South West Coast Path Association Geowalk to Loe Bar

As part of my ongoing collaborations with the South West Coast Path Association (SWCPA), I ran another Geowalk in May for their volunteers and employees.

For the benefit of those who might not have read my post from the previous walk back in September last year, here is a bit of info about the Southwest Coast Path.

It is the longest National Trail in England, stretching from Minehead in Somerset to Poole in Dorset. Along this 630-mile route you can experience an extraordinary variety of truly world-class geology.

For this walk we visited Loe Bar. The reason for this location is to fit in with some of the reasons the SW Coast Path has been in the news this year – coastal erosion. Loe Bar is a great place to see how ongoing geological processes impact the landscape at the present day. Shifting sand bars, coastal erosion, and human impacts are all part of this dynamic landscape. These all influence the wildlife and landscape we see.

A very wet and wild winter has really impacted the southwest coast, accelerating the rate of erosion in some places. This is all down to large storm swell eating away at sandy beaches and the toe of cliffs. This, combined with heavy rainfall and waterlogged ground increases the potential for landslides and rockfall. This stretch of coast is famous for witnessing where the unstoppable power of the ocean battles with the seemingly immovable Cornish coast.

Threatening showers never materialised, and we had a fab sunny morning for the walk. Following a geological intro at the meeting point at the National Trust Chyvarloe car park, we wandered down to Loe Bar. We examined the bar itself, before heading southwards and finishing off at the north side of the bar to get up close and personal with the wide range of rocks and geological features exposed in the cliffs.

The rocks here tells a story of when Cornwall was at the bottom of an ancient ocean hundreds of millions of years ago, before being buried and deformed between two colliding tectonic plates. Fast forward to the relatively recent geological record of the last hundred thousand years, and see how climate has changed the landscape as it dipped in and out of ice ages.

All of this impacts how the cliffs erode, and we had a great discussion with how the SWCPA along with other land owners like the National Trust are managing this issue with things like access along the National Trail. Patching up and rerouting existing stretches of coast path is just half the issue – planning for the future is so important to ensure that continued access to what is often voted Britain’s best walking route.

Thank you to the SWCPA for inviting me to run another Geowalk for them. I look forward to running more in the future alongside any other collaborations.

You can find out more about the SWCPA, what they do, and how to get involved yourself at their website - https://www.southwestcoastpath.org.uk/.