England Coast Path: Brean to Minehead

Somerset’s coast overlooks the Bristol Channel which until Tudor Times had the more romantic name of the Severn Sea. It certainly inspired the Romantic Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge who regularly walked alongside it from his rented cottage in Nether Stowey and is said to have composed ‘The Ancient Mariner’ after a visit to Watchet Harbour.

This four day trail takes in the diverse landscape of Somerset’s coast. Beginning at Brean Down it passes the sandy beaches of Berrow and Burnham-on-Sea, the Victorian docks of Bridgwater and the marshes of Steart Point. Once past Hinkley, the beach and cliff formations from Lilstock to Blue Anchor are classified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) offering an outstanding series of sections through our geological history. Taking in the seafaring town of Watchet on the way, the route shadows the West Somerset Steam Railway through Blue Anchor and Dunster to end in Minehead, the gateway to Exmoor, but you can top it off, literally, with a trek to the end of North Hill for an astonishing panoramic view of the next section of the England Coast Path.

Content credit: England Coast Path