Day 4: Combe Martin to Woolacombe

Weather: Wall to wall sunshine with chilly westerly; perfect

Distance covered today: 17.8km (11.1mi)

Last night's B&B: Mellstock House

% Complete: Cumulative distance: 7.9%: 79.8km

Total Ascent/Total Descent:  623m/446m

GPS satellite track of today's route: Day 4 (click!)

In my guidebook, it declares a list of dos and don’ts for safety on coastal paths. The very first rule is don’t walk on your own if you can possibly help it! Rubbish advice! The way I felt today, I would simply have flown if I had fallen off a cliff. What a difference a day makes! I think it was that dratted Great Hangman that did me in, (which I suppose hangmen really should). Today I would have been insufferable company, positively singing my way along the most spectacularly beautiful coastline I’ve seen on this trip so far. Even when the coast was rudely interrupted by a necessary diversion to my B&B miles inland, I wasn’t fazed.

I had identified a disused railway, the old London and South Western Railway line from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe, which took me on the most beautifully prepared cycle track right to the very door of tonight’s B&B. I passed seas of wild flowers; Red Campion, Wild Garlic, Dandelions, Ox-eye Daisies, Bluebells, Whitebells, Sea Campion, Gorse, Cow Parsley and my beloved Stitchwort, some of which seem to do less well at the seaside. As is clearly illustrated in the elevation profile below, the track climbed steadily all the way to the B&B, and I was interested to read that once upon a time, the gradient from Ilfracombe Station made it the hardest standing start for conventional steam engines in the country. It required two engines, one to push (the “bank”) and one to pull (“the pilot”), reminding me of Grahamstown station in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

At its high point in 1939, just before the war, the station at Ilfracombe accommodated an astonishing 10,000 people on summer Saturdays, requiring at is zenith 26 trains travelling in each direction. In the late fifties, the line’s fortunes declined and it was “singled” in 1967, just to be closed, probably as a result of the Beeching closures, in 1970.

Those changes in fortune seem to me to be reflected in the architecture of Ilfracombe. Even at a distance, its Edwardian Terraces have grace and elegance, as do many of the older buildings. The town’s increasing popularity amongst holiday makers before the 2WW must have led to a building boom, with all sorts of rubbish being thrown up in a huge hurry to accommodate the holiday makers.  Recently, the efforts of the North Devon County Council to reverse Ilfracombe’s declining fortunes are also evident, though the seaside retains all the tat so reminiscent of so many British seaside resorts.

One major dissonance with all this worthy effort is the extraordinary decision to accept Damien Hirst’s remarkable sculpture of Verity which adorns the focal point of the harbour. I confess I had never heard of it, and when I saw it from across the bay, I immediately detoured to inspect it. Four things were immediately apparent. All the tourists in the area, and there were hundreds of them, were studiously ignoring it. I asked a few about it and they professed embarrassed ignorance. The second is that it so dominates its site that absolutely no visitor to Ilfracombe can possibly miss it. I understand from Google that it is taller than Antony Gormley’s “Angel of the North”, despite being located in a much “smaller” space. Thirdly, there is absolutely no information about it in the area; no information posters, no title, no nothing, not even an attribution.  The last extraordinary thing is that Hirst, who lives in and owns a restaurant in the town, has only lent the statue to Ilfracombe for 20 years! It is certainly, as with so much else of his, a revolutionary piece of work. I leave you to judge…

All this industrial, architectural and arty speculation has somehow missed the point of this blog! It was the scenery before I reached Ilfracombe that blew me away today. True there was a fair amount of up and down, but the effort/reward ratio was hugely positive.  The views of those little coves, bays and promontories, all bathed in beautiful sunlight amidst the bluest of seas was all I had been led to expect, only better. Finally, the mist had cleared sufficiently for me to see Wales across the Bristol Channel. According to a toposcope I found on the path, I was looking at the hills behind Amroth and Tenby, the very place where I started my Pembrokeshire coastal odyssey. A little later, I was staring open-mouthed at a staggering view when I heard a curious German/American “Hullaw” from behind. It was indeed Laura, who professed to have been so damaged by the Hangman that she had needed extra recuperation time in bed this morning. After a pleasant interlude, we parted soon afterwards amidst hordes of day-trippers, choosing different routes into Ilfracombe.

I chose the longer seashore route and I contend that mine was far more attractive!

In the light of a bright new day, Combe Martin seems somehow much more attractive!

A surprising multi-coloured giraffe and offspring along the way on a porch

Profusions of Wild Garlic

My first view of the lovely Watermouth Bay

Looking back towards Combe Martin over a florious little cove, unreachable by land

Strange people doing strange things, paddling large surfboards. Why?

Watermouth Castle, a Victorian Gothic imitation which is now a theme park

The entrance to Watermouth Bay, where during the war, the allies first perfected a trans-channel fuel supply pipeline to Cardiff as a successful prototype for fuel provision to the Allies in Europe after D-Day (Operation Pluto: "Pipelines Under the Ocean")

Sea-Campion

My last view of the Great Hangman (the highest point in the distance)

Samson's Bay and Rillage Point

Fishing for pots, presumably with stuff in them(!)

And that, finally, is Wales; just about visible

A view of Ilfracombe from the top of Hillsborough

Turns out this is the last view of the Great Hangman. He does persist!

Traditional rowers

The Edwardian terraces of Ilfracombe

A view across Ilfracombe working harbour

The extraordinary Verity by Damien Hirst, a very pregnant woman, with contents of her womb clearly evident, holding a sword and the scales of justice and standing on a whole lot of law books!

Ilfracombe has the second largest tidal range in the UK. The architects have built this quay on a slope , so you can always get to the water's edge. Innovative!

A tunnel on the Barnstaple to Ilfracombe Railway, showing the shut-off second line, with the first converted to a cycle track