Hallsands to Lannicombe

It was high tide as we drove through Kingsbridge, which made this part of the journey very pretty.  But once we turned off the A379 the road was very narrow and windy which was not good for driving.  The last part to the Start Point lighthouse was particularly narrow with vegetation brushing the car as we drove past.  For such a remote car park we were surprised that we had to pay £3.50, but the views around Start Bay were spectacular and made it worthwhile.

To begin with we walked out to the Lighthouse, which was a concreted path.  We then retraced our steps to the South West coast path and followed this around the Point.  To begin with this was a rocky path and we had to be careful how we walked, but the views were superb.

As we walked we were amazed at the number of butterflies we saw.  Many of them were landing on the path in front in front of us.

This moth was dead on the path

As we approached Great Mattiscombe Sands the path improved and the walk from there to Lannicombe beach was relatively easy and fairly flat with only gradual short climbs.  The beach at Great Mattiscombe looked lovely with fine sand.  Lannicombe was more stoney, though we could see that as the tide went out there was sand.  There were only a few parking spaces at Lannicombe at the end of a track so I am glad that we did not drive there.  We had planned to turn around at Lannicombe, which was fortunate as there has been a landslide just past there and the footpath has a long diversion.

Initially we planned to walk across the fields from Lannicombe to Hallsands, but the coastal path was so scenic and such a good path we decided just to retrace our steps to Great Mattiscombe Sands.  We then took the direct path back to the car park, which was uphill, but a good path.

After a rest we then walked from the car park down to Hallsands. Again we had fantastic views around Start Bay all the way and loads of white butterflies fluttering around the fern on the bank at the side of the path. It was very interesting to see the information of the lost village of Hallsands on the viewing platform overlooking the village.

As we walked back we had the view of the Lighthouse.  Unfortunately it was quite a climb back to the car park, not particularly steep but a long climb that was not good at the end of a day's walk.  It would have been better if we had parked at Hallsands, which was free, and walked from there, and then the last part of the walk would have been downhill.