Lynton to Porlock Weir

Just one section to go now - only 9.5 miles (pah!) and a tad over 2,000ft and it's all finished. Now I'm really getting excited. One huge hill and a load of woodland walking today, unexpectedly tiring but satisfying nonetheless. Komoot summary here.

Cloudy start, about the only part of the UK that had one, and early morning in Lynton looking its best

It was straight into a big climb up the Foreland:

This morning was much windier than before, something of a relief, and at the top of Foreland particularly so. Having regained the path (cough small nav error) we met two girls going the other way. Bearing in mind that there's no villages or settlements along the route until Porlock we wondered how early they must have started from there: 5.30 am apparently, and "after way too much beer". We felt suddenly old.

After the road to the lighthouse the path drops into woodland and that's pretty much it for the rest of the route so again, not many opportunities for pictures. Another time I might investigate taking a GoPro or similar to show what the woodland trail is like. It's very peaceful and an easy trail to follow. This gives some idea.

We passed a set of stone gateposts with boars heads on top; these herald the entrance to Glenthorne House.





Bought in 1983 by Sir Christopher Ondaatje who rescued it from impending dereliction, the house is built on a spectacular coastal site overlooking the Bristol Channel – said to be the only piece of flat land between Porlock and Lynmouth - by the Rev Walter Stevenson Halliday, son of a Scottish naval surgeon and banker who made a fortune during the Napoleonic Wars. 

He first had to construct a 3 mile drive for access to the site, as well as a track to the shore and a landing stage for materials to be delivered. Finished in 1831 it was variously extended over the next 60 years in Georgian, Gothic and Tudor styles. In February 2018 it was put up for sale: yours for £5.5m – a bargain. You can see the full sale particulars here but this is an example of how fantastic it is:

there's also an article about it in Country Life here.

The path continued to meander through the woods and we were starting to lose track of where we were or had got to. Woods are a bit like that, something of a disorientating quality that I suppose underlies all those fairy tales. A brief respite for the now traditional lunch time sarnie and then we came to England's 'smallest complete parish church' at Culbone. Beautiful in the sunshine of course but also slightly desolate, with no-one around

Not being a fan of churches (I'm with Philip Pullman on that) I didn't go inside but it apparently only holds at most 30 people and is only 35 ft long overall. In the TV version of Lorna Doone it figured in the wedding of John Ridd and it was also in the 1988 video of Mike and the Mechanics "In the Living Years".

Legend has it that the area between Glenthorne and Culbone is where Jesus may have alighted on a trip with Joseph of Arimathea, inspiring the references in Blake’s poem for the hymn ‘Jerusalem’. 

Then again, perhaps he didn't.

Finally we emerged from the woodland path and down into Porlock Weir. 

Basically the harbour for Porlock (the weir refers to salmon stakes and traps along the shore) it’s been around for at least a thousand years and the area was several miles inland until the sea level in the Bristol Channel rose about 7000 to 8000 years ago. At low tide the remains of a submerged wreck can be seen on Porlock Beach. 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (who lived nearby) was interrupted during composition of his poem Kubla Khan by "a person on business from Porlock", and found afterward he couldn’t remember what had come to him in a dream. Coleridge and Wordsworth used to walk the cliffs so often a government agent investigated the possibility they were French spies but concluded they were ‘mere poets’. There is a poem called Porlock written by their friend Robert Southey in 1798.

This is a very rocky shore and the channel to the sea, difficult at the best of times by the look of it, requires considerable maintenance. Large lock-type gates are used to trap a pool of water at high tide, and this is then released later, to scour the channel free of rocks. Consequently normal boyhood pastimes are not encouraged:

Happily for us our visit coincided with 'WeirFest', a free 4-day real ale and cider festival with live music. We ate (and stayed) in Porlock - a lovely little village with a very relaxed vibe and some seriously good food at The Ship and at Lorna Doone.

So last night tonight and tomorrow a short 10 mile walk to Minehead and end of the Path. I'm told to expect a 'surprise' (slightly oxymoronic) which I'm sure will be fun and then off to a local hostelry for a beer before heading home.

Valedictions will have to wait until I've properly finished tomorrow but the support from friends and family has been just great and I hope you've enjoyed the trip vicariously as much as I have first hand. Perhaps it's even inspired you to do some of it yourselves? I hope so, you'll surely enjoy it.

Peter