Alcombe Common and Dunster on 25 October 2010

This was a short 3.5 mile walk taking advantage of a brilliant sunny day. It took me a leisurely 90 minutes.

Rather than upload images twice, I have referred them to the URLs of images in my Picasa Web Album rather than upload them separately to the blog. Lets see how it goes.

I started from Alcombe near Minehead and walked up the road from the Britannia Inn towards the Youth Hostel. The track led through woodland and Autumn colours were showing.  I climbed past the Youth Hostel and onto the open ground of Alcombe Common. Excellent views over Minehead were revealed. Visibility was reasonably good and Wales was clearly visible.

Minehead and the Bristol Channel from Alcombe Common

I saw a steam train on the West Somerset Railway, making its way from Dunster to the terminus station at Minehead. It looked tiny from this distance.

A steam train on the West Somerset Railway

I climbed up to the ridge  and turned eastwards towards Dunster. After a short distance the path diveded. As indicated by signs the right hand path goes to Dunster via the Cemetary and the left hand one goes via Conduit Lane. I took the left fork and got a splendid view of Blue Anchor Bay on the way.

Blue Anchor Bay

Conduit Lane is a strange name, not very Somerset, but the trusty 1:25000 OS map shows that St Leonard's Well is on the route. Apparently, the well used to supply fresh water to a Benedictine priory that existed in Dunster. The water was conveyed to the priory via - yes a conduit. The priory was dissolved by King Henry VIII, but the church and some buildings remain. The well is in a stone building with a locked door. Pipework leads out of the bottom, so it looks as though it still supplies water to someone. The conduit is exposed at the bottom of the lane (a footpath) but no water was flowing, although the path had a dribble of water running down it.from the well.

I did not go into the village but turned left and after a few yards found Butter Cross, or rather, what is left of it. It seems to have lost its top part. The story goes that it derives its name from having been a meeting place where people sold butter. It used to be in the village but has been moved. The English Heritage website says it is managed by the National Trust.

I turned off the tarmac lane that goes past Butter Cross to take the right hand of two paths that would take me to the old A39 road, now a back lane, that would take me back towards Alcombe.

Minehead to Porlock via the rugged coast path 7 October 2010

Distance - 8 miles
Time taken - 4 hours 30 minutes

It was a beautiful morning and the forecast was promising. I last did the "rugged" part of this route in December 2008 and have since had an ambition to walk from Minehead to Porlock and return by bus. So, off I went.


View Rugged coast path in a larger map


I left Minehead on the normal South West Coast Path. I was surprised to see that path had been visited by the guys who paint around potholes, so that months later, if the paint has not worn off, someone with a bucket of tar, fills them in in. This has struck me as being a wasteful process as it would surely be more efficient to send the tar out in the first place. This example should win a prize. It was not even a particularly deep hole.

Pothole?

I followed the track towards Greenaleigh Farm. This part of the route is wooded and there is only one place where you can look down and see Minehead Harbour. Trees are great, but I like to see out.
The path diverted from the track to the farm and went gently uphill. The trees eventually thinned out to give coastal views back towards Minehead.

Greenaleigh Point

The rugged alternative coast path is clearly signed where it diverts from the standard route.
The rugged path follows the coast around the area of pasture on North Hill. I think it is a much more interesting route than the standard path. It is the true coast path, having the essential quality of sea views. Today these were excellent, although it was a bit hazy. The route certainly involves more ups and downs and is harder work, but is not particularly difficult if you are reasonably fit. It is longer as a result of heading up into and out of several deep valleys (Combes).

Grexy Combe

To begin I had to descend into Grexy Combe and then climb back to the top of the cliff beyond.The next section is mostly easy, following a straight section of coast, although there was a short section where the path was eroding quite seriously above a steep drop. Near here I came across the biggest caterpillar I have ever seen.

A big caterpillar

I do not know what sort of moth or butterfly this will turn into but I think Air Traffic Control need to be informed. A couple I met had seen an adder.
At the end of a straight section a came to a point where the path turned south to go around Henners Combe. This was a good place to eat lunch as there were some rocks that made a dry place to sit down.At this point a good view of the coast to the west is revealed. Foreland Point was clearly visible. As it  was low tide I also had a glimpse of Selworthy Sand from here.

Looking West over Henners Combe

 The next section of the route headed along the eastern side of Henners Combe before crossing the two streams and then climbing up the western side. It was not far beyond this that the process was repeated to cross East Combe. There are better views of Selworthy Sand from here. The only way I know onto this beach involves using a knotted rope for support to get down the steep slope, consisting of loose rock, that is found at the back of the beack. The rope is tied at its upper end around a boulder. I have not dared try this.

Looking down on Selworthy Sand

After East Combe I followed the track to the top of Hurlstone Combe. I found that descending the steep path down the Combe was the most tiring part of the whole walk. Still there was no more serious climbing to do. I just had to follow the track to Bossington and along the lane to Porlock in time for the 15:23  No 39 bus back to Minehead.

This was a very  satisfying walk on a beautiful day surrounded by wonderful scenery