Churchtown, Killington, River Heddon, Bodley and Parracombe

Just below the church is Fairview, a private house built alongside the track bed of the old narrow gauge Lynton and Barnstaple Railway. In its garden, scale models of Lynton and Barnstable Railway locomotives and rolling stock run on a section of track that reproduces some of the original features of the line.

The route descends an old track between high banks. This soon narrows to a path running through woodlands and widening around a farmstead to Heddon House, which you approach along a fine avenue.

After a short walk along the road, the route turns off again through fields and along a low embankment that once carried the Lynton and Barnstable Railway. This beautiful line opened in 1898, but proved to be commercially unsuccessful, and was closed in 1935.

The next section of the walk follows a quiet and very attractive country lane. At first there are wide views out over the rough moorland, but as the road goes downhill, it is increasingly closed in by banks and hedges. It enters a wood and is joined by little stream alongside it.

Near the foot of the hill is a ford and a footbridge, and the valley begins to open out as the stream runs through meadows bordered by reeds and brightened by marsh ragwort. Beyond it, an oak woodland rises up the west flank of the Heddon Valley.

You turn south up this valley of the River Heddon, along a broad track that ends at the old mill and mill cottages, now converted into holiday homes. The walk continues along the footpath that passes above the houses beneath you. The remains of the old mill pond are still visible.

This track, climbing steeply up the hill, was once the main route between the mill and Parracombe. There are faint traces of a cobbled surface, and it is bordered by a stone wall topped by mature trees. It emerges on a grassy hill with fine views, and is crossed by an old greenway, a splendid example of roads before the invention of tarmac. The path ends at the attractive hamlet of Bodley. At the end of a short footpath, you come down to Parracombe, whose main street winds up through a narrow valley.

The final section climbs back up to Churchtown, passing a Victorian church, which was built in 1870 to replace and incidentally preserve St Petrock's. From the new church, there is a fine view south towards the Norman motte and bailey of Holwell Castle.