Eype Mouth - Golden Cap - Charmouth (SW Coast Path 19)

Thorncombe Beacon

We returned to the Coast Path after a two month lay-off and picked up the route at Eype Mouth. The path almost immediately begins to climb towards Thorncombe Beacon. There is a sort of brazier at the top (157m) and it turns out that its use as a beacon dates back to 1588 as one of the chain which brought news of the Spanish Armada to London. The beacon was restored in 1989.

The view back along the beach clearly shows the twin piers of West Bay.

We then descended a little and climbed to the next high point, Doghouse Hill, where the view back dramatically illustrated the extent of erosion on Thorncombe Beacon.

A bit further on we began the descent to Seatown (not to be confused with Seaton, further along the coast in Devon).

Here you are forced a bit inland, along a lane, across a field and through some woodland before the way opens out to Golden Cap, well-known as the highest point on the south coast at 191m. The name derives from the distinctive outcropping of golden greensand rock at the top of the cliff.

When you get to the top there are first of all fine views back to the east, with the beach to both sides of Seatown in the foreground.

One of the nice things about Golden Cap is that the top is quite extensive, so having made the climb up you stroll along a wide flattish area for a couple of hundred yards before you have to descend. Just as you do, there is another fine view to the west over Lyme Bay.

Soon you spot the ruins of St Gabriel's church a few hundred yards inland. It apparently dates back to 1240. This is all that remains of the lost village of Stanton St Gabriel. I have read that the main road was moved a mile and a half inland at some point, because of coastal erosion, and that this was the cause of the village's demise.

Around this point we saw a sign saying 2 miles to Charmouth. This proved to be inaccurate and created  a sense of the final stage of the being an unending series of ups and downs - a pair of later signs showing a mile and half in each direction confirmed our suspicions that it was really three miles. Still, there were many fine views back to Golden Cap.

Also including this one, which dramatically illustrated Tristan Gooley's (author of the Natural Navigator) concept of the "comb-over" effect of prevailing winds on tree growth.

Finally, we gained a good view over Charmouth and Lyme Bay.

We had followed the original line of the coast path all the way, but only right at the end did we discover that it had been diverted inland as the result of a landslip in December 2010. Fortunately for us, people coming from Charmouth had created a desire path at the back of the landslip, so we did not have to retrace our steps. It seems that somebody had missed an opportunity to sign post the diversion. It is very clearly indicated coming out of Charmouth.

Conditions: cloudy, sunny intervals, threat of rain.

Distance:  6.5 miles. Distance covered now 83.5 miles.

Map: 116 (Lyme Regis and Bridport)

Rating: four stars.

Sightings

Three Speckled Woods. And possibly a warbler of some sort - I will have to get my bird DVDs out when I get home. It had a distinctive song, but a drab appearance.