Hiking with Craig in Hope Cove

Hope Cove
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Sheltered under Bolt Tail lies the remote, unspoilt fishing village of Hope Cove, one of the best-kept secrets of south Devon and a good base from which to explore the vicinity. As gulls screech and soar, one is reminded that this stunning stretch of coast hasn’t always been so tranquil. The sands on the beaches hide more than Spanish coins, considered to have come from the San Pedro el Major, a Spanish Armada hospital ship wrecked in 1588. Buried in the bay are the ground bones of thousands of seamen from more than 100 shipwrecks, mostly lost due to primitive navigation.

Hope Cove
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On the clifftop overlooking Hope Cove is the Lantern Lodge Hotel, named after its attractive leafily clad lantern window. Local folklore would have us believe that this type of window was specially designed to hold a lantern serving as a beacon to guide fishing boats home.

If you are in southern England, you must go to this piece of paradise

The first record of a settlement in Hope Cove is dated 1281. In later years it became known for fishing and smuggling but today it’s a holiday village. The name Hope probably originated from Norse or Icelandic origins with Old Englishe hop meaning bay or inlet.

Totnes, Devon
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Waking to a cloudless sky and fortified with a huge breakfast, we set off along a section of the South West Coast Path. At 630miles (1014km) this is Britain’s longest trail. Hope Cove’s beach is split by a small peninsula and ornate lifeboat station, dated from 1875. Covering the hillside are thatched, whitewashed, shuttered 17^th century stone cottages.

The path climbs to the dramatic headland of Bolt Tail and the remains of a ditch and Iron Age fort. Bolt Tail is named after a ship that sank in 1760 when sailors confused it for Rame Head Everyone drowned except for 26. A little further is Bolberry Down, mentioned in the Domesday Book.

Bolt Tail, part of the Southwest Coast Trail (the longest in England)
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The path is like a rollercoaster as it skirts steep pinnacled ridges sprinkled with salty spray from booming waves and descends to Soar Mill Cove, renowned for its shipwrecks, surfers and fulmars (tube-nosed birds similar to gulls). In 1887, a wall of tea 10 foot (3 metre) high washed onto the beach from the shipwrecked tea clipper Hall ow Een.

Throughout history there have been footpaths along the coast, made by fishermen, miners, farmers, coastguards, soldiers watching for invasions that never came and smugglers. In 1863 most of the fishermen living in the area had a welcome additional income from smuggling. Three-masted luggers sailed to France returning with silk, tobacco and spirits. Climbing over a stone stile polished smooth by thousands as they passed by, one imagines coastguards and revenue men searching for smugglers carrying contraband barrels of brandy to secluded coves and then to a safe house, church or inn. Romantic, yes now but then it was a different way of life and dangerous to be on the wrong side.

Hope Cove
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At Bolt Head, steep steps lead to a ruined WWII lookout, windowless and rather ugly. From here an undulating path follows rugged cliffs, sheltered coves and valleys to Salcombe, squashed between cliff and the waters edge, full of shops, restaurants and everything to do with boats. Salcombe is a vast estuary, once a flourishing trading port specialising in the fruit trade, nowadays filled with pleasure boats.