else. The Tamar Valley is known to…
The stretch of Cornish coastline named High Cliff (aptly named due to being the highest cliff in Cornwall) is also home to my favourite local beach – the Strangles. Regardless of where you park, the route to the beach involves winding down for over 200 metres and then using a rope and rickety steps to drop the last couple onto…
After spending my Saturday clambering on top of Dartmoor to reach Sandy Hole Pass and the beautiful East Dart Waterfall, the weather caused me to drop down off the high moor and after a quick review of the map I decided to pursue my second Dartmoor waterfall of the weekend – Venford Falls. This walk is recommended in autumn when…
The first waterfall in my new blog series ‘Waterfalls of Cornwall and Devon’ is East Dart Waterfall, or as I prefer to call it, Sandy Hole Waterfall. It’s less than half a mile downriver from Sandy Hole Pass and I’ve always visited both at the same time and so grouped them together. Last weekend I decided to undertake my first…
It’s easy to assume that the name ‘Twelve Men’s Moor‘ refers to the line of craggy tors that stretch down the middle of this part of Bodmin Moor. I’ve counted them many times and always end up at way over twelve but figured that they probably counted each tor differently back when it was named. I couldn’t have been more…
Clovelly is similar to many of the other fishing villages scattered around the Cornish coastline, with it’s small harbour and quaint cottages. But unlike the rest of them, the village perches on the side of a steep 400 foot cliff down to the sea. It doesn’t have any vehicles on the cobbled streets, instead the residents use sledges and donkeys…
When someone happens across an arsenic mine on their land they probably don’t react with “oh that sounds like a great place to visit! Lets build a series of public walking and trails through it!”. Nevertheless, that is what Tamar Trails have done, turning the once poisonous arsenic mines of the Tamar Valley into a walking, mountain biking and general…
Bubbenhall Wood & Meadows, Old Nun Wood, Wappenbury, and Ryton Pools & Wood all border on each other and form part of the Dunsmore Living Landscape project. A National Heritage funded project to restore important wildlife habitats between Leamington, Rugby and Coventry. The reserves are interconnected and it is easy to follow the footpaths between each one, though they are…
The nature reserves in the Ryton area have quickly become my favourite over the past year. Ryton Pools and Wood, Bubbenhall Wood and Meadows, Old Nun Wood and Wappenbury all border on each other and form part of the Dunsmore Living Landscape project. A National Heritage funded project to restore important wildlife habitats between Leamington, Rugby and Coventry. The reserves…
Skipwith Common is a National Nature Reserve and SSSI near York and one of the last remaining areas of northern lowland heath in England. Most of the valley around York was once lowland heath but now only three sites remain. Skipworth Common covers 270 hectares and is a beautiful mix of open heath, birch woodland and murky ponds. This location…