Contact Details

holiday@torbay.gov.uk
Tel: 01803 211 211

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Berry Head

Berry Head

2 miles (3 km) - Circular route - Grades 1 to 2 - roadway, coastal footpath & common
Partially accessible to wheelchairs.

O.S. Map Explorer O.L.20 - South Devon

Starting Point: Berry Head Information Centre

A walk around the Country Park and Nature Reserve of Berry Head provides a wonderful range of experiences, from the magical flora and fauna and bird life to the heritage of over two thousand years of human activity. Add to this, unrivalled views over the sea and Torbay and you can be assured of a very fulfilling visit.

Take the lane from the Centre that leads down towards the Berry Head Road. Strangely there is an anomaly amongst the foliage and wild flowers, beyond the wire fence to the left of the lane. Here was once a giant underground fuel dump, built during World War II to help provide for the needs of the military.

Having passed the renovated buildings of Berry Head farm turn up onto the Coastal Footpath and begin a gentle climb back towards Berry Head. Initially, to the left you will see glimpses of the Berry Head Hotel, built originally as a military hospital during Napoleonic times.

Where the path opens up to provide a view over the sea, you will find the site of Napoleonic, 'Hardy's Battery, with the granite gun positions still in place. These guns and the ones up on the Head were placed here to protect the fleet when it was at anchor in the bay.

Continuing on past a profusion of gorse, known as 'furze' in Devon, and soon the great headland itself and its excavated quarry face come into sight. Devonian limestone has been quarried from here for centuries, for building stone and for the production of lime. Quarrying ceased just before Berry Head was designated a Country Park in 1969.

The ramparts of the Napoleonic North Fort were built to protect the guns on the end of the promontory. The route takes you into the fort where you will see the guardhouse, now a café, and the magazine, later used as a lookout by the coastguard. Notice beside the magazine a perfect example of a very unusual sentry box. Many years earlier the Romans manned a signal station on this same headland. The lighthouse on Berry Head is unique in that it is the smallest, deepest and highest of all lighthouses in Britain. Can you work that out?

From the southern side of the promontory it is possible to see the cliff nesting sites of guillemots beneath the walls of the Southern fort and a C.C.T.V. screen situated in the Information Centre will allow you intimate access to a nest and the occupants' activities.