As we gathered for a 10.30 AM start we could see dark clouds gathering overhead.

Sure enough just as we started the rain started. Just a shower we thought, it lasted for about 30 minutes and gave is a good soaking to start our day. Luckily it stopped just in time for morning coffee and then the sun came out to warm us for the rest of the walk.

We left the car park (£2 car park fee in the summer) and headed south east to pick up the lane and the coastal path. We followed a narrow lane for a short distance and then went through a kissing gate onto the coastal path.

As you might expect, the coastal path is wonderfully signposted and as you might not expect, it is also relatively flat and easy walking. Most of the North Coastal Coastal path is very different to this and very hard walking. It therefore made a nice change to have a walk where the highest point was only just over 200 feet and the climb to that very easy too.

We followed the signed coastal path along mainly west, of course it meandered as it followed the coastline but the walking was really easy along the well kept and well used path. It was only a mile from the lovely beach of Trevone Bay to the even better surfing beach at Harlyn.

Despite the rain driving directly at us at we walked along the coast the views were lovely and we were soon beyond the rocky Newtrain Bay and from the 80 ft high point we could see Harlyn Bay ahead of us.

We curved round on the path looking down on the wide beach and the surfers and then left the coast path and descended some steep steps down to the beach.

We kept on the beach. across a small stream and along the beach for a couple of hundred yards. The rain stopped, just about in time for a morning break on the beach.

There are steps leading directly up to the coastal path and then once again the going was trivially easy along the coastal path to another couple of beaches, much smaller than Harlyn but much quieter and more attractive in my view.

These beaches at at Mother Iveys Bay, a quaint name.

Just behind the beaches there is a large caravan park which I imagine in season will make the beaches rather too full.

We walked by Mother Ivey's cottage and the going remained fairly level as the path turned more north west.

At the northern end of the bay well sheltered from the wind by the Merope Rocks is the Padstow lifeboat station.

It must be a great sight to see the lifeboat being launched down the very steep slip.

The station disappeared from sight as we started an uphill section going just inland from Merope Rocks.

We stopped for lunch on a headland just west of Merope Rocks with good views off to the east.

After lunch we continued our uphill section an easy but steady climb up past Cats Cove before turning west and on up to the highest point of the walk. From a distance the lighthouse we could see looked very small.

that was just an illusion since when we got close it's true size became very apparent.

The high point was just over 200 feet, compared with may cliffs on the North Coast this are very low level cliffs indeed.

Looking out to Trevose Head with the large lighthouse, painted white just below us, the power and the majesty of the sea and of the Atlantic Ocean was evident to all .

Just beyond the lighthouse we descended a little and had brilliant views of Trevose Head and we walked by the Dinas Head promontory.

Given a little more time it might have been nice to explore Dinas Head as the maps indicate that there is a tumulus out on the headland, whatever that may be.

We started the track back south east down to a huge hole in the ground, on the map called Round Hole, erosion by the sea over the centuries resulting in the deep hole with the sea visible at the bottom.

Although not apparent from the picture the sides of the hole are very steep indeed and I wondered how many people/animals have inadvertently fallen into this pit over the centuries. There are no guard rails around it so it would be all to easy to stumble into the void.

Steadily descending back to sea level we swung more south and by Booby's Bay and then onto Constantine Bay and on to the sand again.

Constantine Bay is very different to the other bays in that it has huge sand dunes behind.

Julie led us across to the sand dunes and we scrambled up a sandy and soft track up to the top of the dunes.

We followed the track through the dunes and behind to the golf course.

We came upon a metalled track over a stream which we followed as it led us up to the start of the 3rd hole on the golf course.

Beyond the 3rd hole we made our way across and through a narrow exit onto the public right of way which leads back from the Constantine main beach.

Once onto the footpath we turned south east and followed the path up alongside the golf course although separated from it by a hedge. We continued along the track until we came to a gap in the hedge and we could see the golf club house.

We turned left and made our way across towards the clubhouse and came to narrow road just before the building.

The next section of the walk was along this road, north east for an easy walk back in the general direction of Harlyn Bay.

It was relatively quiet although there were cars from time to time so we did our best to keep in single file.

After a half a mile or so we came to some houses and a road leading back to Mother Iveys Bay.

We continued straight on for another few hundred yards and just beyond where the country lane swings to the right there was a footpath leading us into a field.

Over the stile we followed the narrow track right across the field to a hedge at the opposite side, along the side of the hedge for a short distance then over another stile and along an enclosed track with houses to left and right then out onto a narrow road in Harlyn Bay village.

We turned right and walked along the lane to another road, left onto the road for the short descent down towards the beach, a pub on the right hand side and the bridge over the river.

Just beyond the bridge we made our way down onto the beach itself.

The last one mile section of the walk would be a return along the coastal path we had walked in the rain in the morning. The sun was now shining and it was quite warm, very different to earlier in the day.

We made our way up some steps at the end of the beach and were back on the coastal path once again. There were some seats overlooking the beach, ideal for an afternoon break.

After a quick cuppa we retraced our steps back towards Trevone Bay.

Twenty minutes later we exited through the gate where there is a sign showing that we were back at Trevone.

W walked along the lane for a hundred yards for a hundred yards or so and we turned left and along a track back to the car park.

There was the car park bathed in warm sunshine, a very different sight to the one we had seen when we left at 10.30 that morning.

Julie was rightly pleased with the walk, despite the early rain we had all enjoyed the day out.

The added bonus for me was that it was a section of coastline I had not walked before so it was another section of the South West Coastal path for us to tick off the list.

Thanks were given to Julie for her efforts in finding this almost circular walk and we were soon on our way back via Wadebridge and Bodmin to Plymouth again, just over an hours drive on a good day.