Length: 11.9 miles/19.1 km with 502/484m ascent/descent (allow 5-6 hours walking time; add time for lunch stop).
Toughness: 6/10
Start: Meet at the clocktower on the seafront at 10am.
Walk Notes: this is a gently undulating walk starting along the river Lim in town, then onto the Wessex Ridgeway and through the woods of Hole Common. Some parts may be boggy depending on recent rainfall. After this you cross the A35. TAKE CARE as fast traffic both ways. If you walk to your left along this road for roughly 100m, there may be a safer place to cross using the central reservation. Continue on through Wyld Warren, another wood, and finally along Evil Lane into Axminster. Plenty of shops, cafes pubs in Axminster (if you have time to linger) otherwise purchase supplies for the train.
Walk note: There is a ‘secret doorway’ in the fence of Higher Wyld Farm which you go through to continue the route.
Lunch: Buy something to eat and drink before setting off as no pubs or shops on this route until you get to Axminster. The Old Inn at Hawkchurch is closed on Mondays.
Bus timetable for 2026 can
be found: here
GPX and map can be found here: https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/lyme-regis-to-axminster-via-hawkchurch/
T=swc.454
4 comments:
Anyone with luggage left in Lyme, may consider taking the bus out to Axminster in the morning and walking the route in reverse.
9.19 bus to Axminster for anyone interested in walking the route in reverse to then pick up their luggage in Lyme after the walk...
3 started this route 'the wrong way round' by taking the bus up to Axminster (which arrived 10 minutes late) and walking back down to Lyme. We economised (ie straightened) the route through Axminster and by Piecehay Farm, which together cut about 5 minutes of walking, carefully negotiated the quickmud section north of Highgate, before bumping into the 6 who had started at 10 from Lyme . After exchanging stories about the mud and the couple of very brambley stretches on either half section, all n=9 walked on in their respective directions.
We picnicked on a bench at a country lane junction by Monkton Wyld, then pre-empted the assumed brambley stretch by walking along a parallel footpath through a wood.
The day had been mostly w=grey-and-cool with just very short blue sky ruptures, and after the very pleasant - if slightly overgrown path-afflicted - Hole Common, arrived in Lyme at 15.00.
Where the next bus to Axminster was the 15.38, which arrived 25 minutes late, was single decker on an otherwise double decker route, had an inexperienced or out of his depth driver, a couple with two dogs, another couple with two dogs, one of which in a pram that blocked the aisle, and hordes of school children getting on at various stops in Lyme. Very overcrowded for a countryside bus, losing another 25 minutes to schedule (on the 22 minute journey) and enabling us to just about comfortably getting the 17.07 train when we should have been in with a shout to catch the 16.06! Most farcical, this.
All but 1 of the 6 others were at the station as well.
Just to add to Thomas' post.
#6 of us left Lyme promptly at 10am. We had a very pleasant stroll until we got to Hole Common when we had to hack our way through brambles and nettles. Rest of the walk was fine, under a cooler grey sky. Excitement was had in navigating through a field of cows, then lunch sitting on tree roots before finally strolling down Evil Lane into Axminster. Had a quick cup of tea, then were re-united with 4 of the reverse walkers at the station and a smooth journey home.
The weekend was a Scorcher, but there were plenty of swimming opportunities for any SWC water babies who wanted to take the plunge. Also quite a few wooded areas to lessen the heat and some breezy walks on the clifftops. The best swimming was on Saturday where the sea in Seaton, Beer, and Branscombe was the calmest I have ever seen. One alarming issue was the path which had caved in on the clifftops before Charmouth, which had been cordoned off by the National Trust who also created a new path through a wooded section. We could see a section of the path we had walked last year tumbled down below us!
A great weekend in great company. Thanks to everyone who made it so.
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