Budleigh Salterton

Budleigh Salterton is located on the south Devon coast between Exmouth and Sidmouth. It's name derives from salt panning that took place here up to the 18 Century. Salt was sold by the monks to surrounding villages as a preservative for storing meat.
We parked at the eastern end of the town in the car park on the estuary of the River Otter. There are remains of Lime Kilns here for the production of lime used in rendering houses and adding to farmland.
Our walk for the day was to take us along the coast towards Sidmouth but head inland to Otterton then back down the River Otter to Budleigh Salterton.

From the car park we headed north following the River Otter towards Ottery as far as the first bridge. There are good views of the estuary with various birds such as Egrets.
We crossed the bridge and headed on the footpath on the other side of the estuary back towards the sea at Otterton Ledge with views back towards the estuary mouth and Budleigh Salterton.

We continued east on the coast path that heads towards Sidmouth along the cliff tops. The cliffs re a beautiful red Jurassic limestone and in places they are crumbling so it is wise to keep away from the edge.

The fields were fringed with bright red poppies and the cliff tops covered in Sea Pinks and red campion. Sea campion and thistle were also in flower.







The coast path passes places with interesting names that indicate what happened here in the past.
Brandy Head had obvious connections with smuggling but more recently was used in testing various guns for aircraft used in WWII. A derelict observation hut and information display is all that is now left.

Ladram bay with Sidmouth in the distance

We continued on the gently undulating path to Smallstones Point to see Ladram Bay that has some impressive sea stacks off the beach. Unfortunately the little valley has been totally spoilt by a massive static caravan park.









From Smallstones point we headed inland on a footpath to join a track and a minor road that leads to Ottery.




The pretty village had a stream running down the main street, lots of cute houses and a grand church set high above the village.

 We stopped for tea and cakes in the Mill before crossing the river Otter and following the footpath along the west bank all the way to the our start in the Lime Kiln car park.