Boscastle to Dizzard

Distance: 17km; Ascent: 1260m; with Lynsey

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My parents had kindly agreed to look after Isabel for the day so that Lynsey & I could go on a long day's walk.  We decided that after Monday's walk from Tintagel to Boscastle, it would be quite nice to walk from Boscastle back to Bude along the coast.  And so we boarded the bus to Boscastle this morning and found ourselves in a very blustery, but sunny, Boscastle at around 10am.

Boscastle Harbour

We wandered down to the harbour and started the ascent on the coast path out of the village.  We were soon exposed to the full force of the strong and gusty NW winds, although it was good that they were blowing us away from the cliff edges rather than towards them!

After a reasonably level section, we began to round the inlet of Pentargon and drop down into the valley at its head.  The wind was so strong here that there was a gravity defying waterfall with the water being blown up and back up the valley towards the path; hence we got a bit of a soaking whenever there was a strong gust!

Gravity defying waterfall at head of Pentargon inlet

Soon after we reached a junction where we had the choice of the main coast path or an alternative route slightly further inland.  We opted for the main coast path route, which took a traversing line across the hill-side just above Beeny Cliff.  This section felt quite exposed and I could easily see why some people might prefer the more inland option.

We continued to follow the coast path and we soon saw High Cliff, our highest point for the day at 223m and I believe the highest point on the coast path in Cornwall too.  However before we could reach it we had to descend most of the way down to Rusey Beach and then back up again!  It was very windy here, but we were both ready for lunch so we stopped part way up High Cliff on a fractionally more sheltered spot just by the edge of the path.

High Cliff from Buckator

After we reached the top of High Cliff, we continued to follow the coast path north for around another 2km, with good views of the rocks below including a small natural arch at one point.  Soon we were admiring the Cambeck headland with its interesting rock strata on display.  We skirted the headland on its SE side and Crackington Haven came into view across the bay.  It was only around a kilometre to Crackington but it seemed to take forever!

Lynsey approaching Crackington Haven

We reached Crackington just after 1pm, which was pretty much on schedule, and we decided to reward ourselves with an ice cream.  However with it being a very windy mid-week day in October, the ice-cream kiosk was shut.  We were undeterred and went into the neighbouring cafe to ask if we could have some ice-cream.

After our rest we began the uniformly steep ascent out of Crackington Haven, which was shortly followed by another drop back down to almost sea level; it's amazing the amount of ascent that you can rack up on a day's coastal walking!  As on Monday and Tuesday, there were plenty of sloes to be found, including some where the blackthorn was intermingled with gorse.

Sloes poking through the gorse

Our second ascent after leaving Crackington brought up onto Castle Point and a relatively more level section of coast path.  There were good views north from here to Dizzard Point and on towards Bude; we could even make out the satellite dishes at Morwenstow in the distance.

On Castle Point, North of Crackington

View north to Dizzard Point from cliffs east of Castle Point

We continued along the coast path and soon began a steep descent into the Chipman Valley, where the coast path descends a convex slope such that at one point it gives the impression of heading over the edge of the cliff!  On this steep descent, Lynsey unfortunately hurt her knee.  After a rest of 15 minutes or so, we slowly continued our descent and decided that we needed to cut our walk short so that Lynsey could properly rest her knee.  After consulting the map, we continued to the top of Chipman Point and after a few hundred metres we turned off the coast path on a footpath to Dizzard Farm on the coast road, from where we were able to get a lift back to Bude.

Chipman Point

Tintagel to Boscastle

Distance: 7.5km; Ascent: 520m; with Lynsey & Isabel

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We've been down in Cornwall since Saturday evening and after taking Isabel to the beach yesterday we decided to make the most of the continuing good weather and head out for a walk today.  The section of coast path between Tintagel and Boscastle was appealing to us as we could easily use the bus to make it a pleasant linear walk.

We arrived in Boscastle at around 10:30am, got ourselves ready and boarded the bus to Tintagel.  We set off walking from Tintagel in glorious sunshine at 11:15am and wandered down to Tintagel Haven where the main entrance to the castle is, along with a tearoom.  From here we began our first ascent of the day, with good views back to Tintagel Head.

Tintagel Head

We continued on the coast path for a couple of kilometres, avoiding a couple of optional detours to headlands, to reach the cliffs above Bossiney Haven, on whose beach we had planned to have lunch.  However, although there were excellent views north along the coast, it wasn't particularly obvious how we were actually going to get down to the beach given we couldn't even see the beach!

View NE from above Bossiney Haven

We continued following the coast path around the cliffs above the haven and soon we reached a path junction in a small valley.  The coast path was straight on, but we turned left to drop down to the beach, the last part by some steps through the rocks.  The tide had been on its way out for the last couple of hours, but if we had been much earlier we wouldn't have actually been able to access the beach!  We spent just short of an hour on the pleasant little beach having our lunch and taking in the surroundings, including the natural arch.  Apart from a couple of swimmers, we had the beach to ourselves, presumably because you actually have to walk a reasonable way to get there.

Bossiney Haven beach

After lunch we re-ascended back to the path junction past large numbers of sloes.  By now the weather had started to turn and it was beginning to feel significantly cooler under the overcast skies.  Soon we reached Rocky Valley where the river had eroded the rocks to form interesting patterns.

Sloes above Bossiney Haven

Rocky Valley

The mist now descended and we spent the rest of the walk to Boscastle with limited views of the nearby cliffs.  After skirting Willapark to the east we began our descent into Boscastle harbour where the tide was clearly out.

The mist descends

Boscastle at low tide

We reached Boscastle at around 3pm and headed into the National Trust tearoom for a cream tea.  It had been a good walk with Isabel in the carrier with some excellent views before the mist descended.

Mmm, cream tea :)