The massive success of Raynor Winn’s bestselling novel, published in 2018, already inspired a boost in walkers wanting to experience the South West Coast Path. The 2025 release of the film version, starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, will undoubtedly prompt an even more serious hike (ouch) in numbers of people walking The Salt Path.
For anyone who doesn’t already know, The Salt Path is about a middle-aged couple, one of them with a debilitating illness, who, after finding themselves homeless, decide to walk the entire 630 miles (1014km) of the South West Coast Path from Minehead in Somerset to Poole in Dorset. Both novel and film should appeal to people who enjoy walking as well as fans of nature and the counties and coastlines of England’s stunning South West.
We bought the novel in 2021, shortly after returning to Britain following years of living abroad, as we were renting a house on a sheep farm in Devon which was only a short drive from the coast. As well as being a compelling read, The Salt Path painted a beguiling picture of the coastline not far our adopted home. At this point, I have to mention that experienced walkers might not react well to all of the book’s content. Despite enjoying it immensely, some of it riled me. But that’s a different story.
Walking the South West Coast Path
Not everyone has the time, inclination, nor stamina to walk the whole 630 miles. That doesn’t matter. We’ve been dipping our boots in and out of the South West Coast Path for decades. Before jumping off the corporate ladder and stepping into the unknown by moving abroad, the relaxed vibe and bucolic scenery of the South West provided an essential antidote to the stress of work and the urban confines of Greater Manchester. It was probably in campsites and on coastal paths around the likes of Polruan and St Ives that the South West first planted the seeds that, more than twenty years further down life’s line, led to us choosing to live here. Back then, having only long weekends to explore meant we could only enjoy the briefest tasters of what the South West Coastal Path had to offer.
Since moving to Devon, and then Somerset, where we live now, we’ve been able to turn those tasters into more substantial experiences.
The Salt Path and Somerset
Living not too far from the start of the South West Coast Path in Somerset has meant it’s the section we walk most often. We are addicted to exploring the trails around Porlock and Bossington which, as well as containing contrasting and quite enchanting landscapes, are full of interest and quirks.
The release of the film adaptation of The Salt Path has had me flicking through the novel’s pages again, comparing parts of the path we’ve walked since first reading the book. What’s interesting, and amusing, now that I know the landscape from first-hand experience, is charting Raynor and Winn’s first day of their epic voyage. They didn’t quite manage to cross Bossington Hill, setting up camp barely five miles after setting off. I’m not mocking them for this – they were inexperienced walkers and one of them was in bad physical shape – it just made me smile. It also shows that there’s no requirement to be super fit or veteran hikers to enjoy the path; although, enjoy is probably not the word Raynor Winn and her husband Moth would have used on the initial stages of their journey.
In reality, only a small area of Somerset coast makes up part of the South West Coast Path. Websites show thirty-five miles of the path being Somerset and Exmoor. As Somerset shares Exmoor with Devon, the border with Devon lies just to the east of Lynmouth & Lynton, only a fraction of that is Somerset.
The Salt Path and Devon
The longest stretch of the South West Coast Path we’ve walked in one sitting, so to speak, was in South Devon, between Bigbury-on-Sea and Dartmoor, when we were helping put together an itinerant walking holiday. It is an exquisite part of Britain’s coastline. I’ve yet to see the Bristol Channel look anywhere close to being inviting, yet the stretch of path between Salcombe and Prawle Point, with its turquoise water, sandy coves, and green slopes reaching to the water’s edge, reminded me of Spain’s Costa Brava.
Similarly, Hope Cove is a delight, the sort of place where it doesn’t take too much imagination to visualise smugglers offloading their illicit wares in the dead of night. Then there’s Burgh Island, the setting for Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. There are quirky ferries, the site where the Allies prepared for the D-Day landings, historic towns, a steam engine, and so on. And yet, this glorious and fascinating stretch of the South West Coast Path receives barely a passing mention in The Salt Path. Without giving anything away, there’s a reason for this. But it is one which makes the last few pages a tad disappointing.
On the upside, some locations being skimmed over means that, for readers of The Salt Path, there are still plenty of sections that will surprise and delight – a couple of years ago, a relation who lives near Barnstaple showed us around Instow and Appledore, another jewel of a location which is by-passed in the book.
The Salt Path isn’t a guide to walking the South West Coast Path, but it does make readers want to experience it for themselves, creating their own adventures whether over short or longer distances.
