(Kate) From its pebbled beaches and rugged cliffs to its seaside towns and fish and chips, I love the British coast.

Oh!

Look at that!

Beautiful, beautiful.

The birds, the flowers, and most of all, the sea.

♪ So, across this series, I'm taking a journey along some of the most beautiful walks in the world.

♪ These footpaths, gloriously uncluttered.

I'll be meeting the people who live... (man) So if they're alive, big enough so it goes into that basket.

(Kate) ...and work along them.

-Wow.

-Oh, look!

(man) Both the sunshine and the dolphins were ordered special.

(Kate) As I discover paths I've never walked before... -It is a kind of sci-fi set.

-It is.

-You don't think "England."

-No.

(Kate) ...and reveal the secrets of ones I know well.

(man) It's a dinosaur's footprint.

(Kate, chortling) No, it can't be!

-Yeah, toe here... -Oh!

You are right!

(man) ...the other toe-- the other toe there.

♪ (Kate) It is heaven.

If I didn't have so far to walk, I'd just sit out here all day.

(laughter) ♪ Today, I'm walking a wild and rugged coastline lost in the mists of time.

I feel like I really am walking in the footsteps of history coming into this gateway.

Where wild goats and longhorn cattle roam.

Oh, look at that little thing, ha-ha!

I'll explore a tiny church with a dark history.

(Naomi) This is the leper's window.

It was so that they could peer in.

(Kate) Travel in the world's highest and steepest water-powered railway... Ooh, it's quite kind of... (Tasha) You don't realize how steep it is until you're here.

(chuckles) (Kate) ...before finishing on top of the world.

It almost feels too exotic to be England, if you know what I mean.

♪ (seabirds calling) (mellow music) ♪ Isn't this pretty?

This is Porlock Weir in Somerset, and it's also where I'm starting my walk today.

I'm gonna follow the path to Lynmouth, and I'm gonna finish in the Valley of the Rocks.

Today's walk along 11 miles of wild and rugged Exmoor coast is just one small part of the 630-mile-long South West Coast Path.

From Porlock Weir, I'll ramble along to a very petite parish church before crossing from Somerset into Devon at County Gate.

The woods then clear to reveal rolling moorland at Kipscombe Farm before I'll round Foreland Point to the Iron Age fort at Countisbury.

I'll then drop down to the Coleridge Way into the Victorian seaside resort of Lynmouth, also known as Little Switzerland.

My walk ends at one of this coast's most dramatic and spectacular natural landmarks, the Valley of Rocks.

(bright music) This part of the South West Coast Path is, uh, reputed to be one of the hardest bits.

There's a lot of up-and-down, um, but also has the reputation for being one of the most beautiful stretches.

(mellow music) ♪ This path was originally used by 19th-century Coastguards, who'd walk from lighthouse to lighthouse on the lookout for smugglers, so it really hugs the shoreline and makes for some challenging walking.

♪ Huh.

Isn't this lovely?

Worthy Combe Toll Road.

I love that.

"If toll keeper absent, put money through door slot and close gate.

Thank you."

Something very English about that.

Anyway, that says no walkers, so this way.

(lively music) ♪ You don't have to venture far before finding one of the walk's first landmarks, a series of rather surprising and ornate tunnels.

Oh now.

Ho-hoo!

(voice echoes) Huh!

There's a great story behind these tunnels.

They were built by a woman called Ada Lovelace, which makes her sound like an '80s pop star, and she was a remarkable woman.

She lived here in the 19th century, and there was a big house at the top, which I think has been taken down now.

But, uh, she got a bunch of Swiss engineers to come and kind of landscape her gardens.

But she didn't want her guests to see the tradesmen coming to the house.

So she got these Swiss engineers to build these tunnels.

So I'm literally in the tradesmen's entrance.

Ada was the daughter of Lord Byron.

One of England's greatest poets, he was equally well known for his many love affairs and illegitimate children.

♪ Raised by her mother, Ada became a renowned mathematician and is recognized today as a pioneer in the world of technology.

She actually wrote one of the first-ever computer programs.

Since 2009, she's been commemorated each October with Ada Lovelace Day.

How cool is that?

When I grow up, I'd like a tunnel.

(mellow music) ♪ Up ahead is my first rendezvous, at a unique local parish church, St. Beuno's, where the Lovelace family might well have worshipped.

Naomi, what a beautiful spot.

Naomi is the editor of the local magazine and knows all about this special place.

Tell me a little bit about this church.

(Naomi) Well, it's supposed to be the smallest entire church in England.

-How amazing.

-Yeah.

The site is ancient, and there was a Saxon church here, which was probably wooden, because the Saxons built their churches of wood, and then the Normans would have built a stone church.

(Kate) What are we talking, kind of century-wise?

(Naomi) Over a thousand years old.

It's listed in Domesday in 1086.

But the parish of Culbone has got a history of being a place for outcasts.

So, in the 14th century, it was a colony for convicts, and in the 16th century, it was a leper colony.

(Kate) Wow.

(Naomi) They were really left to fend for themselves, as the convicts before them had been.

(soft music) (Kate) It's a curious-shaped spire as well, isn't it?

(Naomi) Yeah, there's quite a good legend about the spire, but it's said that it came from the top of the spire at Porlock church and that it blew off in, I think, it was a gale of about 1810.

-I don't know if it's true... -That'd be fun if it was.

(Naomi) ...and I don't even know how they would have got it here, but.

(Kate laughs) ♪ It's a sad window, this one.

-Oh!

This little one here.

-This one, yeah.

This is what people refer to as the leper's window.

So it's said that when the lepers were living in their colony in Culbone, this window was so that they could peer in and see the services going on.

I'm not sure how much you would have seen.

It is very small indeed.

And also, the glass either needs a jolly-good clean or it's a bit murky.

♪ Although just 35 feet long, the church still holds regular services, seating up to 33 worshippers, and it retains all the features you'd expect in a far bigger building.

Oh my goodness, I had no idea it was gonna be quite so elaborate in here.

(Naomi) It's quite complicated, isn't it?

(Kate) It is beautiful.

I love that arched wooden ceiling.

(Naomi) And this is where the Lovelace family would have sat on Sundays for the services.

(Kate) Oh, really?

So sort of the posh people had their own little private enclosure.

And there's our leper window.

They weren't gonna get much of a view of anything.

They were just gonna look at the posh people in their-- (Naomi) Well, that's a very good point, yeah.

(Kate) Isn't it?

(Naomi) I'm not sure how much they would have gained -from peering through.

-No!

♪ -Well, thank you, Naomi.

-My pleasure.

It's one of my favorite places.

(Kate) Yeah, I can see why.

♪ (lively music) Coming up: -So is this who we're feeding?

-Yes.

(Kate) I meet a herd of wild-looking cattle... (Josey) So these are longhorns, they're English longhorns.

(Kate) ...with a big appetite.

It's done, it's done!

I'm sorry.

My walk takes a Biblical turn...

Apparently, Joseph struck the ground with his staff, and out sprung water.

...and I discover a lighthouse at the edge of the world.

Wow.

Oh, it's spectacular.

♪ I'm walking an 11-mile stretch of Exmoor's South West Coast Path along some of England's most remote and wild coastline.

♪ And surprisingly, despite its size, this is a region of superlatives.

It has England's highest sea cliffs.

♪ And this, its longest stretch of coastal woodland.

♪ It's really surprising.

For me, I just-- I thought it was gonna be much more manicured, I suppose because the South West Coast Path is-- is a national trail, I expected it to be...well, just to to feel quite as wild as this.

It's really stunning.

♪ Continuing along the tree-lined slopes, I'll cross into Devon at County Gate before my next rendezvous at Kipscombe Farm, from where I'll round the rocky headland at Foreland Point, with its lighthouse overlooking the Bristol Channel.

♪ Over the centuries, this coastal path has inspired scores of writers.

But there's one particular novel that will always be associated with this corner of England: R.D.

Blackmore's Lorna Doone.

Published in 1869, it's a heady tale of outlaws, kidnap, and revenge, set in the Doone Valley just inland from my path.

I, though, have brought a less well-known book with me.

I'm a bit of a sucker for old guidebooks.

This is An Exploration of Exmoor.

It was written in 1890, and what it does is show that tourism is not a new phenomenon, and that it was every bit as important to this part of the country then as it is now.

So, Lorna Doone, when it was published, really captured people's imaginations, and people started flocking here.

Yes, this-- I love this bit.

There's this rather marvelous bit in here, um, where he is basically warning Lorna Doone tourists.

He says, "There are those who say that Lorna Doone should be studied before Exmoor is visited.

I say, see Exmoor first and read its romance afterwards.

Disillusion is never pleasant, and those who expect to find the Doone Valley the wild ravine painted by the glowing fancy of Blackmore will be more than disappointed."

(laughs) It's not really selling the place, which is kind of odd, I think.

Because I'm not disappointed.

Maybe he was just having a bad day.

(mellow music) ♪ From here, the path turns back down towards the shore and into the trees.

Almost feels like a secret valley.

With all these beautiful twisted trees, it's like sculpture garden.

There's oak, beech, and rare whitebeam trees, some species of which are found nowhere else in England.

♪ Oh!

This has to be the Sister's Fountain.

There's the most fantastic story about this, but apparently, Jesus, when he was a youth, happened to be wandering past here one day with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, and Joseph struck the ground with his staff and out sprung water.

(soft rustling) It's either going to make me eternally youthful or give me a really bad upset stomach.

♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Beneath me, where stormy seas meet the steeply eroded sandstone slopes, the shoreline is littered with dramatic rock formations.

♪ Like this one, known as the Giant's Rib.

According to local legend, it was formed during a Herculean wrestling match when the loser was tossed from the cliffs above.

♪ Two miles further along, the wind gets up as I emerge from the trees on to my next rendezvous: the 880-acre Kipscombe Farm, now looked after by the National Trust.

Woo!

Ha-ha!

-Hey!

Are you Josey?

-Hi!

Yes, I am.

(Kate) Lovely to see you.

Thank you so much for agreeing to show me around.

-Where are we gonna start?

-So, we're gonna start off by going to see the cattle down this way.

(Kate) Okay, fantastic.

(mellow music) After decades as a commercial farm, Josey and her team are hoping to dramatically improve what Kipscombe offers wildlife by using low-intensity farming methods and an ancient breed of cattle.

(Josey) So, this is part of the Watersmeet herd.

They're beautiful, aren't they?

(Kate) They are beautiful.

-They're longhorns, aren't they?

-They're English longhorns, and they're part of our rotational grazing system.

(Kate) So does that mean that you basically kind of -move them around?

-Yeah.

The idea is that the only stay here for a day or two days, and then they move on.

So, they eat a third, they trample a third, and they leave a third of the grass, so you never end up with, like, bowling green.

There's always a bit of grass left.

And that's good for the health of the land.

It means that birds and, you know, small mammals have somewhere to nest and to live.

It's good for the soil, and, you know, it's good for the cattle, 'cause they're getting the best bits of the grass as well.

(Kate) These English longhorns date back to the 18th century, when they were bred to thrive on poor-quality grassland.

The breed quickly fell out of fashion and by 1980 had all but disappeared.

But they've recently made a comeback as more farmers have returned to grazing the land, and their hardy quality makes them ideal for life on the moor.

Oh, look at that little thing, ha-ha!

So, is this who we're feeding?

(Josey) Yes.

This is Barney.

(Kate) So why are you having to bottle-feed him?

(Josey) Rather sadly, we lost his mother when he was born.

-Okay.

-Everyone was pretty much heartbroken, but we ended up with Barney here... -Look at you!

-...who is absolutely gorgeous.

-He is!

-He's rather sweet.

And I think if you show him that bottle... (Kate) Look what I've got here, Barney!

Would you like some of this?

He says, "I'm not sure who you are."

(Josey) If you offer it up to him, he might-- (Kate) Here we are.

Look, what's this?

Come on, then, little one.

Oh yeah!

Ohhh, yeah.

There you go, there you go!

Is that nice?

He's very handsome, isn't he?

(Josey) Yeah, we're really pleased to have him.

He's a lovely looking bull calf.

-He really is.

-And as you can see, he feeds really well.

(Kate) Is that nice?

They are such lovely cattle, longhorns, aren't they?

(Josey) They're amazingly charismatic.

They almost look archaic or prehistoric or something.

(Kate) They do--I mean, they do!

They look like a kind of, you know, the original breed before they were domesticated, don't they?

They look almost like wild cattle.

Why are they so good for this land?

(Josey) They're super-hardy animals.

We're running what people call a low-input system, which means that we want to keep them outdoors all year 'round.

And one day, it can be blistering sun, and the next day, foggy and raining and minus-two degrees and snowing all at once.

So we need animals that are gonna stand up to that, and they're just so laid back, they're brilliant.

(Kate) I think, Barney, you've almost drained that dry.

(Josey) Yeah, I think that'll do him.

He just sucks air otherwise.

(Kate, laughing) It's done, it's done!

I'm sorry, I know I'm very mean, but that's it.

Yes!

You are adorable.

(lively music) ♪ The next leg of my walk takes me around the rocky headland at Foreland Point... Woo-hoo!

...the most northerly point along this Devon and Exmoor coast.

♪ Here, the lighthouse has guided ships along the Bristol Channel since 1900, and I'm told it was quite an unpopular posting with lighthouse keepers due to its extreme position on this steep, north-facing slope, which means it only sees sun for three months of the year.

♪ Until 1975, the light was turned by clockwork, but since 1994, it's been fully automated, with a beam that reaches nearly 21 miles out to sea.

♪ (mellow music) ♪ Continuing along this wild coastline, it feels as if nothing has changed here for thousands of years.

So it's hard to imagine that it was once at the heart of a thriving civilization, and this hilltop in front of me wasn't created by nature but by Iron Age man.

Local conservationist Rob knows all about it.

There is something about this landscape, Rob, that is...I don't know what to call it.

I'd say it's sort of bewitching.

I think you know, with all this mist rolling about and the coast kind of right there, and then, this weird kind of formation in front of us here.

So what's going on?

(Rob) What you see is a sort of an artificial mountain-like structure, really.

It's a great bank and ditch that was thrown up just over 2,000 years ago, at the end of the Iron Age.

It was certainly constructed by somebody who had total control over this area.

What you see today is just a bank, but probably within that originally, there would have been some sort of timber or stone structure to make it stay where they put it.

(Kate) And why would they want total control of this area?

(Rob) What you've got on the Exmoor coast is a really challenging bit of topography.

You've got this very dramatic rocky coastline.

It's very difficult to get boats in shore, and the one place you can do it is at Lynmouth, and this Iron Age fort dominates that coastal inlet.

So, to get to Lynmouth, you have to go through this fort, effectively.

So whoever controls the fort controls the natural harbor.

And one of the reasons for putting it here is that you control the sea trade, but you also have control, then, of the natural resources of Exmoor.

-Yeah.

-And at that period, Exmoor is known for its iron.

(Kate) So this whole area would have almost been the kind of center of the Iron Age universe, -in a way.

-To this part of the world... -Yeah.

-...yeah, absolutely.

(lively music) (Kate) Coming up: I enter the ancient fort...

I feel like I really am walking in the footsteps of history, coming into this gateway.

...discover a prehistoric-looking tree... Oh my goodness!

I thought it had some weird fungi growing on it or something.

...and I meet someone whose life was saved by walking this path.

(Raynor) To know that tomorrow, I'm going to get up and I'm going to follow that map, it gave us a sense of purpose.

♪ (Kate) I'm over halfway along my 11-mile Exmoor coastal walk, where I'll end up at one of the most dramatic of landscapes: the Valley of Rocks.

♪ So far, I've followed the South West Coast Path through rare woodlands... ♪ ...and across rugged, wild moorland... ♪ ...to the remains of an Iron Age fort that was at the center of this area's trade, including with Brittany, more than 2,000 years ago, when the South West was under the control of a tribe called the Dumnonii.

Sounds fanciful, perhaps, but I feel like I really am walking in the footsteps of history coming into this gateway.

(Rob) You are literally walking through the gateway of an Iron Age fort, as they would have done two and a half thousand years ago.

The Iron Age in this country was very tribal, -so a very warlike time.

-Okay.

(Rob) If you throw into that mix the presence of iron and the discovery of iron, which itself was a sort of magical thing at the time, because to produce iron from rock was just-- -Well, it's alchemy, isn't it?

-It was alchemy, yes, -it was complete magic.

-It's magic.

(Rob) And if you're one of the people who had control of that secret, that gave you a status.

But it's an incredibly elaborate process.

You add charcoal, you heat the rock to sort of 1200, 1500 degrees, and it eventually melts.

And then, you have a very, very small amount of pure iron comes from that, which needs further purifying to make an object from it.

(Kate) And you're talking 2,000 years ago.

(Rob) Two and a half thousand years ago, yes.

You wouldn't just walk along, pick up a rock, and think, "I'll burn that and it'll turn into something."

(Rob) But you would with something like lead, because lead melts very easily.

-Yeah.

-It'll melt in a bonfire.

So you can see how people got to that stage of thinking that other strange-colored stones could--could be heated.

-Yeah.

-And what we do find on Exmoor is a lot of this material, which is the waste material from iron smelting.

So this is iron slag.

People think it's lava.

You can see it's been molten at some point in the past, and what they were really after was the iron itself, which they would have taken away and made into, possibly, farming implements, you know, weapons.

So, iron is just fundamental to the way of life at that time.

It's the thing that enables them to do things that they couldn't do previously.

(mellow music) (Kate) Living in an Iron Age fort on this exposed piece of coastline must have been tough.

♪ But, boy, did they have good views.

-(Rob exhales heavily) -Oh, it's spectacular.

Wow!

(Kate chuckles delightedly) (upbeat music) So that's Lynton, so, yeah, you can absolutely see, can't you, why it was such a significant site to be in control of.

And that would have been where the boats came in.

(Rob) Yes.

It's very inhospitable.

And these huge sea cliffs, which are sort of 800, 900 feet, 300 meters.

♪ (Kate) That is glorious.

♪ From this stunning viewpoint, I'll drop down to the valley below and follow the picturesque Coleridge Way into the Victorian seaside resort of Lynmouth, once known as Little Switzerland.

♪ So I found out a rather lovely fact, that all the walking signs on Exmoor are handmade from wood grown here in the national park.

Isn't that lovely?

And this is the one I'm taking to Watersmeet.

(mellow music) ♪ The area beneath me is home to yet another ancient woodland, where the East Lyn River cascades through the gorge.

♪ Oh my goodness.

This tree is full of coins.

I thought it had some weird fungi growing on it or something.

In fact, it's a wishing tree and dates back to an 18th-century tradition of hammering coins into a tree trunk to conjure up tree spirits to cure illness and bring good luck.

Huh!

Love little things like that.

♪ At the foot of the valley, my path crosses the fast-flowing East Lyn River, and my 19th-century guidebook has a lot to say about this rather special spot.

(water rushing) "To describe in detail the beauties of this, perhaps the loveliest valley, or shall we say ravine..." I think you should, it is very ravine-like.

"...in the west of England requires a more eloquent pen than mine... On either side of the rock-fretted river, the precipitous hills rise against the sky.

In one spot, where the river is shut in by rugged cliffs..." Maybe I'm on that spot!

"...the dashing of the water increases to a roar.

It is the voice of the cascade tumbling over the rocks into a long pool."

Isn't that lovely?

So I've taken a little deviation from the South West Coast Path, and actually, the path I've been walking on is called the Coleridge Way.

And Coleridge and many of the Romantic poets spent time down here.

They basically just went to very beautiful parts of England, which is why they were such good poets.

I mean, you know, of course this is going to inspire you.

There is actually, joking apart, so much science that tells us that we really respond to green places like this.

The creative part of your brain is kind of triggered by nature.

And that's what the Romantics really advocated: a place of peace where you could contemplate and, well, write beautiful poetry that people are still reading and enjoying 200 years later.

♪ On my final stretch into Lynmouth, I'm meeting Raynor Winn, whose bestselling book, The Salt Path, is all about walking the entire 630-mile-long South West Coast Path.

-Hello.

-Hi!

(Kate) I kind of feel like I'm almost trespassing on your land.

(Raynor) Just about, yes.

(laughter) (Kate) Raynor and her husband set off after losing their home and all their money in the same week that he was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

When you sort of stood in Minehead at the beginning of the South West Coast Path, how did it feel standing there at that moment, knowing that you had nothing?

(Raynor) The main feeling was probably terrified.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

Because when we realized there was 630 miles ahead of us, you know, the equivalent of climbing Everest nearly four times, we felt foolish, really, above all else.

(Kate) So what kept you going?

Because some of the stories you tell, you know, about bad weather, about being incredibly cold, about being so hungry because you had no money, you were living on air, practically.

(Raynor) To start with, it was because there was nothing else.

We had nothing to go back to.

But as we spent more time on that path, it became the path itself.

'Cause there's just something so beautiful about that strip of wilderness, where you've just got that ordinary, everyday on one side and the endless horizon of the sea on the other.

It just draws you on, it just draws you forward.

You've got to keep following it.

It started to feel after a while as if that was home, the right place for us to be at that time.

I've never met Moth, your husband, but when you started this walk, he had been given this horrifying diagnosis... -Yes.

-...that life was just going to get more and more difficult... -Yeah.

-...and his body was going -to start to fail.

-Yes.

(Kate) And yet, the opposite seemed to happen.

(Raynor) It did.

The first diagnosis, he was told that there was nothing that could be done, no cure, and basically, just don't get too tired and be careful on the stairs.

Um, but as we walked, very gradually, over what became hundreds of miles, we started to realize that actually, he was walking a little more easily.

That he was feeling clearer in his head, that, um, that he wasn't finding just ordinary, everyday tasks quite so difficult.

Until the moment with the tent.

The tide came in at three in the morning, it was about a meter from the tent, and we had to pick the whole thing up, fully erect, as we run up the beach.

(Kate) In his pants that he's been wearing for five days straight, I think you said.

(Raynor) Yes.

And it was at that moment that we realized that actually, you know, he was-- he had improved in ways that we'd been told were impossible.

(Kate) But what was extraordinary, I think, was then when you stopped with the onset of winter, his health really started to go downhill again.

(Raynor) Yes, very quickly, and we weren't expecting that.

We knew that his health had improved as we walked... -Yeah.

-...and we thought maybe that would hold at that point.

-Yeah.

-But as we stopped walking, as our lifestyle became more normal again, his movements became really stiff, his--his thoughts and his memory were becoming blurred.

All the small, dexterous movements slowed down and became really difficult.

We just knew we had to move again.

We just knew it was the only-- the only thing that we had discovered that gave him some sort of way forwards.

And he's still in far better health than the doctors projected that he would be, so... (Kate) That's the most wonderful news.

(bright music) ♪ Up ahead is the popular resort of Lynmouth, and above it, Lynton.

At the turn of the 19th century, the Romantic poets looked at this plunging, tree-lined gorge and called it Little Switzerland.

♪ The name stuck and led to a fashion of building Swiss-style chalets.

♪ To this day, not only is Lynmouth a popular tourist destination where three walking trails meet, but it's also where the mighty East and West Lyn rivers converge, and where one of the greatest local natural disasters occurred almost 70 years ago.

(water rushing) (dramatic music) On August the 15th, 1952, nine inches of rain fell over Exmoor in 24 hours.

Boulders and trees were washed downstream, where they dammed the river.

♪ When it broke, floodwaters tore through the village, destroying a quarter of the buildings and killing 34 people.

♪ After the flood, much of the village needed rebuilding, including the harbor walls and sea defenses, while the river itself was widened and deepened, in case of future flooding.

♪ (mellow music) My next rendezvous, one of the few places that survived unscathed, still runs on water power drawn from the West Lyn River.

♪ Hello.

You must be Ashley.

-I am.

Hello.

-Lovely to meet you.

-How are you?

-I'm great.

(Kate) Good, good.

Look at this thing!

Isn't it a thing of beauty?

(Ashley) Amazing, isn't it?

(lively music) (Kate) Coming up: The earth falls away from beneath me.

Ooh, it's quite kind of... (laughter) And I join the wild goats on some of the most dramatic clifftops at the end of my walk.

It almost feels too exotic to be England, if you know what I mean.

♪ ♪ I'm reaching the end of my wild and rugged Exmoor coastal walk in the historic tourist resort of Lynmouth, home to this Victorian cliff railway, which opened in 1890 and links the seaside resort to its sister town, Lynton, at the top of the gorge.

Oh, it really is amazing.

Chief engineer Ashley started as an apprentice here 40 years ago.

I have no idea how it works.

-How does it work?

-Works on water power.

-Works on water power?

-Counterbalance, yeah.

-Right... -So, the heavy car coming down, which is full of water, that pulls the lighter car to the top, which has got less water in it.

(Kate) Gosh, it is such a simple idea.

(Ashley) Totally water-powered.

This isn't the oldest one, but it is the longest and the steepest fully water-powered one left.

(Kate) So it is a bit of pioneering engineering.

(Ashley) Absolutely.

It works exactly the same today as it did 130 years ago.

-There's not many things... -No.

-...that you can say that about.

-No.

(Kate) And, I mean, how did they go about building it?

Was it all sort of done by hand?

(Ashley) All done by hand, yeah.

You can see there's a difference in the width up at the middle.

That was to reduce the amount of work it took to dig it out.

So they don't have to pass each other at any place but in the middle... -Ah, okay.

-...so they decided they would put a tiny little kink in the middle to save digging out the track the full width, top to bottom.

(Kate, laughing) Very sensible, I would say.

As enterprising as this was back in 1890, not everyone was a fan... including the author of my guidebook, published in the same year.

He wrote, "It must be admitted that these modern conveniences, however much they add to the comfort of the visitor, certainly detract from the romance if not the appearance of the place he is visiting.

We ourselves prefer taking the road."

Well, I'm going to try it out, and Ashley's daughter Tasha... (gate locks with a clunk) ...will be my driver.

So, what's that do?

(bell clangs twice) (Tasha) Signaling the driver at the top to say that we're ready, and then I get the signal back... (single clang) ...and then we take off the main brake... (lively music) (water rushing) (Kate) And there we go!

It's amazing, it's like... -It sort of glides, doesn't it?

-Yeah, it's quite smooth... -Yeah!

-...once you get going.

♪ (Kate laughs) ♪ Ooh, it's quite kind of... (laughter) When you look at this going down here, it really is steep, isn't it?

(Tasha) Yeah, you don't realize how steep it is until... -Until you see it.

-...you're here.

♪ (Kate) Oh, so there goes the other one.

-Yep.

We're halfway up.

-So it's the counterbalance, it's that one is basically going down the hill -that's pulling us up.

-Yeah.

(Kate) It's so clever.

Do you ever get bored of this view, Tasha?

(Tasha) Nope, no!

Not many people get this view at work.

(Kate) Oh, it's amazing!

♪ -Okay!

-That was amazing.

So amazing that 400,000 people travel on this every year, making it the second-biggest attraction in the South West, after the Eden Project.

-Tasha, thank you very much.

-My pleasure.

I'll let you fill up with water so the other chap can come back up top.

(water rushing) (bright music) ♪ I've got one final stretch of path before I reach the end of my walk: out through Lynton, overlooking Lynmouth, and on to the spectacular Valley of Rocks.

♪ It's thought this dramatic, U-shaped gorge was formed 125,000 years ago when everywhere was under ice, causing the East Lyn River to divert from Lynmouth down here.

Then, as the ice retreated, the river returned to its natural course, leaving this dry valley behind.

(exuberant music) ♪ Here, my walk ends in the shadow of some unique rock formations with equally unique names, like the White Lady, the Devil's Cheese Ring, and this dramatic cliff face known as Rugged Jack.

♪ It almost feels too exotic to be England, if you know what I mean.

It really does feel like a finale to what's been a really wonderful walk.

It might only have been 11 miles long, but what an 11 miles they were.

When I set off from Porlock Weir, you know, I had an idea of what this coastline was like.

This is not an undiscovered part of England's coastline, and yet, it still has this very wild, almost untouched feel.

I think what this walk has reiterated is just how invigorating it is to be in landscapes like this.

♪ I am being buffeted by sea breezes and there's saltwater on my skin.

There's the smell of-- of just freshness and wildness, and nothing makes you feel better.

♪ Next time: (woman) The whole village was involved in it.

(Kate) I'm following in the footsteps of smugglers... (woman) Fishermen's wives, under their dresses, they would have pigs' bladders full of gin.

(Kate) ...and dinosaurs...

This had two-meter-long legs.

(man) Yeah, which is taller than both of us.

(Kate) Wow!

...as I brave the North Sea in Yorkshire.

-Whoa!

-Ohh!

(Kate) It is wonderful!

(lively music) ♪ (bright music)