Bucks Mills

Went to look at a house yesterday which is up for auction in April.  It is just 500m from the cliff path that runs between Peppercombe and Bucks mills on the North facing coast between Clovelly and Bideford, the bay is known as Bideford or Barnstaple Bay.  

After the viewing we walked down from the house through the woods to Bucks Mills.  Bucks Mills could have become another Clovelly, but has managed to avoid this, there are no shops or pub to attract the tourist.  However the village is very pretty and very quiet, I imagine that many of the homes are holiday homes and that in the summer it is a bit busier. 

You cannot park in the village and have to leave your car in the car park (if you drive in) at the top of the village and walk down.  When you get to the bottom there is a very steep path down to the beach with fabulous views towards Clovelly in one direction the mouth of the Taw/Torridge estuary in the other.  It is a strangely empty coast line, there is something rather prehistoric about it all.  The beach isn't terribly sandy, but much quieter than the beaches on the West facing coast around Bude.  I should think fishing would be good here and indeed fishing boats still go out from Clovelly.

One of the attractions for me about Bucks Mills is the old lime kiln and remains of the old harbour that was here in centuries past.  There is nothing left of the harbour now except in a finger of gravel and rock that points out to sea and is known as the Gore.  This area, as I have mentioned before has very poor soil and one of the ways to make it fertile (apart from bringing in sand which I have talked about previously re the Bude Canal) was (and still is) to lime it.  Limestone was brought in to Bucks Mills and then burned down to make it usable on the soil.  There are quite a few old lime kilns along this coastline including one near Instow opposite Appledore.

The walk back up to the house we had looked at and where we had left our car can best be described as steep and rather slippery and muddy, but through ancient woodland which even at this time of the year was beautiful and I should think in a couple of weeks will be ablaze with wild flowers.  Must try to go back and have another walk along there in April.