Hartland Point
by Ken Trethewey
It was the late Bank Holiday Monday and I decided to take advantage of the predicted fine summer's day and visit Hartland Point, a lighthouse I have not visited for many years. While in the area, I thought it would also be a good idea to view the leading lights at Instow.
The drive to the north coast of Devon was uneventful and the road to Hartland Point is quite easy to find. From the A39 that runs along the north coast, you simply look for signs to the village of Hartland and from there the lighthouse is signposted as a mere four miles down narrow lanes. When we arrived at the cliff tops we found a farmer waiting to collect a one pound parking fee from us. We didn't mind this at all, as the farmers are doing so badly in their businesses at present - they need all the income they can get. What I did mind, however, was to find that the lighthouse was closed. Trinity House has an extremely poor attitude to allowing British citizens to view their heritage.
Hartland Point lighthouse is situated on the seaward point of a sharp and dramatic spit of land, but the site of the lighthouse cannot be seen from the approach road at the top of the cliffs. As with many other cliffs of this type, there is a gradual but serious erosion of the cliffs over years and the original approach road to the lighthouse has now reached the edge - indeed, parts of the road have already vanished for ever. What would Harold Taylor say? Harold is a friend of mine who once served as a keeper here during the early years of his service. He describes in his autobiography how he used to come to the top of the hill from the lighthouse to work in the lighthouse gardens and to attend to the goats that were kept on site. Today, the gardens can be identified by the wall that surrounds them, and a large concreted area in the centre used to act as a catchment device for fresh water.
The present approach is now across a good-sized car park to the original Trinity House wrought iron gates that were on this occasion (and many others too, I would guess) distinctly locked shut. Were the gates open, the visitor would follow a narrow road cut into the cliffs, that leads down to the lighthouse, but because of the large promontory of land in front of you, there is no sight of the lighthouse until you get to the very bottom.
To view the lighthouse, there are two options. The best is to take the coastal footpath that leads off left, in a westerly direction. By staying on the footpath, there are some magnificent views of the lighthouse from the clifftops. There is very little to choose from in terms of camera angles, so almost all the photographs you see of this lighthouse are taken from the same angle.
The second option is to take the coastal path to the east, walking right from the car park as you face the sea. On top of the hill in the distance you will not fail to notice the radar dome and it is towards this that you walk. Unfortunately, even on this path, you cannot see the lighthouse, unless you go to the very edge of the cliffs on the top of the hill. This should be done with extreme caution, not only because of the dangerous state of the cliffs, but because on my visit there were many large excavations by badgers - many partly covered by long vegetation - that you might easily fall into and break a limb. The view of the lighthouse from this angle is partial, and poor compared to the view from the west.
So having explored all the options for good photographs - which were few today - my wife and I set off for Instow.
Copyright 2002 Ken Trethewey; all rights reserved.
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Posted August 12, 2005. Site copyright 2005 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.