we cannot describe all in detail here, but hopefully from what you read in this magazine will inspire you to visit as much of the area and its attractions as possible during your stay, or Day Out. The beaches we can recommend are: Bucks Mills, Combe Martin, Croyde Bay, Hele Bay, Putsborough, Woolacombe, Instow, Spekes Mill, Saunton Sands, Welcombe, and Westward Ho!
Instow; when entering the village within a minute there is the extensive view, an expanse of water which is bright in the summer with the sails of catamarans and wind-surfers,
or,
the tide is out, a Iong stretch of golden sand. Few can resist staying a while to enjoy the view across the
estuary, with
Appledore beneath its green hills, sunlit on a summer morning or silhouetted against a
if
Westward Ho! An award-winning Blue Flag Beach, offers over two miles of golden sand backed by a unique pebble ridge linking it to Northam Burrows Country Park, a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Access is fairly easy down a concrete ramp from the town of Westward Ho!, named after the famous novel by Charles Kingsley. Rudyard Kipling also has many connections with the town. Additional access is also available from Northam Burrows via a rough path over the pebble ridge. The beach is adjacent to the South West Coast Path and is near to the picturesque villages of Appledore and Clovelly, and the ancient port of Bideford.
dramatic
sunset. The water too is ever changing, blue and sparkling one day, whipped into whitecaps by a gale-force wind the next. Yet even on the dullest day there is always something to see: birds at the water’s edge: people braving the rain to exercise dogs or children; fishermen or gravel-barges on the far shore: ships to or from Bideford: and, the ferry chugging across to Appledore on summer tides.
Appledore is full of history, with watch towers, look-outs, a smuggler’s tunnel, fishermen’s cottages, captains’ houses and a quay overlooking the meeting point of the rivers Torridge and Taw before they flow through the “pool” and over the “bar” into Bideford Bay. Away from the quay the narrow streets, hidden lanes and cobbled courtyards preserve its intriguing history and transport the imagination back through the centuries.
Mostly a conservation area, Appledore is close to the South West Coast Path and beautiful safe beaches for surfing, swimming and sand-castles. Also, nearby is the Northam Burrows Country Park, home to the oldest 18 hole links golf course in England. Shipbuilding has always been the major trade here and with the largest covered dock in Europe along the river to the south, the trade still thrives, with gas container ships, ships for the Irish Navy, dredgers, tugs, tall ships and long ships! Replicas of Viking longships, Sir Francis Drake’s Golden Hind and the Nonsuch were built in Appledore. The main charm of Appledore is that it remains a living, working village with lots of local characters.
toilets and showers, refreshment facilities, shops, a daily lifeguard service during the main bathing season (May - September) and deck chair hire during the summer months. Both the car parks and the toilets provide facilities for disabled users. A dog exercise area is also provided with restrictions in the Blue Flag area.
Facilities available include several car parks close by,
The beach has RNLI lifeguard cover between the spring and summer seasons who oversee the many varieties of activity that the beach lends itself to, everything from horse riding to surfing from Kite Buggying to
Kite Surfing! The beach
is also used by many local organisations that utilise the vast area to commercially run their activities, both in and out of the water.
Northam Burrows lies at the
western edge of the Taw Torridge Estuary; it is about 253 hectares of grassy
coastal plain with salt marsh, sand dunes and generally natural grassland. The Burrows provides one of the access points for the two miles of Westward Ho! Beach, thus combining the best of opportunities for land and marine leisure activities. The main ramped access point to the beach is available from the town of Westward Ho!. The Burrows Park is open to pedestrians at all times but there are restrictions on vehicles. The Burrows Centre is open from the end of May to early September.
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