Take in one of North Devon’s top photo spots on this very straightforward walk along the South West Coast Path. There are a few steep ups and downs, but you are rewarded with truly stunning views.

Why it’s on my list

Blackchurch Rock is one of the most photographed sights in North Devon, and rightly so – I dare anyone to come and take a look at this rocky structure and not think it’s super cool. I had no idea of its name before this, but had seen it in many photos, so we thought we would see where it is and how easy it is to get to. It turns out it is pretty easy to get to, which makes it quite incredible that we have never gone to see it in person. We’ve only lived here for 30ish years… My mum recommended a good place to park that wasn’t too far away and off we went.

Walk Information

Location: Start at the National Trust car park at Brownsham, near Clovelly.

Parking: free National Trust car park at Brownsham (donations welcome).

Length of walk: Around 5 miles – it took us around 3.5 hours, including a very long stop at Blackchurch Rock for photos and a coffee (brought with us).

Type of walk: An ABBA walk (A to B, and then the same way back to A again). Coastal path including through woods, fields, and a rocky beach. Very clear paths with excellent signage.There are some pretty steep ups and downs at times.

Dog friendly? Yes, but in some of the fields you will need to have dogs on leads. But very little of the walk is through fields.

Overall verdict

I loved, loved, loved this walk. The views were amazing – we had great views of Lundy Island, Saunton and Croyde on the mainland, and of course Blackchurch Rock. Having done lots of walks on the South West Coast Path where it’s exposed and you can see miles of sea in all directions, it’s actually really nice to spend a bit of time in some woodland. The autumn leaves are beautiful, and it was lots of fun to kick your way through the fallen leaves too.

Plus – we often go on quite long walks – 4, 5, 6 hours long. So a 3.5 hour walk was great for an autumn day when it’s starting to get darker earlier and we want to do a few other things as well as go for a walk.

The route

For once, we didn’t use a walking book or any kind of route that had already been written out for us. It is incredibly well signposted – that was all we needed.

The walk starts at Brownsham National Trust car park. There is a tearoom just down the road from it, but it was out of season when we went sadly. Next time. 

There is a helpful sign that shows you the main paths nearby through Beckland Wood and to the coast path. We followed the paths that signposted to Mouthmill and the coast path.

We kept a fair bit of height and eventually came to some open fields where we started to get some amazing views of Lundy Island and mainland North Devon.

We headed down through some more woods and came upon the valley into Blackchurch Rock. A couple of cars drove away as we arrived – good to know that you can actually drive straight there if you want, but I wouldn’t bet on the roads being very good. There does appear to be a small car park, although don’t expect tarmac – it was grassy, stony and undulating.

Blackchurch Rock gave us lots of entertainment, picking our way through the rocks to look at it from different angles, and we enjoyed walking through it.

The surrounding cliffs were beautiful too, and were it not for this impressive geographic rock formation I think we would have been in awe of those too.

Heading back to the path, we crossed a little wooden bridge and headed up the track. We followed this all the way, stopping to look at the views along the way, following all the footpath signs.

We ended up at Angels Wings, which is a lovely wooden bench structure that I have no doubt would be a welcome shelter on a wet day.

Just over a mile further on is Clovelly, which you could carry on to if you wanted. We turned around from here and headed back the way we came.

We went exactly the same way, except at one point we took what looked like quite a main path off. We’re so glad we did because we got to see two amazing viewpoints. What was very welcome about these viewpoints were the fences, a bit safer than the open air/sheer drop viewpoints! 

We returned back the way we came to get back onto the main path and back to the car.

The best

Blackchurch Rock was so astoundingly impressive. We spent ages just looking at it and took way too many photos. Of course it was also the perfect place for our cup of coffee (made from our brand new Aeropress which was ideal for a coffee on the go). So we ended up spending a whole hour there. 

Not the best

I always prefer circular walks to ABBA walks… but on this one I really enjoyed the views and the woodland both ways. And on the way back we did take a detour to some more amazing viewpoints, so it wasn’t exactly the same. Even without that though, I would be prepared to make an exception for this walk!

Top tip

You’re going to want to get up close to Blackchurch Rock, so make sure that you don’t come at high tide. Check tide times before you go. You don’t need to go at low tide, but don’t come at high tide.