The Coleridge Way
- Vanda Lloyd
- Nov 23
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 24
I walked most of the Coleridge Way last year (2024) and what an experience it turned out the be!
Never having heard of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, I had heard of William Wordsworth but not Coleridge a combination of events led to discovering Coleridge and then walking the Coleridge Way.
After visiting Coleridge Cottage at Nether Stowey and walking the first part of the Coleridge Way through the village and up the hill, the journey then began.
But ----- how do you walk the Coleridge Way with limitations and challenges? That's what I and the person I walked it with were about to find out. Over three months and not every day walking the Coleridge Way turned into an experience.
The first challenge was to discover ways to walk the route in 'bite size chunks.' I guess if you have the ability and can walk it from start to finish it may possibly be easier and quicker. There are walkers and ramblers out there who can do that, but not all can and the journey was to find the way to make it doable. The route is 51 miles long and is difficult in parts, starting or finishing at Nether Stowey in Somerset and starting or finishing at Lynton in Devon.
My quote for the route is:
'If it's not up or down, it's not the Coleridge Way'
The route is well signposted with what would become to me the familiar quill/feather sign, some older than others in parts of the walk it was such a relief to see them. Occasionally they were hidden behind summer greenery and we cleared those as best we could so others could also follow the route.
The Coleridge Way is 'off the beaten track' which makes the walk quieter but more difficult to complete in 'bite size chunks', so we came up with the solution to do it in loops. Finding parking nearby the walk is difficult, most of the walk is accessible on foot but its not one of those walks where you can get out of your car and just have a stroll, oh no, its nothing like that at all. What we did was park, walk to get to the Coleridge Way and walk along it, then walk to get back to the car.
Over three months during the summer and into autumn of 2024, that's how I walked the Coleridge Way. Starting at Nether Stowey in Somerset the next time I walked was from the Quantocks, over Woodlands Hill on the Coleridge Way and down into Holford then back up onto the moorland and back to the car.
Is it easy? No it isn't.
Is it challenging? Yes it is, extremely challenging.
Is it well signposted? Yes it is.
Are the paths easy to walk on? No, mostly not, they are what I call rubble paths made of loose stone which move and become slippy.
Are there places to park nearby? Not really.
Is it worth it? Yes.
Parts of the walk that I thought would be easy turned out to be hard, I'm not sure if there is an easy section! I've walked the Watersmeet walks a few times now and before I started to walk the Coleridge Way I had never noticed the Coleridge Way sign by the National Trust team rooms there. Talk about hidden in plain sight.
There is so much to see along the Coleridge Way, it would be a shame to walk it quickly and not take time to visit places along the way, sit and 'drink in' the views. From moorland to sea, hills to valleys, hidden villages and places out of time, that's my Coleridge Way.
After I completed walking the Coleridge Way and having taken hundred's of photographs I decided to create a book which then seemed to take me the same amount of time as the walk
The Coleridge Way is 51 miles long Each person who walks the route will have a different experiences and different abilities and connect with the walk in different ways. So with limitations and challenges how do you walk the Coleridge Way? Featuring full colour photographs the world of the Coleridge Way is brought to you through the author’s feelings and experiences and descriptions of the routes taken. Not just on the Coleridge Way but other places nearby along the route.
What this book is:
This book is the author’s experience of walking the 51 mile route of the Coleridge Way Each person who walks the route will have a different experiences and different abilities and connect with the walk in different ways. So with limitations and challenges how do you walk the Coleridge Way? That’s what I was about to discover.
Featuring full colour photographs and brief facts, the world of the Coleridge Way is brought to you through the author’s feelings and experiences through words.
This more an experience than a walk, it’s not just a walk, it’s a challenge on all levels, emotional, fitness, extremes of weather, yes, even in the English summertime the weather can be challenging and change instantly. Reaching and in my case going beyond my limits. The Coleridge Way is inspiring and amazing and I feel it’s ‘on the edge of all.’
From marshland to moorland, coast and sea, rivers and woodlands, green enchanted tunnels and views stretching for miles, hidden villages and places out of time, green trees and fields, this isn’t just a walk, it’s an experience, a way of stepping between worlds, of enchantment and boundaries, edges of land and time.
What this book isn’t:
This book isn’t a walking route guide with footpath routes and distance in miles. There is other information out there either online or in books with those details.
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