Walking The Line Today
The trackbed between Mortehoe Station and Ilfracombe has been restored as a cycleway and forms part of the Tarka Trail. It is possible to walk or cycle from the north road bridge parapet by Woolacombe & Mortehoe Station, down the long descent towards Ilfracombe, passing the Slade reservoirs and going through one of the twin-bore tunnels south of Ilfracombe station.
The former line is surrounded by The Cairn - heathland planted with trees during the 1960s and transformed into a Local Nature Reserve.
South of Woolacombe, it is easy to follow the course of the line by car, as the trackbed closely follows the A361 road for much of the route between Barnstaple and Mullacott Cross (just outside Woolacombe/Ilfracombe).
Ilfracombe Museum contains many photographs and relics from the line, including a gradient post and one of the concrete station name boards from Ilfracombe Station (both visible outside the building).
Read more about this topic: Ilfracombe Branch Line
Famous quotes containing the words walking, line and/or today:
“The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the LORD, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.””
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 1:7.
“Men are not to be told anything they might find too painful; the secret depths of human nature, the sordid physicalities, might overwhelm or damage them. For instance, men often faint at the sight of their own blood, to which they are not accustomed. For this reason you should never stand behind one in the line at the Red Cross donor clinic.”
—Margaret Atwood (b. 1939)
“To the degree that respect for professors ... has risen in our society, respect for writers has fallen. Today the professorial intellect has achieved its highest public standing since the world began, while writers have come to be called “men of letters,” by which is meant people who are prevented by some obscure infirmity from becoming competent journalists.”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)