BASIC WALK: From centre of Slapton Line south to Torcross, up coast path to cross hill before turning right to Widdicimbe estate, returning via Widewell and Torcross.

DISTANCE AND GOING: Four miles, easy going.

RECOMMENDED MAP: Ordnance Survey Outdoor Leisure 20 South Devon

WHEN I returned to my car on Dartmoor after an interview the temperature was minus 4C.

So I thought: seaside. The sea is Great Britain's vast hot-water bottle and I thought it probable that the 20-mile drive down to the shores of the South Hams would see my temperature gauge rise and rise.

It did. By eight degrees – by the time we got to Slapton Ley it was showing a much more respectable plus-four, and we instantly stopped the car and got out for a walk.

Could we tell the difference? Did the balmy coast feel warmer than the moors? Did it hell... The wind-chill factor cut through us like a knife.

However, we persevered and walked south from the war memorial on the long thin highly exposed beach to the village of Torcross, where there happens to be a pub that does excellent fish and chips.

Walking along The Line – as the big shingle beach is known – I tried to keep my mind off the cold by remembering that a century ago and more they used to shoot the wild birds in the Ley, which now of course is one of the most protected bits of water anywhere in the region The "coot shoot" has long gone and the men and boys of Slapton no longer earn for themselves a pint of ale at lunchtime and a half-crown at tea ghillying for the sportsmen with the guns and the pike rods.

I've also been told that every February gangs of local men would congregate to harvest hundreds if not thousands of coots. I have not eaten coot, and would be interested to hear from anyone who has. Was there, I wonder, a regional recipe for coot pie or some such gamey dish?

Apparently wildfowlers and fishermen visiting the area in the 1800s would stay in great style at the ivy-clad Royal Sands Hotel. When Slapton and the surrounding area was evacuated to make way for U.S. Army training manoeuvres in 1943, this old pile fell into disrepair. It was finally demolished when a dog from Slapton triggered six land mines as he scrambled under barbed wire.

All the talk of eating coots hadn't done much to lift our appetites – and walking along The Line is hardly arduous even in bitter easterly winds – so we decided to stroll on to Beesands before returning for our promised lunch of fish and chips.

There's a big hill between Torcross and Beesands – which presumably is why the main road turns in-land and so avoids it – but the coast path doesn't… Up and up we walked, following the path as it ascends high above a little point called Limpet Rocks. And then it was down and down towards Beesands' own little lake, which is a kind of Slapton Ley in miniature.

Halfway down the hill, though, there's a footpath marked "Widewell" which runs in-land along the contours and eventually enters some woods. The path then follows the upper edge of the trees, which are all part of the inner demesne of Widdicombe House, once home to one of the Westcountry's leading families. I am told the Holdsworths held sway here, and may still do for all I know – I wasn't going to knock on the door to find out.

It was too cold for that or for anything save walking at high speed through the grounds, past some cottages, and up the drive. All of this is on a public footpath, by the way, despite the fact that the place is a private estate.

I have subsequently discovered that there has been a house at Widdicombe since Saxon times, making it one of the most historic homes in the South Hams – and that no less a person than Captain Cook stayed here after returning from his voyages to Tahiti.

During World War Two, General Eisenhower took over the house and grounds as a Combined Services Headquarters so that he could keep an eye on all the military training which so famously went on in the surrounding area.

After about 200 yards we turned right at fingerpost signed "Widewell ¼m", and followed the footpath down through a field to arrive at a narrow lane. This runs along a ridge past the place called Widewell before descending steeply down to the rear of Torcross village. You get fantastic views of Slapton Ley up in the lane by the way – but for us it was one of those days when you can hardly operate a camera thanks to the tears that are being whipped out of your eyes by the freezing wind.

I can safely say that entering the Start Bay Inn down on the seafront was one of the most welcome moments of my entire winter. The fish and chips in that establishment may deserve their renown – but for us it was simply the warmth of the place that ticked all boxes – especially as we still had a windy wintry mile to go along that beach before our walk's end. So much for escaping the moors to find a balmy spot down at the seaside – next time I'll seek some hidden sheltered coombe.