The coast path in October
The best walking month of the year on this stretch of Cornwall: empty cliffs, low gold light, and a kitchen waiting for you at the end of it.
The summer walkers have gone home and the path is ours again. October is the month we tell people to come if they come to walk.
South to the headland
Turn left out of the door and the coast path picks up within two hundred yards. It is an hour and a half to the headland at an easy pace, longer if you stop — and you will stop, because the light in October comes in low and turns the whole cliff the colour of the walls back at the house.
Take water and something on your feet with grip; the last descent to the cove is steep and can be greasy after rain. We will lend you a stick from the rack by the door and, if you ask the night before, send you out with a flask and a wedge of the kitchen’s cake.
Back for the fire
The dining room opens at seven and the bar fire stays in until the last guest gives up. There is no better end to a cold clear walk than a warm plaster room, a plate of whatever the boats brought in, and a chair close to the flames. That, more than anything, is what the house is for.