One of the things we love about 48 Swain Street is how many wonderful walks you can enjoy without getting in the car. From the doorstep, you can head along the coast, explore the old Mineral Line or make your way across the hills and countryside around Watchet.
We keep two Ordnance Survey maps in the sitting room, covering the Quantock Hills, Exmoor and the Somerset coast, along with a couple of walking books with plenty more ideas. Here are three of our favourite walks from the house.
Walk to Helwell Bay – Watchet’s Fossil Beach
Helwell Bay is a lovely short walk from 48 Swain Street and well worth doing if you fancy a little fossil hunting.
From the house, walk down Swain Street towards the harbour and railway station. Head towards East Quay and the railway crossing. Just before the crossing, look for the footpath that runs behind East Quay. Follow it up onto the cliffs and then continue along the coast path towards Helwell Bay.
You will eventually reach the access down to the beach. There are concrete steps down to the foreshore, so this isn’t a completely flat walk, but the reward is a fascinating stretch of coastline with some wonderful geology and fossils.
Helwell Bay is one of the best places around Watchet where fossils can be found on the beach. The rocks here date back around 200 million years and include fossil-rich Jurassic rocks. The area is also important geologically and forms part of the Blue Anchor to Lilstock Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Do check tide times before you set out, if it’s high tide there won’t be much beach, also if the tide is coming in be mindful of getting back to steps before the water gets too high. Here’s a link to check tide times for Watchet .
Walk the Mineral Line
On this walk you can explore Watchet’s industrial heritage and countryside.
The West Somerset Mineral Railway once carried iron ore from the Brendon Hills to Watchet Harbour. Today, much of its route provides a lovely walking path towards Washford.
From 48 Swain Street, head up Swain Street and cross over towards Anchor Street. Walk past the Radio Museum and follow this road around, you will cross the river as the road becomes Whitehall, keep to the right the road spurs to the right and narrows, after 100 yards or so you will come to the Mineral line path.
Once you join the Mineral Line, you can simply follow the path towards Washford, enjoying the countryside and the river valley along the way, then retrace your steps back to 48 Swain Street. Alternativly there are two circular routes you could take:
The shorter circular walk:
As you walk along the mineral line you’ll come to a footpath on your right that crosses the railway track (this can be seen on the O/S map above. You then follow the footpath to Daws Castle and then back around to Watchet (see map), due to cliff erosion on Cleeve hill near Daws Castle there is a diversion to the footpath.
The longer circular walk:
The official Watchet Circular is around 7.5 miles (11.5 km) and takes approximately four hours.
It follows the old Mineral Line towards Washford before joining the historic Monks’ Path and eventually reaching Blue Anchor. From Blue Anchor, the route joins the King Charles III England Coast Path for the return towards Watchet. If you take this route I recommend you downloading this National Trails link for the walk.
Walk from Watchet to Blue Anchor
This is a particularly lovely walk if you want a longer coastal outing.
From 48 Swain Street, head down towards the harbour and then turn left towards West Street. From here you can pick up the coastal route towards Daws Castle and Blue Anchor.
The scenery changes as you leave Watchet behind, with views across the Bristol Channel and towards Minehead and Exmoor.
Due to coastal erosion the route has been diverted slightly to ensure walkers safety.
The B3191 at Cleeve Hill is closed to motor vehicles, but pedestrians and cyclists have been allowed to use the closed road section. However, the England Coast Path itself has a safety closure at Cleeve Hill, and walkers should follow the signed diversion rather than entering the closed section.
Once you’re through the Cleeve Hill section, continue towards Blue Anchor, where you can enjoy the beach, views across the bay and, depending on the day, perhaps catch the train back towards Watchet.