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Landscape
Celtic Cornwall
Ancient Sites
Where to Go
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Walking Crackington Haven to Millook Haven - 4.5 milesOS Explorer 111: grid reference SX143968 to SX184002 View Map Walk Duration 2 hours 45 minutes
Park your car in the large car park in Crackington Haven beside the Coombe Barton Manor Hotel. An excellent guidebook to the area is the National Trail Guide: SW Coast Path - Minehead to Padstow by Roland Tarr. Walk to the rear of the car park and follow the narrow tarmac path up to meet the road. Continue up the road for about 40 metres before crossing the road to follow the route signed as 'Coastpath and St. Gennys Church'. Pass the NT omega for Penkenna (grid reference SX139974) - the path climbing diagonally up the point and is steady climbing rather than as steep as it looks. Pass the seat and keep bearing right along the grassy crest. Walk through a kissing gate and by a direction post marked 'St. Gennys 1/3 mile'. The path down off the point is all fenced to seaward which give those nervy walkers some confidence.
Go through the kissing gate and down the steps to wend your way down to the footbridge and stile in the valley floor. The stream here feeds Aller Shoot waterfall in wet weather. Pass the NT sign for Cleave and proceed steadily up to Castle Point, the site of an Iron Age Cliff Fort. The ridge should be walked with care especially if the wind is gusting. Pause for photographs if the weather is good. Descend gradually as you walk above Thorn's Beach. Pass the waymark post to St. Gennys then climb to a kissing gate with its exit omega for Cleave attached. Climb the stile and bear left uphill. Another stile leads you into a large field at Lower Tresmorn - the site of a medieval village. At the far end of the field climb the stile to walk down the 48 steps to a footbridge. Walk up the other side to yet another stile into a field. Follow the field down to the waymark post inscribed 'Scrade', where you negotiate another stile to drop down steep steps. TAKE CARE - this is one of the steepest and deepest valleys on the Cornish coastpath!
A stiff climb up to the clifftop at Chipman Point (grid reference SX160987) offers views of the offshore Stoneivy Rock. After a breather on top of Chipman Cliff, cross into a field over a wooden stile set in the hedge. Follow the waymark post pointing left. Cross another stile into a field with a lop-sided Triangulation Pillar marked OS^BM S5612 - this marks the 164m (539 feet) benchmark. Climb a couple of stiles into a sloping field into woodland beside a marker post. This is Bynorth Cliff. Continue quite steeply down through the woods passing a waymark post by a small stream beside a footbridge. Climb gradually passing a waymark post and the NT exit sign for Dizzard into a large field just southwest of Cancleave. At a waymark post decide either to continue on the coastpath or if you are a little nervous head inland to a layby beside the road and follow it down into Millook Haven as it twists and turns dropping quite steeply to the houses and cove.
TAKE CARE ALL AROUND THIS AREA BECAUSE THESE CLIFFS ARE BRITTLE AND EASILY FRACTURED MAKING THEM DANGEROUS TO EXPLORE OTHER THAN BY RECOGNISED PATHS. LANDSLIPS AND ROCKFALLS ARE COMMON SO BE PREPARED TO TAKE ANY DIVERSIONS SIGNED FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY.
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walk: High Cliff to Crackington Haven |
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