South Devon - Walk of the Month: Follow the swallows to the wild South-west

​Mark Rowe explores a coastline packed with exhilarating views and historic curiosities

Gara Rock beach

You know autumn has really arrived when the swallows finally pack their bags for Africa. The swifts have long departed these shores but their fork-tailed counterpoints are prone to dithering, and the very last stragglers can hang on into October. Perhaps they were fussing over the right winds to push them on their way, or just basking in the big fat high-pressure system that sat over the UK in September and the start of this month.

Whatever the reason, there they were: fluttering over the rocks above Soar Mill Cove in South Devon, dipping down to catch the insects attracted to the many cowpats deposited by the grazing rare-breed cattle. All in all, it was an uplifting spectacle, enhanced by the sea, which was doing a passable impression of a millpond, and a sky so clear that I could pick out the Eddystone Lighthouse, 21 miles to the south-west.


 Swallow on the wing
 (Getty)

Shifting my gaze, I followed the coastline as Devon turned into Cornwall and arced southwards past Dodman Point and Looe.

Soar Mill Cove is beautiful too: a lovely narrowing valley that follows a tranquil, clattering stream and tapers to a sandy shoreline and a perfectly formed triangle of sea. The storms of 2013 all but tore the bay limb from limb, raking the sand out to a bar some 300 yards offshore. Over time, that sand has been steadily washed back in by natural currents, restoring this delightful cove to health.

I could have gawped at the scene all day, but it was time to press on, turning east along the South West Coast Path, as it edged its way between stone columns that muscled out of the surrounding bracken and gorse. They're the first outliers of a succession of rocky passes, with names such as The Goat and Little Goat that lend drama to this coastline. Once on the top of the downland, the path calmed down and levelled out but the coastal flanks still made the occasional dramatically slanted darts to the sea.

The path kept high, taking me towards Bolt Head and views east across the Salcombe Estuary and towards landmarks such as Gara Rock and Prawle Point. Here, the land simply collapsed in a huge heap of folds, a gulch known as Starehole Bottom. The down-and-up-again can make walkers groan but returning to the cliffs at least meant I was closer to my goal, Overbeck's House, one of the South-west's curiosities.

The coast path goes past the front door, which is marked with a metal arch engraved with filigree lettering and wavy banisters that have something of Antoni Gaudi about them.

The grounds are gorgeous, stepped terraces full of palms, magnolias, Japanese bananas and sub-tropical shrubs, as well as discreetly positioned statues. Little, though, can prepare the first-time visitor who enters the house.

This Edwardian villa holds one of the most eclectic collections you'll encounter, everything from stuffed exotic mammals to model ships and tin soldiers. This extraordinary ensemble was home to the eponymous Otto Overbeck, a chemist and eccentric inventor who never quite achieved the fame in his lifetime that history might suggest he deserved. The centrepiece is Overbeck's Rejuvenator, a slightly unsettling device that delivered a 12-volt current to patients suffering from a range of ailments that included kidney pain, toothache and hearing loss.

You're not allowed to try out the Rejuvenator but you can enjoy the restless Overbeck's other major invention, the polyphon, a kind of circular glockenspiel that takes up a sizeable part of the entrance room. The whole experience is very much what a walk can be about: stumbling upon a gem of genuine and quirky interest.

Rejuvenated by tea and cake in the wood-panelled café, I returned to Soar Mill Cove. This time, though, I took an inland route, following a path that gently rose through woodland to emerge among sweeping farmland. The route took me past East Soar Farm, where an honesty payment system operates for anyone who hadn't eaten enough cake at Overbeck's.

I passed a grass airfield, popular with light-aircraft pilots and which was a key RAF base during the Second World War. Nearby, I passed a more sinister squat concrete building that once served as a nuclear bunker during the Cold War. The background skyline was more encouraging, filled by Dartmoor's rolling and dipping high ground.

A couple of quiet country lanes followed, the sort where you can hear and see cars coming from a long distance, in a North By Northwest kind of a way. Then I was back at Soar Mill Cove. I did one of those utterly unscientific calorie calculations, and decided that I had walked sufficiently far to order a cream tea at Soar Mill Cove hotel with a clear conscience. This was Devon after all, and it felt, strangely, still like summer.

Distance: Six miles

Time: Three-four hours

OS map: OL20 South Devon

Directions: From Soar Mill Cove car park (behind the hotel) follow the acorn signs for the South West Coast Path to Bolt Head and then Sharpitor to reach Overbeck's. Leaving the house, turn uphill and follow the track through woodland into fields. Turn left, signposted for Starehole, and later follow waymarker signs for East Soar. Follow the path past the runway to a car park and turn right on the minor road to reach High Soar. At the green take the little lane downhill which takes you to Soar Mill.

Staying there

Mark Rowe stayed at Soar Mill Cove Hotel (01548 561566; soarmillcove.co.uk). Double rooms from £149, including breakfast.

More information

Salcombe Information Centre (01548 843927; salcombeinformation.co.uk).