Hawker's hut, Morwenstow, where Reverend Hawker would smoke opium and write poetry | © National Trust

Cornwall

Hawker's Hut walk

This gentle clifftop walk encompasses breath-taking views of North Cornwall's coast. You'll come across a beautiful church, believed to date back to Saxon times, and of course, Hawker's Hut, the refuge of poet Reverend Robert Hawker. On a clear day, Lundy Island can be seen, and there's also a great deal of interesting local wildlife.

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Total steps: 10

Start point

Rectory Farm tea-room, grid ref: SS205153

Step 1

Start in the National Trust car park next to the Rectory Farm tea-room (tenant-run).

Step 2

Follow a track at the far end of the car park, past the church to a gate, following signs for the coast path.

Step 3

Go through the gate into a field and keep following the path along the top of the field.

Step 4

You should pass through two gateways until you reach a third gate at the cliff edge.

Step 5

Turn left through the gate and follow the coast path signs to Stanbury.

Step 6

Follow the path along the cliff edge; you'll see signs for Hawker's Hut. Go and have a look if you like, it's only a short detour from the route.

Parson Hawker

The eccentric Reverend Stephen Hawker was the incumbent of Morwenstow from 1835 until 1874. During this time he tended to the needs of his parishioners, looked after shipwrecked sailors, beautified his church, built the rectory and wrote many books and poems. The best known of his written work is Song of the Western Men: 'And shall Trelawny die? Heres twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why!' Hawker also invented the harvest festival. He habitually wore a fisherman's jersey and sea boots, and spent many hours in his hut on the cliff, made from driftwood dragged from the rocks below.

Step 7

Go through the kissing gate at the end of the field and take a sharp left.

Step 8

Follow the path along the hedgerow and through another kissing gate until your reach another gate at the end of the field.

Step 9

Go through the gate onto a wide track and follow the track. Before you reach the barn, you'll see a stile on your left signed 'Rectory Farm tea-rooms'.

Rectory Farm

This ancient farm was owned by monks from 1290 until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1537. The monastic house took the great tithes for itself, while allocating the small tithes to the resident vicar. That explains the unusual appearance of the vicarage and rectory appearing side by side on the map. The house now looks vaguely Elizabethan but when we re-roofed it in 1983, it became clear that it was much older. It may have been built by the Bridgwater monks soon after they acquired it.

Step 10

Cross the stile and walk across a field until you reach another stile. Cross this and keep going down the track until you reach Rectory Farm tea-room.

The vicarage

Reverend Hawker's vicarage is now in private hands and can't be visited. It was built in 1837, in a location where all Hawker desired to behold was, 'Church and the Sea, the suggestions of both which are boundless'. The gothic-style house is notable for its clearly visible chimneys based on the towers of churches in which Hawker had served. Over the front door he composed the lines 'A House, a Glebe, a Pound a Day, A pleasant Place to watch and pray: Be true to Church; Be kind to the poor, O Minister for evermore.'

End point

Rectory Farm tea-room, grid ref: SS205153

Trail map

Map route for Bude to Morwenstow Hawker's Hut walk | © Crown copyright and database rights 2013 Ordnance Survey

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near Bude, Cornwall

01208863046

morwenstow@nationaltrust.org.uk

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Hawker's Hut walk

Total steps: 10