Kick start new year with North Devon Winter Walking Festival

If any of your new year resolutions include becoming healthier, walking or getting out in the fresh air more, North Devon Ramblers could help kick start your 2024 with its Winter Walking Festival this week.

From tomorrow (Thursday, January 4) through to Sunday, January 7, the local group is hosting four free guided walks around some of the best walks and scenery North Devon has to offer.

Thursday’s walk is called Dunes and Golf and is a relatively leisurely introduction to rambling with a fairly flat walk from the Sandy Lane car park at Braunton around the paths and tracks behind the Braunton Burrows dunes.

The walk meets at the car park at 10.30am and will make its way up to Saunton and back across the golf course – more details on the website below.

Friday sees another reasonably moderate walk, taking in some of the most majestic coastline craggy coastline Torridge has to offer, around the Stoke and Hartland peninsular.

This exhilarating walk goes via Hartland Point and a chance to visit the exceptional medieval St Nectan’s Church. Meet at St Nectan’s car park at 10.30am.

Saturday will see a guided walk on the Exmoor coast this time, walking west from Woody Bay along the South West coastpath to Hunters Inn for a lunch break, then returning back along the carriage ride. Meet 10.30am on the lower car park above Woody Bay.

The final walk on Sunday takes in some of North Devon’s most popular coastal and country scenery with a walk from Croyde to Georgeham. This 8.5 mile walk begins at the National Trust Moor Lane car park in Croyde at 10.30am.

Janet Ellis from North Devon Ramblers said: “I joined the North Devon group almost two years ago and am still finding places and paths that I didn’t know existed!

“Walks of varying lengths are offered twice a week - the week day walks tend to be shorter (4-6 miles), while the weekend walks are usually longer (8-12 miles).”

All of the walks are expected to be fairly muddy, but the forecast looks good, with winds expected to drop and mostly dry from Thursday onwards. All are very welcome (including dogs on leads) but please wear appropriate clothing and footwear.

For more information about North Devon Ramblers and the Winter Walking festival, visit www.northdevonramblers.org.uk.