My Adventures 3: Ronald Duncans Writing Hut

Northcott Mouth to Bude GPX

Hartland to Northcott Mouth GPX

On Saturday the 29th of April 2023 I left home just after 3am to drive to Northcott Mouth National Trust Car park (EX23 9ED). I arrive and park up and begin my walk to Bude to catch the bus to Hartland.

As I walk down to the beach and path I see a Whitethroat singing in a hedge before me. A first for me I believe.

I start of at 0833 hours and need to get to the bus stop in Bude for the first bus out at 0930 hrs.

I walk up over Maer Cliffs.

Nice gentle walk along the cliffs with the sound of the surf hitting the beach, lovely to be back on the path.

I pass Crooklets beach, few dog walkers about. It'll be packed with people soon! But right now its is quiet and peaceful.

I walk up from the beach up Crooklets Road and pass Adventure Bude. Its a Coastal centre for land and water-based activities including surfing, kayaking, climbing and caving.

I made to the bus stop on The Strand at 0909 hours, 21 minutes to wait. The 319 Bus arrives early though and I can sit on board waiting for it to depart at 0930 hours.

I sit next to the Bude Canal whilst I wait.

I get talking to another passenger who is also doing the same stretch as me today, but he has bad blisters from his wet boots that won't dry and he is going to take it easy. I leave hum behind at the bus stop in Hartland and never saw him again all day.

The name "Hartland" presumably derives from the Old English word "heort" for a deer and it is therefore surprising that it is not more common in England.

Unfortunately the nearest the bus gets to Hartland Quay is Hartland and its a good two mile walk to the start of the path.

I follow the pretty country lanes flanked with bluebells and wild garlic towards Stoke.

I walk into beautiful Stoke.

I reach St Nectan's Church in Stoke.

Saint Nectan was one of many Celtic hermits and missionaries associated with early Christian sites in south-west Britain, South Wales and Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries. A well 100 metres from the church is the reputed site of his hermitage.

The history of the area is obscure; however, the first recorded building here was a collegiate church served by twelve secular canons founded ca. 1050 by Gytha, Countess of Wessex (mother of King Harold). Traditionally the church was founded in thanksgiving for the preservation of her husband's life in a storm at sea; a better tradition associates her husband Godwin, Earl of Wessex and holder of the royal manor of Harton, with the foundation.

Nothing is known of the earliest building nor whether it was rebuilt or enlarged when the collegiate church was replaced by a house of Augustinian regulars at Hartland Abbey in the twelfth century.

The current building, believed to date from 1360, replaced the earlier church on the site, of which only the font still remains and is thought to date from 1170. The 128 ft tower, rising in four stages, claimed to be the highest in Devon, has for centuries been a landmark to sailors at sea. It was built about sixty years after the rest of the church and it contains a peal of six bells cast in nearby Buckland Brewer by John Taylor & Co and last rehung in 1952, weighing practically 3 tons. The arch of the tower, open today, once housed a musicians' gallery where the 'church orchestra' of fiddles, double bass, flute and clarinet played for services.

The graveyard of St. Nectan's is the burial place of Mary Norton, a children's writer, whose most famous work is The Borrowers.

I follow the road back into Hartland Quay and to the start of todays path.

Hartland Quay was built towards the end of the 16th Century being one of many quays along the coast. A pier of very similar construction can still be seen in Clovelly to this day. Heavy goods such as lime, slate and coal were shipped in from across the Bristol Channel and local produce such as barley and oats would have been shipped out. With the arrival of the railway in Bideford, maintenance of the pier ceased and by 1896 the greater part of the pier had been destroyed by storms. In 1970, access to the sea was once again established, albeit for much smaller craft, when members of the Hartland Boat Club constructed the present slipway.

The buildings were converted into a hotel and pub at the end of the 19th Century. The buildings that are now the existing pub were once the malthouse and stables with hay lofts above, with the cottages opposite for the workers.

The boat in the car park that was used in the film Rebecca filmed here.

Although countless ships have been wrecked on this coast through the centuries, the first wreck that the Hartland Quay Coastguard were known to have attended came in January 1860. This was the start of many ships running aground here and before the turn of the Century fifteen more vessels were to become wrecks on Hartland’s “tempest furrowed shore”. Four more were to be temporarily grounded and one would have to be towed off. But the most disastrous loss proved to be the 2,203 ton steamship ”Uppingham” which stranded under Longpeak on 23rd November 1890 with the loss of many lives. Within three months of the Uppingham disaster the Hartland Quay Life Saving Apparatus Company was established and a Rocket House built at the cliff-head to accommodate its wagon and life-saving gear.

I start walking the path, there are red markers lining a route for runners tomorrow, glad I've missed that!

I walk past Screda Point.

I approach St Catherines Tor on the path.

This area’s prevailing south-westerly winds produce a high wave energy environment to attack this west-facing stretch of coast. Undercutting leads to collapse of the vertical cliffs, and debris is rapidly removed from the base of the vertical cliffs leaving them open to further wave erosion. Jagged sandstone ridges and reefs interspersed by deep gullies are produced in the rocks on the foreshore due to differential erosion of the more resistant sandstones and less-resistant mudstones.

The conical St Catherine’s Tor, with the course of Milford Water. It is believed that a Roman Villa or a chapel (part of monastery at Hartland Abbey) once stood on the summit of the tor (84 metres above sea level), but these have since collapsed into sea along with much of tor itself.

Here by St Catherine's Tor we reach a waterfall tumbling to the sea.

I follow the path on behind St Catherines Tor.

A view back to St Catherine's Tor.

I walk pass Speke's Mill Mouth.

The area is known as Speke's Mill Mouth and the valley through which the stream passes is the Speke Valley. I presume there must have been a mill here somewhere and the name taken from the 19th century African explorer John Hanning Speke who lived locally.

Speke's Waterfall where the Milford Water falls to the sea.

The dramatic waterfall plunges 157 feet down three tiers before running off into the ocean.

I follow the path continues up the valley behind Swansford Hill and then over Milford Common. This walk seems okay so far and leads me into a false sense that maybe this walk won't be so difficult after all.

A sign left by the run organisers is a reminder the Cornwall border isn't too far away.

I pass the rolling hills that form Mansley Cliff.

The cliffs are awash with the pink flowers of Thrift with stunning views beyond.

Passing a sign that points inland to Elmscott, I walk on.

On 24 September 1946, Green Ranger was struck by a torpedo in Portland Harbour, Dorset. Although holed belowe the waterline, she remained afloat. She was wrecked on the Hartland peninsula, on a large rock, called Gunpath Rock, on 17 November 1962. She broke her tow from the tug that was taking her to be refitted in Cardiff, and drifted onto the rocks. Her skeleton crew of seven were rescued by the Hartland Lifesaving Company, with their breeches buoy. The ship became a total loss, and her remains are still visible at low tide.

Near Sandhole cliff I follow the path inland a bit and join a road that I follow for a short way before walking back through a field that leads back to the cliff edge.

The field has a huge antenna that I pass.

Back on the cliff, I am looking forward to the picnic table at Narbor Point to have lunch and a rest.

As I approach I can see the table is occupied. I say to myself "C*nts, get off my bench", I wasn't best pleased but exchanged a good morning as I pass.

I pass the National Trust sign for South Hole and walk on.

I pass Embury Beacon.

Perched on a heavily eroding cliff, the earthwork remains suggest that this would have been a much larger hillfort. Only a fraction of the ramparts survives- a small section of the inner enclosure, which hangs precariously on the cliff edge, and part of the outer, which contains a complex set of earthworks, most likely the entrance to the interior. Not much left to be seen to be fair.

I am now approaching Welcome Mouth.

No doubt a few jokes to be had here!

I find a spot to have lunch , only to find I sat in an red ants nest!

At Knap Head I have walked some 5 miles along the coast, 7 from Hartland village.

I descend the steep 100m plus path descent into the Welcome Mouth Valley.

At the bottom there is a car park and a stream with some large stepping stones to cross the river. A waterfall tumbles down to the beach and out to sea.

I cross the stepping stones to the car park, some have quite a gap between them.

Now the hell starts, the first of many many valleys to climb out of. The climb up is equal to the descent, a slog of a walk up.

I reach the top and catch my breath while I take a look back to Welcome Mouth.

I cross a field before quickly reaching the next valley.

I descend down the 150 steps down into Marsland Mouth passing Ronald Duncan's Writing hut.

Ronald Duncan wrote much of his work in his writing hut, perched on the Devon side of the Marsland Valley. The hut still stands on the South West Coastal Path overlooking Marsland Mouth on the Cornish side of the Marsland Valley and just round the headland from Welcombe Mouth beach where the Duncan family often picnicked.

Built on the site of an old lookout point in the 1960's, the hut provided Duncan with working studio in all seasons, and he composed his epic poem, Man, there. The hut still provides a refuge for walkers and writers alike to stop a while and take in the beautiful sights of the South West Coast.

An open folder of paper and a pen together its on a writing desk for you to add comments. Ronald Duncan is a 20th century writer, poet and playwright, best known for his collaboration with Benjamin Britten. He died in 1982 and the hut is now open to the public.

I leave the hut and continue my descent into Marsland Mouth.

At the bottom I approve the bridge that will take me from North Devon and cross into Cornwall.

Goodbye North Devon, your path has been amazing!

Now to see all that Cornwall has to offer.

Now another climb out of another valley steeply upwards.

I stop again on top for a view back. I walk across Cornakey Cliff.

Now almost immediately another descent down to Litter Mouth. A series of steps assists in getting down the steep incline.

At the bottom, one climbs back to the top and over a cliff and straight back down to Yeol Mouth.

After another steep climb out of Yeol Mouth I cross the grassy top of Henna Cliff.

You can see why this section is claimed the most difficult section of the entire path. It doesn't give in, valley after valley. At the top of Yeol mouth one glimpses the distinct white globes and parabolic dishes of GCHQ Bude, the UK Government satellite ground station and eavesdropping centre which sits on the hills above Bude. Bude is still a long way off, starting with another descent into the valley near Morwenstow.

GC HQ in the distance.

View down to Morwenstow and its church.

I go down a Stoney path of gorse and heather to St Morwenna's Well.

At the bottom I cross a small wooden bridge and almost 100 steps up to Vicarage Cliff.

I somehow managed to miss the path off to see Hawkers Hut, not realising till I was up top the next valley. I wasn't going to walk back I can tell ya!

Reverend Robert Stephen Hawker, who would use the hut to pass his time writing hymns and keeping an ever watchful eye over the ships that passed by. It is the NT smallest property.

The path zig zag downs another gorse covered slope passing the NT sign for Tidna Shute.

As I descend I can see Higher Sharpnose Point, jutting out to sea and down to where the Tilda river flows out to the Ocean.

I climb back up the other side reaching a derelict old lookout station.

I walk on above Greenway and Caunter Beaches.

I descend down into Stanbury Mouth via a steep zig zag path overlooking a beach there.

I climb steeply up the other side to reach GC HQ.

GCHQ Bude is a UK Government satellite ground station and eavesdropping centre located on the north Cornwall coast at Cleave Camp. It is operated by the British signals intelligence service, officially known as the Government Communications Headquarters, commonly abbreviated GCHQ. It is located on part of the site of the former World War II airfield, RAF Cleave.

From its inception, the station has been an Anglo-American co-operative project. The United States National Security Agency (NSA) paid for most of the infrastructure and the technology. The running costs, like payments for the staff, were paid by GCHQ, who also provided the land. The intelligence that was collected by the Bude satellite station was shared between NSA and GCHQ, and was jointly processed.

I follow the path along the cliffs towards Lower Sharpnose Point.

I pass the sign for Steeple Point and the path heads out towards then point before descending down to Duckpool.

I arrive down in Duckpool in the Combe Valley, I stop here for a quick rest and a bite to eat whilst thinking about another steep climb above.

I start the climb up, stopping a few times. As I'm there resting on my walking pole probably looking like I was about to die, a young girl called Emma and her friend walked by and stopped saying come on, we're not leaving anyone behind and gave me encouragement up the hill. They were from Hackney and were trying to make their campsite in Bude before dark, they were behind schedule due to a pub lunch. Anyway I make the top where I take a rest and tell them to carry on to it to camp in time. They leave me saying its flat from here in to Bude.

I walk on towards Warren Gutter.

The path goes down again and then climbs another flight of steps. I see Emma ahead and shout I thought you said it was flat!! They said something like misreading map!

Its about 1900 hours now and the sun is starting to go down.

I'm in Sandy Mouth and have another climb up to the top.

I climb up and across gentle rolling hills pass a campsite and eventually to Northcott Mouth where my car is parked. Relief I have a quick nap, before driving into Bude to try and get something to eat. I end up with a way overpriced Chicken burger meal and I drive back to Nortcott NT car ark to eat it. I struggle to even eat the burger as I was so exhausted I felt queasy. I stay overnight in the car park sleeping in my car.

The next day I drive into Bude to look about, nothing is open yet and I remember its Sunday!

I walk along the Bude Canal.

The Bude Canal was a canal built to serve the hilly hinterland in the Cornwall and Devon border territory in the United Kingdom, chiefly to bring lime-bearing sand for agricultural fertiliser. The Bude Canal system was one of the most unusual in Britain.

It was remarkable in using inclined planes to haul tub boats on wheels to the upper levels. There were only two conventional locks, in the short broad canal section near the sea at Bude itself. It had a total extent of 35 miles (56 km), and it rose from sea level to an altitude of 433 feet (132 m).