Easter Walking in the West Country

It’s that time of year again, when the longer days and the warmer weather can inspire some good intentions. Suddenly, we’re all entering the human equivalent of a spring-clean.

Some people take their spring-time fitness fads very seriously – they sign up with gym’s and go on health and diet regimes that would cause the most hardened SAS soldier to throw in the towel. Inevitably, many of these super-fit wannabes soon realise they are living in a fantasy. You can only eat raw carrots and workout 10 hours a day for a limited period before your body or mind finds a way of escaping the tyranny.

HEsp walks on Dartmoor 20 years ago

Alternatively, you could say that everything in life should be pleasurable – that’s how they teach rats to perform tricks in laboratories. If the body and mind receive pleasurable sensations, then there’s every likelihood that the person (or rat) will continue with whatever procedure he or she has been introduced to. All this “it’s got to hurt to be good for you” stuff is nonsense. 

In the UK the very best way to increase your fitness is by walking. I say that because we have an ideal climate for it, and because there are countless, boundless, opportunities for us to wander freely in beautiful landscapes.

Country walking is known to be the nation’s most popular leisure activity. Hundreds of millions of country strolls are taken every year – and the activity is on the increase. 

Not that the countryside is knee-deep in hiking boots quite yet. You will rarely, if ever, see a human traffic jam on any of our footpaths - even the most popular stretches of the South West Coast Path remain uncluttered when compared to even a quiet urban street. 

There are national park statistics which show that remarkably few people wander far from their cars when they’ve parked in some beauty spot or other. Nine out of ten don’t bother walking more than 500 metres. 

One walking-to-fitness expert told this website: “The great thing about walking is that it’s free, requires little planning, fits easily into most people’s daily routines, needs no special equipment and, best of all, almost everyone can do it, regardless of age or where they live. All the medical evidence shows that even a modest amount of extra walking brings significant health benefits and the added advantage of walking in a group is that there’s an enjoyable social side to it, too.”

Here are three spring-time walks in the West Country suitable for those nine out of ten people who are reluctant to stroll more than 500 metres. In other words, these are short, soft, circular routes that will act as a good introduction to country walking.  Being two to three miles each in length, they will both instil a sense of achievement in the non-walker – and allow them to enjoy fabulous scenery just about every step of the way. 

Tarr Steps Circular - 1.9 miles – gentle going, a little rocky or muddy in places.

Tarr Steps, Exmoor

Unless you have a disabled sticker, you must leave your vehicle at the car park half a mile above the famous clapper bridge, which makes the overall distance of this walk three miles, but if drivers are feeling generous they can drop their passengers off and do the additional descent and climb themselves in the knowledge that they’ll be all the fitter for it.

Basically the walk takes you up one side of the River Barle to a newly refurbished bridge, and back down the other. Which may not sound all that exciting but this is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful stretches of any river to be found in the Westcountry. 

Simply turn right at the old clapper bridge and follow the signs to Withypool. The path will take you across a large greensward (which is always thickly populated by picnickers in summer) and into the woods. 

These, by the way, are internationally renown for the rare lichens that grow on the boughs of the many wonderful old trees. Just under a mile upstream the path meets another open area and, shortly after this – just after the big deep pool situated at a sharp bend in the river – you’ll come to a rather ugly, but hugely useful, bridge. Cross this, turn left, and you can walk back down the west bank of the river enjoying views that are surprisingly different from the ones you enjoyed on the other side.

One bonus of this little hike is that there’s an excellent inn just a few feet above the clapper bridge. In winter it’s a dark, cosy, place of wood fires – in summer you can sit out in the gardens admiring the riverine views and the peacocks. 

Bellever Tor Circular – just under three miles – gentle, easy going.

The great thing about this short walk is that the exercise you get by climbing Dartmoor’s most central tor is richly rewarded by fabulous panoramas from the top.  

Park at the small car park on the Two Bridges-Moretonhampstead road at Higher Cherrybrook Bridge. From here a track ascends gently to the east. After a few hundred yards it enters the forest, where it’s simply a matter of continuing east until you come across a wide, deforested swathe of land that sweeps southward to Bellever Tor. 

It’s one of the only tors which offers views exclusive to the national park. In other words, Dartmoor is all you see. That’s because Bellever is situated plonk in the middle of the national park’s central plateau and you cannot peer beyond the edges to the larger world beyond.

People have been living in or visiting this area for a long, long time - the whole area is rich in archaeological remains such as cairns, cists and old field systems. 

To complete the walk, descend due east of the tor to re-enter the forest at a point where a small path threads its way down the hillside to eventually join one of the Forest Enterprise tracks. Following this north along the contour, continue until you reach Kraps Ring – the remains of an ancient settlement at the opposite end of the clear-felled swathe to Bellever Tor - then simply return west along the forestry tracks to Cherrybrook Bridge. 

Bellever Tor

Godolphin Hill – three miles, fairly gentle and easygoing.

This hike offers some of the best views available in West Cornwall, and it’s not too strenuous despite the fact that you climb the area’s highest hill. 

Godolphin Hill

It doesn’t really matter which direction you approach Godolphin Hill from, you are guaranteed a good walk and if you park at wonderfully named Mount Whistle, (to the south of the hill) you are closest to the summit. Before walking a few yards up the Millpool lane to find the footpath, take a quick look at the engine house. The National Trust has cleared the scrub so that you can explore the place, but don’t go if you’re frightened of big black holes. At the foot of the chimney there is a bottomless pit, thankfully capped by a heavy-duty grating so that you can peer in the void without falling in. 

The footpath heads north towards Godolphin Hill between a productive looking leek field and a yard full of junk. But this is all part of the charm of this corner of Cornwall – you get the feeling that the people around here are farmers and flower growers – not tourism providers.

You gain access to the great dome-shaped moorland by crossing an ancient granite stile. Paths shoot off in all directions, but take the one that heads towards the top. Be warned - it switches and turns so that occasionally you are tempted to take one of the smaller paths that looks more determined in its upward course. Don’t. You’ll be lead on a wild and brambly goose-chase. Stick with the bendy one, and it’ll get you to the summit.

From there you can see almost all of West Cornwall - from the giant dishes of Goonhilly Down way to the south, right around the coast to St Michael’s Mount five miles distant, and beyond to Penzance. There’s an excellent panorama of the westernmost moors of Penwith and these lead up to distant St Ives where begins our view of the north coast, stretching past Hayle and its Towans all the way to St Agnes Beacon and Carn Brea.

Godolphin House

A path descends northeast from the summit and leads to the wood-lined lane called The Slips, which in turn will take you down to the edge of the garden at Godolphin House. Turn west here, along a track called Vane’s Lane which skirts the hill until you reach another path on your left which will return you along the side of a field, back up to the moorland part of the hill. Now it is simply a matter of turning right and following the perimeter path right around the western base of the great cone, back to the ancient granite stile.