The Home of Walking in Devon
Braunton Fields Challenge
Terrain difficulty: Moderate - 4 short climbs with some steep sections
Ease of navigation: Difficult- infrequently used paths across farmland that can be overgrown, planted over with crops or involve passing through livestock
Animal Dangers: High- likely to meet livestock either sheep, lambs or cows depending on the time of year
Route
This walk represents something of a challenge to the average walker. These are not easy paths to follow and you are likely to encounter some form of obstruction at some point on this walk. This is not due to any interference or malice from landowners it is simply down to these paths not being greatly used.
This walk should be attempted with a sense of adventure and an up to date OS map. I hope that others will enjoy this walk as it offers some lovely views of the Taw Estuary and I feel that with more users on these paths they will become more firmly established in the landscape.
This walk starts from the main car park in the village of Braunton (charges apply, 50p per hour approx). Leave the car park via the main exit onto the Saunton Road. Here cross at the pelican crossing and pick up the Tarka trail straight ahead. This path passes to the left of a school then round to the left of a bowls club.
Go through the iron gate at the end of this stretch and turn right down to a road junction. Cross straight over the road and head on up the lane with a church on your left. Take the first left along another lane. After 500 yards look to turn right up a path signed 'Unsuitable for motors'. Follow this path steeply uphill. Continue to follow this path, as the slope levels out you can take a permissive footpath on the right across a field to visit the ruins of St Michael's Chapel.
Our route continues along the lane. Follow it to a road junction and turn sharp right to head downhill. Look for a turning onto a footpath to your left before you reach a milking shed. The footpath sign is only visible from the other direction so if you miss the turning look back and you should see the sign above a hedge.
Follow the footpath around to the left past some farm buildings. The path then turns right in front of the farmhouse and heads slightly uphill with a field boundary to your left. A quick left then right turn takes you through into another field. Walk on and keep a lookout for the footpath marker mounted on a wooden post Turn right to follow the marker across a field and downhill to a stile into a path covered over by the trees. Follow this pat down to the road. Cross the road on a right-hand diagonal to pick up a footpath opposite.
Head steeply uphill on the drive of the property you are crossing. Follow the path around the back of the garden and head diagonally uphill across two fields. Here turn left through a gate an head straight across the field to meet a lane at the top of the hill. Turn right and follow the lane into Ash Barton.
Follow the footpath around the barn and house keeping the house on your left. As you turn around onto the south side of the house look out for a gate to the right of an old cow shed. Go through this gate and head downhill along this old track. You will enter woodland. Keep to the path you are on to the edge of the woodland ignoring paths forking to the right. You should keep to the wood boundary with the fields on your left.
At the bottom go over a stile and cross one field to reach a road. Here turn right then shortly left over a stile into another field. Here the footpath heads diagonally across the field to a well built footbridge over the stream. Go over this foot and head uphill. Over another stile and across the field with the hedge on your right. Then diagonally over another field crossing a stile and coming out onto a lane at the top of the hill. Turn right and follow the road. At a junction turn right and continue on the road.
As you start to descend steeply take the footpath on the left then turn left again onto the footpath which has a building to the right and you will go over a stile into a field. Head straight down across this field to a stile in the middle of the bottom boundary. Here go round to the left as you head along the drive of a house. Turn right to follow the footpath over the stream.
Here you have two options, either take the footpath that runs along the stream and between two hedges or go into the field and head diagonally to the right to meet the stream based footpath over at the gate between two fields you can see to your right. Ignore the footpath that goes straight over the field to the houses. At the field gate go over a stile and follow the footpath between houses up to the road. Turn left and follow the road back into the village centre and shops. Cross over at the traffic light junction and head through the village back to the car park.
Image resued with permission from geograph.org.uk. Copyright Shaun Ferguson