82 Take a walk.....
Start Point and Great Mattiscombe Sand
Summer is a great time to explore the coast when wildflowers are in bloom and nature is fully on display; from rare butterflies to basking sharks.
This is a perfect route for children, who will love this short but adventurous walk over a dragon’s tail of spiny crags. There are wide- ranging views over the wide sweep of Start Bay as you drop down to the lighthouse at the tip of Start Point, and then the path travels over rock and coastal heathland to a secluded sandy beach, reached only on foot from the Coast Path. On a good day, it is the perfect place for a picnic. The narrow path is rocky and exposed in places, so give it a miss if the weather is bad.
Route Description 1. From the car park go through the gate (or cross the stile beside it), to follow the Coast Path along the track running down the length of the peninsula towards the sea. Ignore the path branching off to the right above Nestley Point to stay with your track right down to the lighthouse at Start Point.
Start Point is one of the most exposed peninsulas on the English Coast, running almost a mile into the sea, and the lighthouse has been guiding vessels along the English Channel for over 150 years. A prominent landmark from both directions, it was built in 1836 to the design of James Walker, with a battlemented parapet reflecting the
Difficulty: Moderate - The first section of this walk is a steady descent down the old lighthouse road to the headland, and so is suitable for many mobility scooters, and push chairs. After leaving the lighthouse road the Coast Path through to Mattiscombe Sand becomes more challenging and uneven, and care needs to be taken. The return leg is a gentle climb up a green lane back to the car park.
Start: Start Point Car Park - TQ7 2ET Finish: Start Point Car Park Length: 2.2 miles (3.6 km)
Gothic style of architecture popular at the time. Originally it had two white lights, one of them revolving but the other fixed to mark the hazard of Skerries Bank (which is marked today by a red light). Despite being the first lighthouse fitted with Alan Stevenson’s revolutionary
dioptric apparatus – a refractive lens that used prismatic rings instead of the traditional silvered mirrors – it was inadequate in fog and in the 1860s a bell was installed.
Visiting here as he walked from London to Land’s End in 1855, Walter White commented: ‘You may descend by the narrow path, protected also by a low white wall, and stride and scramble from rock to rock with but little risk of slipping, so rough are the surfaces with minute shells. A rude steep stair, chipped in the rock, leads down still lower to a little cove and a narrow strip of beach at the foot of the cliffs. It is the landing place for the lighthouse keepers when they go fishing but can only be used in calm weather.’
Today the path to the lighthouse is reasonably easy to navigate and the
© Eddie Skinner SWCP
© Robin Marriot SWCP
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