Lynmouth and Lynton

Wey hey, we’ve escaped the van! By mid morning the rain was down to drizzle so we put on our wet weather gear and walked into Lynmouth. It’s a winding downhill footpath, mostly through forest. Quite steep and narrow at times and a bit slippy with mud and leaves but it felt OK as long as I took it slowly. It was wonderful to be out in the fresh air and countryside.

As we descend we get great views of the forest, hills and eventually the coast and Lynmouth itself.

We enjoy a walk along the front, across the river Lyn and along the harbour wall. The tide is out and boats all sitting in the mud. The river was rerouted after a deadly flood in 1952 so although is flowing fast its also looking corralled.

After a wander around and a bit of souvenir buying we stop for a bite of lunch.

We obviously didn’t do our homework and asked whether there was a bus to Lynton which is on the clifftop high above us. There isn’t a bus but there’s a fabulous water powered cliff railway funicular which has been going strong nonstop since 1888! £3 each for a fun single ride. The coach normally holds 40 people but it’s down to 12 max socially distanced passengers now. You can hear the water being emptied out at the bottom of the cliff and when you get to the top you can see the tank being filled again.

Once in Lynton we follow signs towards the Valley of the Rocks. We end up taking the road and it’s about 1.5 miles. It is wet and blowy but we are soon there. The formations are unusual. We take a path up to them for a closer look.

Next minute we are on the wonderful coastal path. It’s quite narrow with a sharp deep drop into the Bristol Channel. The weather is unchanged, grey skies, blustery and damp. We decide to walk back along the path into Lynton and just love it. There are many memorial benches along the way so it’s a much loved walk which we’d like to return to in the summer. Halfway along there’s a little storm shelter with a bench at the back covered in sheep poo so it’s clear who’s been sheltering here.