Two hours’ sailing from north Devon, Lundy is a bite-sized gem of an island that can be explored at leisure as a week-long resident or as a day visitor. Scenic, peaceful and teeming with wildlife, it’s Britain’s only statutory Marine nature Reserve and home to puffins, peregrines and Manx shearwaters. With no access restrictions on Lundy you can roam at will, but this walk is full of variety and offers the perfect introduction to a truly captivating little island. It samples two very different coastlines, explores a former cliffside quarry and climbs to the top of an old lighthouse for views over the whole island.
[1] From the jetty (SS143437), walk up the long, winding road to the village – the main cluster of buildings on Lundy.
Here you’ll find refreshments and public conveniences.
[2] Turn right past the front door of the Marisco Tavern (SS137441) and follow the grassy path through a gate and down a flight of stone steps. Take the second left, with Millcombe House below. After some trees, go through a high, wooden gate on the left and down a long flight of steps. At the bottom, turn left for a path across the sloping cliffside, with the sea far below on your right. Go through an area being cleared of rhododendrons until you reach an old quarry (SS138453).
(A) The quarry was worked by the short-lived Lundy Granite Company in the 1860s. Here you will also find a Heligoland Trap that the Lundy Field Society use in the ringing of birds.
[3] The route continues on a former quarry track, wide and level, which soon curves up the hillside to meet the main island track at the top. Turn right until you get to Halfway Wall. Here, go left and follow the wall across the middle of the island to Jenny’s Cove (SS133458).
(B) The cove was named after a vessel wrecked here in 1797 that was supposedly carrying ivory and gold dust. Seabirds such as razorbills, guillemots and puffins nest on the ledges and steep slopes above the rocky bay.
[4] Turn left and follow the clear, clifftop path southwards.
(C) A jumbled area of land with split rocks and fissures is supposedly due to an earthquake several hundred years ago. The coastline is punctuated by a series of rocky headlands, at the foot of one such is The Battery (SS128448), now a ruin but from where a cannon was once fired as a navigational aid in bad weather.
Continue along the undulating track to the Old Light (SS133444).
(D) This is a handsome lighthouse which was sadly rendered useless in fog because of its height and eventually abandoned for lower lights at either end of the island. Climb up its spiral staircase for wide-ranging views.
[5] Resume the springy turf track above the cliffs and swing round to the southern end of the island. Go over a stile and surmount the final grassy headland to reach the castle (SS142437).
(E) Built in 1244 for Henry III, it’s now one of the Landmark Trust’s 23 properties available for rent as holiday accommodation on Lundy.
[6] Turn left and head back past the church to the village, or follow the road back down to the jetty.