Devon: Hartland Quay to Clovelly 21/7/2000**

 

Blegberry Cliff   Clouded yellow   Betony

It was a steep climb up from the hotel through gorse with clouds of thrips and midges which were only dispersed by windier conditions in the sheep pasture on top.  In the distance was a colourful view of yellow rape, blue flax, green pasture, red bare earth and yellow-brown hay.  At Blackpool Mill Cove we passed through hedgerows, again crowded with midges, across the stream and then climbed up again.  The next cove had a waterfall and we rose from there past the sweet sickly scent of the rape-fields seen earlier.  The wind was now light and midges persisted in swarms along Blegberry Cliff.  At Smoothlands there was some lesser centaury among common cat’s-ear and betony, but the path as far as Hartland Point was continually up and down.  At the Point was a lighthouse and helicopter landing-pad preventing public access.  Various concrete and asphalt structures made a disappointing wasteland.  Military exercises using low-flying aircraft disturbed the peace.  A tarmac path near the cliff-edge was very broken up by subsidence.  The Point marks the change from west-facing to north-facing coast.  The path was more level but overgrown; cliffs descended more gently towards the sea and were covered with shrubs and trees, dropping precipitately only at the far edge.  This meant that the path was well back from the sea and the view tended to be obscured by hedges as we walked through fields that could be anywhere inland, sheltered from breezes that today would have been welcome in the blazing sun.  We therefore observed mostly different kinds of agriculture – potatoes, maize, barley ...  A small group of people had managed to get down to Shipload Bay, but like all the coves along here it is entirely pebbles and boulders.  We passed shepherds rounding up sheep with a truck and whistles.  Looking back we could still see the tip of the very tall tower of Stoke Church above Hartland Quay.  There were also plenty of butterflies to divert us – meadow and hedge browns, ringlets, red admirals all being common, and we saw our first clouded yellow of this trip, looking very fresh: perhaps the summer immigration had only just started after the persistently bad weather until this week.  Other immigrants included two hummingbird hawk moths and a silver Y moth.  There were also plenty of golden-ringed dragonflies.  At Windbury Head we descended into the welcome shade of a wooded coomb, largely of sycamore, with a good ground flora including yellow pimpernel and great woodrush, orange ladybirds and whitethroats singing.  After some rough pasture we descended into more extensive woodland, mostly dwarf sycamore and gorse, with some ash and sessile oak.  The gorse-pods popped continuously in the sun.  After that it was cliff-top fields again until descending through continuous woodland approaching Clovelly.  Some of this woodland was obviously planted long ago with plenty of ageing rhododendron, sweet chestnut and tutsan.  We descended to a beach of large boulders at Mill Mouth, and there was a grey wagtail nesting near the stream.  A further ascent along woodland tracks led past an ornate four-sided bench with carved wooden roof which was certainly over 50 years old, going by the dates of some of the graffiti.  Many of the trees carried much lichen and there was one old oak with great woodrush growing from well up its trunk.  Coming into Clovelly were fields like parkland with rows of oaks, some of them very old.  We emerged on to a traffic-free road above Clovelly, there being no public vehicular access into the narrow village lanes.