West Prawle to Stoke Fleming: South West Coast Path Day 38 Guide

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My diary entry for today starts with “What a shit of a morning that was!”, and it’s not wrong.

After a decent night’s sleep considering how much wind there was, I made myself a coffee in the campsite kitchen, wrestled my flapping tent into submission, and trudged off back down the country lanes towards Gara Rock to rejoin the path under gloomy skies.

I’d just realised that with the exception of the hotel restaurant I was about to pass, the next place on the trail to get food or drink was in Beesand, over ten miles away. I’m pretty sure that breakfast in the hotel is only for people staying there, but at £25 a head, I decided I’d rather survive on protein bars for a few hours either way.

With immaculate timing, a light drizzle started up right as I returned to the coast, the gusty wind swirling it around and blowing it in my face no matter what direction I was looking. I’d really enjoyed the walk along these cliffs yesterday afternoon, but it was a different story in these conditions.

Yesterday’s soft trail was quickly getting even softer, making every downhill section a slow, sliding shuffle. Things got even slower whenever the path firmed up; with wet rocks and my shoes caked in sticky dirt, traction was in short supply. Thank God for hiking poles.

The first couple of undulating miles between Gara Rock and Prawle Point looked like it would have been ruggedly beautiful on a sunny day; today, all of my focus was on staying upright. The wind gusts were getting stronger, and seemed perfectly timed to hit right when I was on a narrow, slippery section of trail. Perfect.

Descending some rough stone steps, I smiled grimly to myself as I passed the immaculately-named Gammon Head. There were no gammon heads out on the path today; in fact, there was nobody at all other than me.

It hadn’t been all that unusual to not see other people on more remote sections of the Coast Path, but today felt particularly desolate. As it turned out, I’d be out there for over three hours before I saw another soul; all of the sensible day walkers had clearly taken one look at the weather and decided to do something else.

Prawle Point is officially the southernmost place in Devon. I’m not sure if it’s also the most exposed point in the county, but it certainly felt like it. There’s a Coastwatch lookout and visitor centre here, right beside the path; one of the volunteers inside saw me and raised both a hand and an eyebrow. I envied him his dryness at that point, if not his job; it’s a tough but vital gig on this coastline.

The trail changed dramatically shortly after, staying down almost at sea level along a rocky shelf for over two miles. The path meandered slightly inland through wide, grassy fields: there was still no shelter from the weather, but it was nice to not have to worry about falling into the ocean for while.

The grass trail briefly disappeared as I rounded Lannacombe Beach, replaced by rough stones that felt like a good place to roll an ankle if I wasn’t careful. The wind had picked up even more at this point, although it had at least blown the rain away in the process. You win some, you lose some, I guess.

Waves were crashing onto the rocks and sand was whipping off the beach as I passed, but like much of this morning’s walk, it looked like a great spot to return to on a nicer day.

That comment is even more true for the next couple of miles, between Lannacombe Beach and Start Point. Mattiscombe Beach looked like it would have been the perfect place to stop under sunny skies, and there were plenty of seals on the rocks and in the surf at Great Sleadon Rocks nearby.

Today, though, this was one of the sketchier sections I’d encountered anywhere along the South West Coast Path. The narrow trail hugged the side of the cliff, and with slippery rocks underfoot and strong gusts catching my backpack, the risk of falling into the ocean below seemed rather higher than usual.

I could dimly make out the lighthouse at Start Point as I approached; sea spray mixed with mizzle isn’t the greatest combo when it comes to visibility. You can go inside on summer weekends, which I definitely would have done today if I could, if for no other reason than to get out of the wind.

And then, 30 seconds later, I got to do that anyway.

The wind had been getting stronger and stronger all morning, and as I climbed a stile over a low stone wall, a particularly wild gust pushed me right off the other side. Stumbling forward a few steps, the gale suddenly dropped to almost nothing; it was like somebody had hit the mute button on the world.

Looking out at the ocean on this side of the headland, the vast expanse of Freshwater Bay was a millpond compared to the surging waves I’d been looking at a minute ago. Now completely sheltered from the southerly blast, it felt like I’d just walked through a portal to an entirely different part of the country.

It was a truly remarkable transformation.

I practically skipped down the long path from Start Point, first along the access road for the lighthouse and then down the side of the cliff all the way to Hallsands, ¾ of a mile away. There was a village here until 1917, when a huge storm combined with erosion from offshore dredging breached the sea defences and destroyed almost every building. Given today’s weather, that wasn’t hard to believe.

You used to be able to see the ruined buildings from a viewing platform, but now even that’s been affected by a landslide and cordoned off. With my stomach now loudly reminding me that I hadn’t had breakfast or lunch today, I sped onwards past Hallsands North Beach, over the small bluff at Tinsey Head, and down into Beesands.

Never before have I been quite so excited to see a wet rocky beach and empty fishing village. There are two places to eat here, the Cricket Inn and a seafood restaurant called Britannia at The Beach; I went for the latter and it was a great call.

You can get takeaways to eat on the beach, but that wasn’t the option I went for today. Instead I sheltered at a table inside, commiserating with a couple of young German women who were walking for a week in the opposite direction and not enjoying their wild camping experience. The weather over the last few days had been pretty rough, to say the least.

After warming up with a coffee and stuffing myself on a large plate of fish and chips, my mood lifted dramatically. This morning had frankly sucked, but now with a full belly, no rain, and a lot less wind, I felt much better about tackling the rest of the day.

The path stayed dead flat out of Beesands and past the small lake at Widdicombe Ley, before a short, steep, and muddy woodland trail behind an old quarry to emerge above Torcross: there’s only a little over a mile between the two villages.

Note: this short section between Beesands and Torcross was badly damaged during the winter storms in early 2026. There’s currently no official diversion, although you may be able to walk along the beach at low tide, or inland to Beeson and around Lower Widdicombe Farm. I’m assuming it’ll be repaired or rerouted before the summer season, but check here to make sure!

Torcross sits on a thin strip of land between the ocean on one side and Slapton Ley on the other, a freshwater lake that stretches out beside the coast for a mile and a half. It’s a fascinating geographic feature, although with the drizzle deciding now would be a good time to return, I didn’t stand around on the top of the cliff admiring it for long!

I made a quick stop in the carpark to admire an old WW2 Sherman tank that’s been repurposed as a memorial: 639 American soldiers died near here during a training exercise for the D-Day landings, after their landing craft were intercepted by German E-boats.

From there, another long flat section of seaside walking was just what the doctor ordered after my morning on the cliffs. The rain cleared away again and I got a good march on to the end of Slapton Ley, enjoying the much calmer conditions and not have to watch every step quite so carefully.

As with the section outside Beesands, there has been substantial storm damage to the road and footpath along this section beside Slapton Ley. It’s in the process of being repaired, but until that’s complete, you’ll likely be rerouted inland along the road via Frittiscombe and Slapton instead.

Before I’d sat down for lunch back in Beesand, I’d fully expected to end my day at a campsite just off the path near Slapton village. Feeling about 1000x better now than I did then, and with plenty of time still left in the day, I made the snap decision to keep going to a site outside Stoke Fleming about five miles further on instead.

The path continued along beside the A379 as it had done since Torcross, leaving it briefly before a steep climb back to the road to walk through the small village of Strete. Heading back out the other side, I found myself on a muddy trail through picturesque fields, ending at a steep valley with a grass path that was doing a great impression of a slip-and-slide today.

A couple of locals were coming down the other side when I got to the bottom, so I waited for them to finish before starting up. “Bit slippery today” one of them remarked, a muddy streak from ankle to thigh suggesting they’d had recent first-hand experience of that.

After squelching my way back to the top of the valley and crossing the A379 once again, I had a great view of the picturesque beach at Blackpool Sands. From here, the path dropped steeply down through the woods and around behind the beach, before rejoining the road for the short walk into Stoke Fleming.

It took longer than I expected to get to Dartmouth Camping on the other side of the village, but I was greeted with such warmth from the lovely woman in reception that I’d have gladly walked even further to get there. People have been generally wonderful throughout this walk, but even by those standards, this stood out.

The obvious choice for dinner that night was back in the village at The Green Dragon, where the kindness continued apace. Despite all the tables being reserved, the barman manufactured somewhere for me to sit while I ate what turned out to be an unusually good spicy chicken pizza, and drank a pint of what turned out to be an unusually good local cider. Sorry, two pints of unusually good local cider.

For a day that had started out so badly, I really couldn’t believe how well it had ended. The South West Coast Path had provided once again.

Planning

Started at: High Nature (0.9 miles/1.5km off-trail)

Finished at: Dartmouth Camping and Caravanning Club Site (0.4 miles/0.6km off-trail)

What an unexpectedly great campsite this turned out to be, due almost entirely to the lovely woman at reception who took pity on a tired and bedraggled walker and made it her mission to ease my day a little.

From quietly offering a discounted rate to giving me the most sheltered pitch she could think of and then walking me to it to make sure I was happy with it, these small kindnesses made a huge difference. I really can’t over-emphasise this, especially on a day like today when everything else had been hard work.

Right beside a tall hedge, my pitch turned out to be just as sheltered from the wind as I’d hoped. The shower and toilet block was clean and modern, with no shortage of hot water, and there was a small common room alongside that was a popular spot to hang out on a chilly, windy night.

The reception area doubled as a small camp shop with basic supplies, there was Wi-Fi available (although I had phone service anyway), and despite the site still being fairly busy despite the bad weather and it being late in the season, it stayed very quiet after dark. The Green Dragon pub, where I had that great pizza for dinner, was a 15-minute walk back down the road into the village.

I paid all of £9 for my stay, a lot less than the official rate on the website. What you’ll pay, I couldn’t say; try turning up there wet and exhausted in the middle of September and see if you also get a discount!

Transport and Parking

There’s no public transport anywhere along the first half of the walk today; as I discovered when looking for food, that’s because there are basically no towns or villages either. If you’re wanting to take public transport to skip that ten-mile stretch, I’d recommend staying in (or walking/ferrying back to) Salcombe instead.

From Salcombe, take the number 164 bus to Kingsbridge, the main transport hub for the area. Because of the storm damage to the road along Slapton Ley that I mentioned above, relevant bus services back along the coast been changed for the foreseeable future.

If you’re going to Torcross, you’ll now need to catch the temporary 93S shuttle service that runs there from Kingsbridge. If you’re going to Strete, Blackpool Sands, Stoke Fleming, or on to Dartmouth, take the number 93 bus instead. This also means that if you’re trying to take a bus north from Torcross, you’ll have to go via Kingsbridge to do it: you can at least use the shuttle ticket onboard the 93 service as well.

The 164 runs once an hour Monday through Saturday, and three times a day on Sundays and bank holidays. The 93S shuttle runs every 1-2 hours depending on the time of day, Monday through Saturday excluding bank holidays, while the 93 runs on a similar schedule Monday through Saturday, but also has a limited Sunday and bank holiday service.

For those looking to leave a vehicle somewhere, you’ve got a few choices. If you’re using public transport in one direction and are starting in Salcombe as a result, North Sands has a long-stay carpark, and there’s all-day parking inland at Bonfire Hill and at the Creek carpark on the north side of town as well.

On the other side of the river, there’s a National Trust carpark at Mill Bay and a private carpark at Gara Rock beside the restaurant. You’ll find another National Trust carpark at Prawle Point, a little way back from the Coastwatch station, and a private one with inexpensive all-day parking right on the trail near the lighthouse at Start Point.

There’s free parking at the lot in Beesands (get there early in summer), and the short-term parking lot with the WW2 tank in Torcross that’s currently closed due to the road repair works. There’s a somewhat expensive carpark at Strete Gate, but if you’re there early enough, you might be able to nab one of the handful of free spots at the start of the lane on the way in instead.

All-day parking is available at Blackpool Sands, which is probably easier than trying to find parking in Stoke Fleming; while there are a few on-road spots here and there, I wouldn’t want to rely on getting one. There’s also a large National Trust carpark slightly further along, on the trail at Little Dartmouth.

Waymarking and Navigation

While there were plenty of things that were difficult today, navigation wasn’t really one of them most of the time. While the path does duck and dive a bit thanks to a few detours, it’s generally well marked and easy enough to follow.

The only place where I know I missed a turn was coming down the hill into Blackpool Sands; it made no real difference, since I just emerged slightly further up the same road I would have ended up on anyway.

I used AllTrails as my main navigation app for the entire South West Coast Path, and it worked well throughout: you can find the East Portlemouth to Torcross section here, and Torcross to Stoke Fleming (and on to Dartmouth) here. The app is free to use, although I pay a couple of pounds a month for a subscription so I can download maps to my phone in advance.

Phone Service

Phone service was very patchy with O2 for the first half of today’s walk, with minimal service a lot of the time until I rounded Start Point. It got noticeably better after that, since I was close to a town or village the rest of the way to Stoke Fleming. I had good service at the campsite there as well.

As a backup, I’d also paid a few pounds for a data eSIM from Instabridge that let me swap between all three UK networks, EE, O2, and Vodafone/Three. It worked really well as a fallback option all along the Coast Path: if I didn’t have service with my usual provider, I’d just switch to another. As long as there were any mobile phone towers in range, I’d have service.

Facilities

As I may have mentioned, this was a day of two halves in many ways, including finding anywhere to eat or drink. Other than that overpriced hotel restaurant at Gara Point (which I suspect is only open to non-guests from lunchtime onward anyway), there’s nothing on the trail for the ten miles between there and Beesands.

The only option for food on this section is to head inland half a mile from Horsley Cove to East Prawle, to either the seasonal Piglet Cafe or well-regarded Pigs Nose Inn. Just pay attention to opening days and times before making the detour: the pub doesn’t open until midday, and the cafe has variable hours.

Things improved markedly from that point onward, however. In Beesands you’ll walk straight past a good pub and the great seafood/fish and chip restaurant I had lunch at, and if neither of those appeal, there’s a pub and two cafes basically beside each other on the path in Torcross less than a mile away.

There are another couple of pubs and a small store in Slapton village a few hundred yards inland from Slapton Ley, a small beach cafe at Strete Gate beside the carpark, and the Kings Arms in Strete.

Finally, you’ve got a cafe and takeaway in Blackpool Sands before you get to Stoke Fleming, which has the excellent Green Dragon that I ate at, an Italian restaurant, and a village store. The campsite also has a small store if you’re looking to self-cater.

Accommodation

You’ve got more options for camping than you might expect today, starting with a cluster of sites in and around East Prawle. There’s Shepherd’s Hollaway Camping and Little Hollaway Camping, both down a lane south of the village, and East Prawle Camping and The Retreat essentially in the village itself. Most have showers and toilets available, but not necessarily much else.

After that, you’ve got the basic Sugar Park Campsite (no showers) and Beryl’s Campsite in Beesands, Mattiscombe Farm Camping near Torcross, Slapton Sands Camping between Slapton Ley and Slapton village, and Manor Farm Camping near Strete.

Finally, as well as Dartmouth Camping where I stayed in Stoke Fleming, Leonard’s Cove holiday village also has some camping pitches: just verify the price for walk-ins with them beforehand, as the official price on the site is excessive for those with small hiking tents.

For those not staying in tents, there’s plenty of accommodation around as well, although not all of it is particularly cheap. Start with The Cricket Inn in Beesands, this cottage in Strete, or either the Stoke Lodge Hotel or this impressive studio in Stoke Fleming.

If you’re struggling to find somewhere enroute today, you’ve also got the option of continuing on to Dartmouth (either on foot or via the 93 bus I mentioned earlier): there’s definitely no shortage of accommodation there!