Wembury Beach to Heybrook Bay walk
A moderate walk up from the bay passing fields and the former HMS Cambridge site, looping back around from Heybrook bay to take in the views of the Mewstone. There is plenty of wildlife to enjoy along this stretch of coast as well as discovering Wembury Point's interesting past.
Map
Start:
Wembury Bay National Trust car park, grid ref: SX515485
1
Wembury Beach and Old Mill: Walk back to the car park entrance (the path uphill leads to St Werburgh Church) and turn down the slipway towards Wembury Beach, passing the Old Mill Café on your left. Take the coast path on the right, running behind the beach, and follow it westwards along the cliffs.
Old Mill Café
A fine place to enjoy an ice-cream in the summer, this former mill is now a delightful café right on the beach.
2
Langdon Beach: After about 15 minutes walk, turn right (signposted to Spring Road) and ascend the narrow path. At the next fork take the left-hand path, climbing through hawthorn, blackthorn and elder scrub.
Wembury - home to rare wildlife
This stretch of coast, from Warren Point to Wembury Point, is designated a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) for its birds and marine life. You might see lizards, adders, speckled wood and comma butterflies, as well as flowers such as speedwell, valerian and weld.
3
Marine Drive: The path emerges onto Marine Drive, the old access road to HMS Cambridge, now narrowed and landscaped by the National Trust. Turn left along the road towards the sea.
Views from Wembury
The slopes below you are dotted with rare self-seeded Plymouth pear trees, which grow in only seven sites in the UK. The land around here was once the 24-acre field described by John Galsworthy in The Forsyte Saga. Follow the drive, and after the gate carry straight on, past swathes of ox-eye daisies in summer (for a shorter walk go down the path on the left to the foreshore). Just a few years ago the views of Plymouth Sound and the breakwater, Fort Picklecombe and Mount Edgcumbe Country Park in the far distance, would have been obscured by the military buildings of HMS Cambridge.
4
Heybrook Bay: Soon after a five-bar gate, the path approaches the houses of Heybrook Bay; turn sharp left at the coast path waymarker and head east, past an old military boundary stone.
Heybrook Bay
This stretch of coast path was once hemmed in by high military fences, leaving only a narrow cliff-edge path for walkers. To left and right of the path leading up to Marine Drive are the earthwork butts of a rifle range from the 1920s and 1930s.
5
Wembury Point: Follow the coast path to reach a short detour to the beach and its 19th-century boathouse. Owned by the Calmadys of nearby Langdon Court, it once had a pitched roof and chimneys, and was used by day-trippers to the Mewstone. Continue back along the coast path to Wembury Beach.
Great Mewstone
The rocky foreshore is a Special Area of Conservation, with a range of marine, bird, insect and plant life. Still visible is a tidal swimming pool, all that remains of the 1920s Heybrook Bay Lido, when 200 concrete and wooden holiday chalets sprawled across the Point. From the path, with binoculars, you can see Sam Wakehams ruined cottage on the lower eastern slopes of the Mewstone.
End:
Wembury Bay National Trust car park, grid ref: SX515485
