Dorset and Devon Coast (10): Bigbury on Sea

Dorset and Devon Coast Trip, Day 12 (Tue 19th May 2021)

Our site for the next two nights, is high above the village of Bigbury on Sea, with superb views over Burgh Island, which is linked to the mainland by a sandy causeway.  It is a true island twice a day, at high-tide when a high-level, tractor platform ferries passengers across for £2 per person.

As the tide was in and there was quite a queue for the transport, we decided to first take a walk along the coast to the west, to the next bay at Challaborough.  There is an abundance of beautiful sandy bays in this part of the Devon coast, and this is no exception. 

The village has been greatly expanded with the addition of many holiday static mobile homes, stretching up the hill, which mars the view inland a little, but the site is a nice one.  They were selling new caravans with prices from around £54,000 to just under £70,000, but I didn’t enquire how much it would cost in site rental.

Returning to Bigbury, we crossed over to Burgh Island on foot, just as the tide allowed us to make the journey without getting our feet wet.  On the island, there is a hotel and pub, “The Pilchard Inn”, where we met our friends, Jeeves and Michelle, who had been on the island for a while, having crossed on the tractor earlier in the day.

We went on to explore the island, climbing to the summit where there is a small, roofless building which was constructed as a huer’s shelter.  A huer, is someone who used to watch out for shoals of fish and alert the fishermen when they were sighted.

The island has very dramatic cliff faces on the seaward facing aspects, with rock formations dropping steeply into the sea and fine views along the coast on both directions, including back at the beach at Bantham, where we had spent much of the previous day.

We enjoyed a pint on Otter Pale Ale (OPA) in the Pilchard Inn before returning up the steep hill to the site.

In the evening, the farmer, on whose land the campsite lies, asked us to help see his sheep over the road as they were due to be sheared in the morning.  There were three flocks, each brought down from a different area and housed in a barn overnight.

I took a quick look at the shearing at the farmer’s invitation, the following morning.