Summerleaze beach - circular walks

Summerleaze beach

The beach at Summerleaze, Cornwall

Summerleaze is Bude's town beach and where the canal and river Neet meet the sea, so swimming anywhere near the canal sea lock should be avoided due to strong currents. The beach is sandy at high tide and there is a beach at all states of the tide. At the tide goes out, the beach merges with Crooklets and seawater is retained in the sea pool for swimmers. There are some ridges of rock between Summerleaze and Crooklets interspersed with areas of sand.

Sometimes winter storms strip the sand from the beach and the remains of an iron tramway is exposed which was used to transport beach sand. This was originally built in the 1820s as a horse-drawn "plateway" (consisting of L-shaped metal plates rather than rails) and then replaced in the 1920s with more modern narrow-gauge rails but still horse-powered. The rails on the beach are thought to date from 1924.

Circular walks visiting Summerleaze beach

  • 3.5 miles/5.6 km - Easy

    Bude to Northcott Mouth

    Northcott Mouth

    Bude to Northcott Mouth

    3.5 miles/5.6 km - Easy

    A circular walk past the Sea Pool to Crooklets beach and along Maer cliff to the beach at Northcott Mouth, where the shipwreck of the SS Belem is exposed at low tide.

  • 3.9 miles/6.3 km - Easy

    Bude Canal and Coast

    Bude Canal

    Bude Canal and Coast

    3.9 miles/6.3 km - Easy

    A figure-of-8 walk at Bude where the demand for lime-rich sand could not even be met by 4000 horses a day and so a 35-mile canal was built to transport it to the Tamar Valley.

  • 6.2 miles/10 km - Easy-moderate

    Widemouth to Bude

    Storm Tower at Compass Point

    Widemouth to Bude

    6.2 miles/10 km - Easy-moderate

    A circular walk from Widemouth Bay along the Coast Path though the Phillips Point nature reserve to The Storm Tower at Compass Point and then along the Bude Canal to Whalesborough, returning across the fields to Widemouth.

  • 6.2 miles/10 km - Moderate

    Bude to Sandymouth

    Northcott Mouth

    Bude to Sandymouth

    6.2 miles/10 km - Moderate

    A circular walk through Bude and along two miles of sandy beaches to Sandymouth, passing Bude Castle, built on floating foundations by the inventor of limelight, the Victorian Sea Pool, the Half-Tide Cross and the shipwreck of the SS Belem from which the propeller shaft supports the barrel on Barrel Rock.

Download the iWalk Cornwall app and use the QR scanner within the app to find out more about any of the walks above.