Peppercombe - a Devon beach you have to walk to

Here's a beach trip for a day when the walk is part of the fun...




This one won't offer you miles of sand, and there are no icecream stalls, but then there aren't many people either (and you can always get an icecream - or a pint- at the pub on the way back).








Start your walk at Horn's Cross, on the A39 between Bideford and Buck's Cross. You can get the 315 stagecoach bus from Winkleigh to Bideford, then the 319 service to Horn's Cross. Or you can drive. If driving, park considerately - this is a small hamlet. You can park at the pub if you're a customer.

You'll be heading off past the pub anyway, down to the beach through Peppercombe, owned by the National Trust. Where the track forks just past the pub, stay left (not through the 5 bar gate) and follow the path. In spring it's alive with wild garlic, wood anemones, primroses and celandines. Later in the year you'll find red campion and other woodland plants and butterflies.

The path takes you alongside a stream, past a couple of quaint little cottages, then across a field, down another wooded section and so to the beach. It's about half a mile, and well signed at every turn.

The island you see on the horizon is Lundy, also part of the North Devon Biosphere Reserve.

The beach itself is stony, except for patches of sand at low water, so this is a walk and picnic lunch rather than a bucket and spade excercise. When you've had enough of building encampments with the cobbles, you can wander north east along the beach until you find a bit were the cliffs dip down and a brick-built dam holds back a small pond. From here you can pick up the coast path back up the other side of the combe. You'll take a narrow, sometimes very muddy path along the top of the cliffs this time, coming out about half way up the combe. When you reach the main track turn left and head up hill.





If you don't want to retrace your steps, keep left where the track forks and you'll walk back to the start point along the other side of the combe.

Horn's Cross is about 25 miles from your self catering accommodation - but you can also get the bus direct from Winkleigh to Bideford, then get the 319 service to Horn's Cross. Get a day rider ticket for North Devon that lets you get on and off stagecoach buses all day.

Feeling more energetic? Peppercombe is also the start of a lovely 2-3 hour one-way walk along the south west coast path to Westward Ho!. Get the 319 bus from Bideford to Horn's Cross, then walk from Peppercombe to Westward Ho!, pick up the local (very frequent) First service bus back to Bideford. You can do the whole thing without your car from the bus stop at Winkleigh.