Plan your walk |
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DISTANCE: 5 miles (8km) TIME: 3 hours START/END: SW975414 TERRAIN: Moderate; one steep climb MAPS: |
Caerhays Castle was built in 1808 by John Nash on the site of a much older manor house. The castle grounds have been used many times as a film location over the years, most famously as the setting for Manderley in the 1979 TV production of Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca. The gardens are home to the National Magnolia Collection, and are also known for their displays of camellias and rhododendrons. Both castle and gardens have restricted opening times.
Park in the beach car park at Porthluney Cove. Leave the car park at the entrance gate and turn right onto the road. Go through the kissing gate on the roadside opposite the castle gatehouse, signposted to Hemmick. Follow the track running up across a field. Go over a stile and keep to the seaward boundary of the next field to go through another kissing gate. Climb steadily through a copse and emerge above the bay bounded on the east by Greeb Point, with fine views ahead of you.
Follow the well-defined path, through kissing gates and along field edges, then drop down to cross a footbridge above rocky Lambsowden Cove. Continue following the rise and fall of the coastal path before joining the road just before Hemmick Beach.
The pleasant, sandy beach of Hemmick is generally uncrowded due to limited parking and the lack of immediately available refreshment facilities. There are rock pools at low tide.
Take the roadside stile on your right before the bend in the road, and follow the path as it rises steadily to Dodman Point.
The 370ft (112m) high, heath covered summit of Dodman Point strategically marks the transition between west and east Cornwall. The site was once an Iron Age promontory fort and the open access area on the headland also includes remains of medieval strip fields and Bronze Age barrows. The imposing granite cross was erected in 1896 by the Rector of St Michael Caerhays as a guide to seafarers, although there have nevertheless been many shipwrecks off the point.
Retrace your steps back to Hemmick Beach, taking care on the descent from Dodman Point.
Turn left onto the road. Cross the ford and as the road goes uphill turn right onto the path signposted to Boswinger. Go through the kissing gate and cross two fields.
At the lane turn right, and go past the Youth Hostel on your right. At the road junction turn left, past the holiday park on your left, with seasonal shop and café. Continue walking along the lane.
After passing the sign entering Tregavarras, at the right hand bend in the road, take the path signposted on your left to Caerhays Beach. Go through the kissing gate and cross the field down to the beach and car park.
