Lynmouth, Watersmeet Circular

Lynmouth, Watersmeet Circular.

Weather forecast looking favourable for a hike, I decided to see if I could incorporate a walk the involved waterfalls, open farmland and coastal views. Scouring through the local maps of Devon and Google Earth, I found a route which encompassed all of what I wanted and indeed more. I therefore decided to go to Lynmouth and try and find a circular route past Watersmeet and back to the car.


The Route.

After Driving up and down some amazing hills, we made it to Lynmouth, my Father accompanied me on this walk who was rather excited in case he spotted some trout in the river.This North Devon village is a beautiful spot, but looking into it's history suffered a major natural disaster in 1952. On the 15th and 16th of August, nine inches of rain in 24 hours hit here and the surrounding Exmoor, resulting in the East Lyn and the West Lyn rivers turning into torrents which swept down the huge valleys and caused major damage, Overnight, over 100 buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged along with 28 of the 31 bridges, and 38 cars were washed out to sea. In total, 34 people died, with a further 420 made homeless. Due to the nature of the geology and the demographics of where Lynmouth is, this theme was repeated many times, similar events had been recorded at Lynmouth in 1607 and 1796. After the 1952 disaster, the village was rebuilt, including diverting the river around the village.
The start of the route took us through the lovely village, past art galleries and coffee shops until we got to the bridge where we started to follow the river. as soon as we left the village we were in prime ancient oak woodland with the constant noise of the river rushing past at our feet, my Dad was distracted for a while as this was a perfect trout river, crystal clear with rapids and big pools.

The glorious river Lyd

One of many rapids and small falls.

The path by the river has a few ups and downs but is a relatively easy walk and is impossible to get lost. We followed the river for roughly 3/4 of an hour where we past quite a few friendly walkers (a popular route even out of holiday season) past a fly fisherman, my father had to stop and nattered, there really is brown trout in here!! We carried on past a beautiful house and then Watersmeet house came into view. We had to cross a beautiful arched bridge, got half way crossed and saw, upstream, a beautiful two tier waterfall, I'm not sure of it's name but it was quite impressive.

Mystery Falls.

After holding up the other hikers we decided to have a coffee and a bite to eat in Watersmeet House which has been taken over by the National Trust. The cakes took amazing!!! but we refrained and had a snickers bar, my usual walking treat. The house was a former fishing lodge in 1832 and has been a tea house since 1901.

Rest over we then headed towards Countisbury. The ambling we had been doing instantly turned into a very long steep climb out of the valley, which caught one person out who was stopped halfway up, very tired and out of breath. My father jokingly said are you waiting to take a run up? he replied no way, I'm b****y knackered!!!!! (hope he made it to the top). The walk up the valley took you through the heart of this ancient oak woodland, absolutely beautiful and eerie, definitely would be at night.

Through the enchanted Barton wood.

Once we reached the top of the valley, the trees disappeared and the landscape changed into a typical moorland scene only behind you the views of the valley were spectacular.

The Beautiful Lyd Valley

The closer we got to Countisbury, the more the land was managed, we past what look like and ancient dried up pond and went through a few gates until we reached the main road in Countisbury. Head past the pub and the car park and head up the lane towards the church.

A few sheep.

Countisbury Chruch Graveyard.

I definitely recommend having a look inside the church, a wonderful peaceful place and as this trail passes through the church, it is definitely worth a look. It was built in rebuilt in 1796, the original build was much earlier than this. There is a very old and unusual grave stone to the right of the door of the church which look like it is decorated with ancient runes, it is that old the ground covers half of the headstone.
From here we headed up Butter Hill, not sure why it is called that) towards a small communications building which was at that time surrounded by Exmoor ponies. A lovely site as some itched their necks on the walls. They were completely oblivious to us two fools walk around there, they just looked content.

The views of the coast were beautiful here, as we walked away from the building and out to the far reaches of Foreland point we had commanding views either side of us which in the cloud ridden skies gave wonderful shadow effects on the water.

Looking East.

Looking West.

At the end of the path was a bench and a fine place to have lunch as the sun shone and we were sheltered from the wind. Here we mat a lovely couple who were on their honeymoon from Aylesbury and the only people I know who knew Ambrosden where I live. After a quick chat and deer spotting on the hills they left to continue there adventures and the start of there life adventure together. Funnily enough we saw them in Dartmoor a couple of days later, what a small world. we then decided to carry on and wandered past a place called Great red, should call it the blowy place, really windy here.

 We met the South west Coastal Path here which we then followed back to Lynmouth. Halfway down the decent into Lynmouth there was a semi wooded sheltered area which was an absolute wildlife haven, loads of different birds flying around and we met this character ....

Mystery Caterpillar.

Nearer the bottom the path followed the road for a while then veered off into another wooded area where the path got a bit steeper at a place called point perilous, I could see why as out to sea, through the trees, you could see the currents and turbulence on the sea. At the bottom of this path we turned right and walked the promenade of Lynmouth. A lovely area with yet another nice view of where we had been.

The Cliffs of Foreland Point.

We then headed back through the village and back to the car. This was a wonderful walk, not too strenuous, just one steep incline out of the valley. The rest was pretty easy and navigation simple. Again Devon has given me amazing views and people whether locals or not were really friendly, chatty and as for the company of my father.......wonderful. Time to get home and have a nice pint.