For our traditional Christmas Eve walk I found this route around Combe Martin online and printed it. It had very clear instructions and started off quite pleasantly by the beach and past a few shops into pretty country lanes. Then the lanes went up, and up, and up some more until we were all out of breath and wondering when the up would end. Half way along the next instruction I read said 'Continue up the path for one mile...' It seemed more like about five! But eventually we stopped going up and started going back down. The views were fairly spectacular though I am not entirely sure they were worth the leg ache.
It was muddy going down and my husband slipped and fell at one point - that amused us, as did playing in the fallen autumn leaves. The lane eventually gave way to civilisation and we found ourselves back by the old church with a long walk back along the main street till we reached our car. There were a few shops with interesting looking windows that would be worth pottering about in the summer season and of course plenty of pubs to chose from including famous The Pack of Cards. Even the houses are pretty. Come for a visit in the summer - and perhaps don't bother with giant walk up into the hills.
