Hope Cove, Bolt Tail & Bolberry Down Walk

Coastal path and field footpaths which may be muddy and are uneven in places, quiet road, green lane. Some short stretches of gentle ascent and descent.

A walk from the thatched village of Outer Hope, past the sandy beach at Hope Cove, whose deadly rock fringes have wrecked many a ship, and on around the high headland of Bolt Tail, where the plunging cliffs once formed the seaward defences of a prehistoric promontory fort. Out in the bay smugglers once dropped brandy kegs to the seabed for the fishermen to retrieve along with their crab creels and lobster pots, and 140 sixteenth-century Spanish sailors escaped with their lives when they were ransomed instead of being executed. In summer kestrels and peregrine hunt above the flower-filled coastal grasslands, and the inland green lanes are fragrant with honeysuckle.

Dogs are allowed (on leads) in Hope Cove.