Hiking the South West Coast Path: 630 miles from Minehead to South Haven Point

The South West Coast Path is the UK’s longest national trail at 630 miles and goes from Minehead, Somerset to South Haven Point, Dorset. It started as a coastguard patrol route to restrict smuggling in the 19th century and is now the ultimate challenge for long distance hikers like me.

Deciding to walk the coast path seemed like an easy choice after hiking the Annapurna Circuit, the Drakensburg Northern Traverse, and so many other long distance hikes around the world. I’ve hiked most of the coast path around Cornwall, how much harder can it be to do the whole thing, all in one go, with with a backpack? Turns out… 100x harder. It broke me. Physically, mentally, spiritually.

Here’s the route I took, close enough to the ‘recommended route‘ but with more breaks, and I’ll link each day to the corresponding blog post as I write them. Be warned, this series will include a lot of dark humour and self-depricating jokes because the alternative is to cry about it.

(This is just the first half of the coast path, I took a break over winter due to the constant rain, and I hope to finish the rest of it this summer!)

Day 1: Minehead to Porlock

Day 2: Porlock to Lynmouth

Day 3: Lynmouth to Ilfracombe

Day 4: Ilfracombe to Woolacombe

Day 5: Woolacombe to Instow

Day 6: Instow to Abbotsham

Day 7: Abbotsham to Clovelly

Day 8: Clovelly to Hartland

Day 9: Hartland to Bude

Day 10: Bude to Boscastle

Day 11: Boscastle to Tintagel

Day 12: Tintagel to Port Isaac