Local Knowledge · Walks & Trails
Choose a local walk, download its GPX file with one click and open it in your preferred walking or navigation app before setting out.
A varied circular route combining Bude Canal, the fields around Whalesborough and the South West Coast Path above Widemouth. It is the best all-round introduction to Bude’s inland waterway and coast.
Leave from Bude Surf Shack, walk through Crooklets and follow the signed South West Coast Path north over Maer Down to Northcott Mouth before retracing your steps.
A recognised National Trust trail following the undulating South West Coast Path between two dramatic beaches, with folded cliffs, wildflowers and broad Atlantic views.
A short National Trust circuit from Morwenstow’s Rectory Farm and church to Hawker’s Hut, returning through clifftop fields. The final steps to the hut are steep and exposed.
The walk with a story
In the 1840s, Reverend Robert Stephen Hawker built this tiny retreat into the Morwenstow cliffs using driftwood and timbers recovered from shipwrecks. He came here to write, think and watch the Atlantic, and welcomed literary visitors including Alfred Tennyson.
Hawker was more than a colourful Victorian character. He cared for sailors lost on this dangerous coast, arranged burials for bodies washed ashore, wrote the Cornish anthem “Trelawny” and helped establish the modern harvest festival. The walk passes the ancient church and memorials before reaching his Grade II-listed hut—the smallest property cared for by the National Trust.
It is only a one-mile circuit, but the huge cliff views, stories of shipwreck and the steep final steps make it feel like a journey into another age. On a clear day, look across the water for Lundy.