About Spekes Mill Mouth Waterfall
The Spekes’ Mill Mouth Waterfall is perhaps the most impressive and scenically-located waterfall in Devon County in the South West of England.
It actually consists of multiple drops where the Milford Water stream dropped over a cumulative height of about 48m (about 158ft).
Of that height, the main drop (pictured above) is said to be about 20m (or about 65ft) followed by a couple of lower tiers further downstream almost dropping right onto the rocky beach.
While the waterfall itself along with its scenic location (think sea cliffs) were enough to pique our interest in pursuing it, there were also other things adding more to this waterfall’s scenic allure.
For example, there was an intermediate waterfall on a different seasonal stream spilling right into what the topo map on Gaia GPS called Childspit Beach.
There was also a beach and natural arch that could be an added bonus to the Spekes’ Mill Mouth Waterfall hike.
Indeed, while we did have the opportunity to extend our visit (as there were extensive coastal trails going beyond the waterfall), I’ll just share what we managed to do in our roughly 2 hours away from the car.
Hiking to Spekes’ Mill Mouth Waterfall
I’ll first describe our 1.6km hike (3.2km round-trip) to the Spekes’ Mill Mouth Waterfall, which began from Hartland Quay (see directions below).
Hartland Quay is the coastal hamlet that had car parks as well as amenities like a pub (Wrecker’s Retreat) as well as a hotel and restaurant (Hartland Quay Hotel).
It was apparently what was left of a harbour that dated back to Henry VIII, but it was destroyed by a powerful storm in 1887.
In fact, it’s said that Hartland Quay sees some of the roughest seas of the Atlantic in the Winter Time though the seas were still rough even during our early July 2024 visit.
Anyways, from the lower car park, we went up the steps rising above that car park to the tops of the sea cliffs, where the path continued to parallel its precarious dropoffs.
At about 250m from the lower car park, we encountered a gate that’s supposed to keep livestock from roaming free.
At about 700m from the lower car park, we approached at the base of the backside of a bluff called St Catherine’s Tor.
As we approached St Catherine’s Tor, I noticed that there was a flowing intermediate stream that went towards a cliff.
Sure enough, my brief detour yielded me a top down profile view of an unnamed waterfall dropping right into Childspit Beach (though the beach wasn’t accessible from atop these bluffs from what I could tell).
After getting my fill of the unnamed waterfall, we continued along the trail, which then went through another gate livestock-control gate.
The trail then went through an open grassy area behind St Catherine’s Tor before reaching a little livestock-control maze (roughly 300m from the unnamed waterfall by Childspit Beach).
Just beyond the maze, the trail ascended again along more sea cliffs (this time overlooking Spekes’ Mill Beach below)
After about another 450m or so beyond the maze beyond St Catherine’s Tor, the trail steeply descended towards a grassy area with spur trails approaching a ravine.
That ravine was where the Spekes’ Mill Mouth Waterfall spilled into as its stream continued to make the ravine even deeper.
Ultimately at around 1.6km from Hartland Quay (or about another 200m from the start of the steep descent to this grassy area), we reached the lookouts for the main drop of the Spekes’ Mill Mouth Waterfall.
While I saw some hikers continue to go past the top of the waterfall and beyond (as the trail kept going), this was our turnaround point, but I did do a little more exploring to see how else this falls could be experienced.
Exploring the Spekes’ Mill Mouth Waterfall
Although the lookout with a pretty direct view of the main drop of the Spekes’ Mill Mouth Waterfall was enough for my wife and daughter, I did notice some spur tracks that actually went closer.
The first of these tracks near the lookout was to a precarious looking bluff that actually provided the chance to get to the base of the main drop of the falls.
It was during this somewhat unsanctioned scramble that I not only got a frontal look at the main 20m drop, but I also noticed there were more tiers of the waterfall downstream closer to the coast.
I definitely had to be careful around the bluff as there was constant dropoff exposure, and I actually didn’t go all the way to the base nor the end of the bluff with dropoffs on three sides.
Nevertheless, the lower perspective of the main drop of the falls made me appreciate both the steepness of the terrain as well as the unusual vertical slab holding up this tier of the waterfall.
Backtracking to the main trail up at the top of the ravine, I then followed the grassy area in the direction of Spekes’ Mill Beach.
At that point, there were a couple of trails (the one on the left side was steeper than the other) that went to the top of the wooden weather-worn steps descending down to Spekes’ Mill Beach.
Towards the bottom of the steps, there’s a part where I had to scramble on a sloping slab to go the rest of the way down onto the rocky beach.
At that point, I could head north to check out the wide beach that seemed to be very empty of people (except for maybe one couple that went all the way to the end).
However, I went around the slab to the south to approach the base of the Spekes’ Mill Mouth Waterfall.
It’s worth noting that during this part of the scramble, there was one part where the ocean could cut off access so it goes without saying that this should only be attempted at low tide.
Anyways, after getting past the ocean-squeezing part, I then encountered the mouth of the Milford Water stream, where I then went upstream on the rocky and uneven surface to get right up to the base of the Spekes’ Mill Mouth Falls.
Down at this position, only the lower two tiers of the falls could be seen as the main drop was blocked from view (though I didn’t bother crossing the creek and doing other exploration down here).
According to my GPS logs, this hike and scramble was about 150m in each direction (300m round-trip), and it probably took me about 30 minutes for the whole detour and exploration.
Hiking to Tunnel Rock Arch
In addition to the Spekes’ Mill Mouth Waterfall hike described above, there was also an opportunity to check out a natural arch apparently called Tunnel Rock Arch as well as the Warren Beach (low tide only).
From the Hartland Quay, I went north past the hotel and pub (and spur paths to scenic lookouts along the turbulent coastline) for about 100m or so.
The paved path through the hamlet gave way to a descending gravel path going down to the rocky Warren Beach, and right after the unpaved road made a bend and ended onto the beach, the Tunnel Rock Arch was easily seen.
At that point, I just scrambled onto the rocky surface of the area around Tunnel Rock Arch to go through it (I had to be real careful because the rocks were worn smooth by the ocean so they can get very slippery).
Beyond the arch was the rocky or pebbly Warren Beach, which was backed by the chaotic-looking Warren Cliffs, where the folded layers responsible for Tunnel Rock Arch had also given rise to caves at the base of the cliffs.
After having my fill of the beach and especially the Tunnel Rock, I then backtracked to the Hartland Quay area.
I made sure to check out the scenic lookouts, which offered a contextual view back at Warren Beach, the wave-battered and folded Well Beach below, and the protruding Screda Point towards the south.
I probably spent about 30 minutes on this short exploration, but it was real easy to linger longer as one family did scrambling on the coastal rocks towards the protruding Life Rock just to the west of Tunnel Rock Arch.
Authorities
The Spekes’ Mill Mouth Waterfall resides in Hartland Quay in Devon County, England. It is not clear if there’s an official governing body that presides over these waterfalls. However, it seems like local landowners and town officials from Hartland Quay have been responsible for signs and road/trail infrastructure. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Hartland Peninsula website.
Spekes’ Mill Mouth Waterfall resides near Hartland Quay in North Devon (Devon is the ceremonial county of this part of South West England).
We drove here from Ilfracombe so this is how I’ll describe the driving directions.
From Ilfracombe, we made our way south to the A361 for about 14 miles through Braunton and towards Barnstaple to hook up with the A39.
Once at the roundabout where the A361 hooks up with the A39, we took the 2nd exit to go west on the A39.
Then, we drove about 21 miles on the A39 before reaching a signed turnoff on the right for Hartland.
Turning right to go towards Hartland (on the B3248 Road), we then followed this road that narrows as it gets closer to Hartland and beyond for the final 6 miles to the Hartland Quay.
Realize that towards the end of this drive, we were dealing with more single-lane hedge roads than the conventional two-lane road so you definitely have to watch out for oncoming traffic, especially at the blind turns.
On the final, narrow single-lane descent to the Hartland Quay, there appeared to be options for parking higher up the road if it felt to sketchy to get into sticky stituations with oncoming traffic.
Each of the car parks had “private property” signs on them, but I think they’re primarily to discourage people from overnight camping.
From what we could tell, it appeared that people were able to use these car parks for day use (though don’t treat my advice as gospel about this; if in doubt, stop to ask someone or at least read the signs carefully).
At least down at the Hartland Quay at the very end of the road, there was a car park though the amount of spaces is limited so an early start is advisable.
Overall, this drive took us about 75 minutes.
Finally, one thing worth mentioning is that when leaving Hartland Quay, GoogleMaps or most other routing software apparently, will try to take you on non-sensical “shortest routes” back to the A39.
Well, the problem with this is that these apps seem to treat single-lane hedge roads with tall blind spots (where both sides of the car could touch overgrown hedges) as normal roads.
Let me assure you that you will NOT go anywhere near the speeds that GoogleMaps expects you to drive.
When in doubt, always go with the larger, wider roads (and signs pointing the way) over whatever the GPS suggests.
Even if the route is longer distancewise, it will actually be much shorter timewise along.
Believe me when I say, it will reduce the likelihood of getting in an accident, or at least backing up a long ways with all these narrow blind spots on single-lane roads looking for a lay-by, and help your sanity a bit.
For context, Hartland is about 14 miles (about 30 minutes drive) west of Bideford, about 23 miles (over 30 minutes drive) southwest of Barnstaple, about 35 miles (over an hour drive) southwest of Ilfracombe, about 55 miles (over 1.5 hours drive) northwest of Plymouth, about 62 miles (over 1.5 hours drive) northwest of Exeter, about 88 miles (over 2 hours drive) northeast of Penzance, about 97 miles (over 2 hours drive) west of Glastonbury, about 123 miles (3 hours drive) southwest of Bath, and 234 miles (about 5 hours drive) west of London.
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360 degree sweep from a view of the Childspit Beach Waterfall early on during the hike to the Spekes Mill Waterfall
360 degree sweep from the signature view of the main falls while also doing a more focused up and down sweep of the falls as well
Sweep starting from the cliff top examining both the top and middle tiers of the falls before maneuvering to an outcrop with a more frontal view of the upper waterfall
360 degree anticlockwise sweep from the base of the falls while also revealing the rocky shore
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