Tutshill Woods

In a quest to find places to walk my dog which aren't too far away from where I live I searched the internet this morning and found Tutshill Woods. If you drive out of Barnstaple toward the hospital and turn left you can park your car near the entrance to the cattery and find, almost hidden away, a public footpath which is a narrow lane between trees with fields behind that.
This leads down to a river where, to the left, the popular play area of Mannings Pit can be found.

We went right, across a nice wooden little footbridge, then on across the field in the photo above and into the woods. The way through the woods (ooh, sounds like a poem!) is narrow and pretty with the ivr tinkling along far below you. It goes out to a road leading back to the main road but we didn't go that far. We turned around and headed back to level ground next to the river bank where we sat and ate sandwiches before returning home with a very knackered dog.

We met a few other people walking thier dogs, so its a popular spot. I liked it, so I think we'll be going again.

Braunton Burrows Update

I popped out here this evening to take the dog for a walk (are you spotting a theme to these posts?) and although I've mentioned it before I thought I'd just update you on a few things. Last time we came we walked through the burrows but there is a beach at Braunton which is accessed directly from the end of the toll road. This is it at low tide. There were a number of people leaving with their rigid inflatable boats towed behind their cars as we arrived and a few who were just starting barbeques.

The toll road seemed particularly long today, I don't remember it being that long, so I measured it on the way back, it's 1 and 1/2 miles, the sign, which says 1 and 1/4 miles of speed bumps, is inaccurate.

The other thing you need to know about is that now there is an automated gate at the entrance to the toll road. You have to feed it with coins to obtain entrance. Good job I had some with me. It costs £1.50 for cars.

Bickington

Bickington is normally just a town I drive through on my way to somewhere else. Up until now all I have seen of it is the main street and in the inside of the post office (which is much more efficient and quick to use than the main one in Barnstaple). I was in there the other day and notice a leaflet called '5 walks in Fremington'. Fremington is the town next door. I picked up the leaflet and walk no.3 is actually around Bickington taking 40 minutes, the shortest of the walks in the leaflet. Ideal for my new dog, I thought.

So yesterday we went for a walk. I parked in the small car park just off the main street for a very reasonable 60p for two hours. The walk then took me, my dog, and daughter no.2 down a pretty lane full of charming cottages. At the end of lane we were slightly confused as the sign post said the footpath went in two directions, but a very friendly farmer in his tractor pointed us in the right direction, through his field and up to the top of a hill where lovely views of the River Taw and the villages on the opposite banks greeted us.

We progressed onto a bridleway and round the back of village til we reached the end of the lane where we had first started. It was very pleasant and let us see that there is more to Bickington than meets the eye. I think I will try the other walks when my dog is old enough to go for longer walks.