Coastal Path Diary – September 2025 – We have now walked from home in Lymington to Boscastle. 844km ( 524 miles) along the South West Coastal path, but 892 km ( 554 miles) along the coast and a total of 1648 km ( 1024 miles) including the inland routes.
How it began
15th September 2020
A beautiful sunny day and I walked from Milford-on-sea to Barton-on-sea, where I had a quick swim in the surprisingly warm September sea. On the way back I met a lady walking with a couple of small dogs, who asked the simple question “How far does this path go” – I think that my answer “about 600 miles” rather surprised her, until I explained that there is a Coastal Path along the Hampshire coast, through Bournemouth and Poole, that joins the South West Path from the Chain Ferry at Studland.
September 2020 is a rather depressing time, despite the wonderful warm weather the Corona virus infections were increasing alarmingly and only a couple of days ago the government had introduced the “rule of six”. The use or public transport was not being encouraged and we faced a long winter.
Over a couple of beers that evening I wondered how far along the coast we could walk, without using public transport, before the Corona virus restrictions finally ended and we could resume “normal” life, whatever that may mean in the future.
To make a meaningful challenge of course there needed to be some rules, or at least guidance, as the over the last few months government had kept demonstration that rules are always subject to change, and only apply to those who choose to follow them – so here are our first set of rules, subject to change at any time.
Rules or Guidance
- Start from home and follow the coast continuously clockwise.
- Start, or finish, each walk as close as possible to the previous finish.
- Each walk will have a coastal path section and one or two inland sections – they can be on any order or direction.
- We will follow the Covid19 guidance and so may need to pause if “non-essential” travel is banned.
- We will continue, hopefully with about one walk per week, until all Covid19 restrictions are removed and normal travel can resume
In September and October 2020 we walked from home, Lymington, to Sandbanks – the East side of the entrance to Poole Harbour. This was 5 separate days walking and it was and easy journey home at the end of each day
Click on the title or the button below to see the details of each walk
South West Coastal Path
Between October 2020 and July 2021 we walked along the Jurassic Coast – click on the title or the link below for details of each day’s walk and maps.
Between September 2021 and May 2022 we walked from Starcross to Plymouth – click on the link below to see details of each day’s walk.
We are now walking along the North Cornwall Coast and here are details of 2025 walks.
2025-07-15 Newquay to Porth Beach 4.11km along the coast and 4.79km Inland
2025-07-16 Porth to Porthcothan 17.3km along the coast. 3.71 km Inland and 19km by bus
2025-07-17 Porthcothan to Harlyn Bridge 12.1km along the coast, 2.4km Inland and 9.8 km by bus
2025-07-18 Harlyn Bridge to Padstow 11.75km along the coast, 2.07km Inland and 25km by bus
2025-07-19 Padstow to Daymer Bay 2.6km along the coast, 8.3km Inland, 27km by bus and 2km on the Rock ferry..
2025-09-17 Daymer Bay to Polzeth 1.5 km along the coast and 1.5km Inland.
2025-09-18 Port Isaac to Polzeth 14.1 km along the coast, 0.1 km Inland and 11.3 Km by bus from Polzeth to Port Isaac.
2025-09-19 Port Isaac to Damonchapel 5.7 km along the coast and 9.8 km Inland.
2025-09-20 Tintagel 1.52 km along the coast and 7.2 km Inland, but we repeated the coast part later so it is not included in the total.
2025-09-21 Trewethett Farm Campsite to Boscastle 3.7 km along the coast and 4.6 km Inland.
2025-09-22 Trebarwith Strand to Trewethett Farm Campsite 7.4 km along the coast and 4.8 km Inland.