Cliffs and pinnacles

MINEHEAD TO HARTLAND POINT 106 MILES (170KM)

Sheer rockfaces, clad in thin grass and scree and tufted with gorse and bracken, include England's highest seacliff, with views across the water to Wales. Waterfalls score deep gorges, seamed with lush vegetation, as they plummet to the sea. Lynton’s Valley of Rocks, grazed by feral goats, is a must-see, with its rocky pinnacles and spires and huge cliffs; in Ilfracombe a medieval chapel in a ring of hills watches over boats bobbing rigging-slapping in the harbour below.

“Dragon’s teeth” rocks bared around windy headlands snap at vast sandy, surf-licked beaches fringed with dunes, notably at Braunton Burrows, where sheep and cattle graze among starry, scented wildflowers. Flat tarmac follows both banks of the Taw & Torridge estuary, where wildfowl call from sandbanks and mudflats; after Bideford more marshland and shingle segues into the fresh, empty wilderness of an ancient mountain range dramatically folded and eroded into spectacular chevrons in vertical cliffs. High above tumbledown limekilns on the shoreline the wind whistles around the remnant banks of prehistoric cliff castles, strategic vantage points over steepsided valleys and out to sea.

TRY THIS WALK: A two-day hike from Minehead

to Lynmouth, with full facilities at either end and plenty of accommodation in picturesque Porlock. The Coast Path soars and plunges around the Exmoor coastline through ancient twisted oakwood (our temperate rainforest), with glimpses of open moorland and rolling green hills.