A delightful hour walk starting and finishing at Colyton Tramway Station. This route takes you through quiet lanes to water meadows alongside the River Axe with the chance to see a range of water birds up close including swans, mallard ducks, little egrets and moorhens.
This is a low lying walk so please take care if flood warnings are in operation.
The Tramway
Running along part of the Seaton Branch Line which closed in 1966, the Seaton Tramway is an electric tramway running between Seaton on the Jurassic coast and the market town of Colyton. It was set up in 1970 by Claude Lane, owner of the Lancaster Electrical Company which was based in Barnet in London and built battery electric vehicles such as milk floats.
Today the tramway offers a wonderful opportunity to view the countryside and wildlife along the Axe Estuary and the Seaton Wetlands Local Nature Reserve.
Colyton, now a market town with a range of shops and places to eat, was reputedly one of the first Saxon settlements established in Devon. It is known as ‘the most rebellious town in Devon’ due to the 105 local men and boys who supported the Duke of Monmouth in the Monmouth Rebellion, a plan to overthrow the King James II in 1685.
This walk is circular walk 11 as part of our East Devon Way Circular Walk series.
Additional Information
Directions
1. Walk down the entrance road and turn left at the T-junction
passing between the columns of an old railway bridge (now dismantled)
2. At the T-junction turn left into Cownhayne Lane
and follow it for approx 0.6 miles/1km passing under the tramway and continuing to Higher Cownhayne Farm
3. Turn left at the farm onto a footpath
along a track that forms part of the East Devon Way and follow it to the fields.
4. Go through the kissing gate
and follow the hedge on your left until you come to a metal pedestrian gate on your left.
5. Go through the gate
turn right and follow the hedge on your right through the first field and through a gap into the second field. Continue alongside the hedge on your right to a stile on your right.
6. Climb over the stile
and head diagonally left across the field towards a post. Cross a culvert and bear left to a field gate.
7. Go through the gate and bear diagonally left to follow the river on your right
on your right for a short distance before bearing diagonally left to the top left corner of the field.
8. Go through the 2 in 1 gate
and continue parallel with the fence and hedge on your right to another gate.
9. Go through the 2 in 1 gate into the next field
and continue parallel with the hedge on your right to the next 2 in 1 gate. Go through and over a culvert and bear slightly left to follow the footpath across the centre of the field to a metal pedestrian gate.
10. Go through the gate and turn left
leaving the East Devon Way and following the track through Nunford Dairy and up over Kingston Hill.
11. Turn left along the entrance road to the Tramway Station to return to the start.
This route was originally developed by James Baldwin and checked by Ted Swan. It was reviewed and updated in 2025.