On Location with Poppy Gordon-Clark, locations manager for new flick ‘The Salt Path’

Raynor and Moth Winn are not the first people to have sought out the healing powers of nature in difficult times. When the Staffordshire couple became homeless after losing their livelihood and farmhouse in a legal dispute, around the same time that Moth was diagnosed with Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD), an untreatable, terminal neurodegenerative condition, they made the bold and unusual decision to take what little money they had and a tent, stove and clothes stuffed into backpacks, and set out to hike the South West Coast Path, while they tried to recover from life’s blows and figure out their next move. Raynor’s account of their life-changing journey became the 2018 bestselling novel The Salt Path.

Her memoir’s now been adapted into a film of the same name, starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs as Raynor (Ray) and Moth, the feature debut of British theatre director and producer Marianne Elliott, who’s worked in London’s West End and on Broadway in New York, including productions of War Horse and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time.

The film’s third character, the South West Coast Path, is not for the faint of heart, the weak of leg, or, for that matter, anyone with a fear of heights. Starting at Minehead in Somerset, the 630-mile English coastal trail traces the northern side of the South West Peninsula, curves around the south-west tip of the country and continues along the south coast to Poole Harbour in Dorset, taking in Devon and Cornwall along the way. The route has a dramatic, rocky coastline with soul-stirring views and some of the UK’s most beautiful beaches, a gift for Cornwall-based Locations Manager Poppy Gordon-Clark, whose job it was to find the right settings to match moments in the story. But there’s far more to the hiking trail and the film than cliffs and sand, including peaceful, atmospheric woodland, pretty seaside towns, ancient churches and traditional British pubs. The majority of shooting was completed in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, with some parts also filmed in Wales, Wiltshire and Bristol.

Here, Poppy Gordon-Clark talks to Graeme Green about the locations from The Salt Path.

Did you hike the entire 630 miles of the South West Coast Path to scout locations for this film?

No, I didn’t hike the whole thing. I would have needed a few months to do that. I did sections of it, and I’ve done a lot of it in the past as a Locations Manager looking for coastal filming locations. I’ve done most of it, but just not in one hit.

The South West Coast Path is considered one of the most challenging areas of the UK coast to walk. Would you agree with that?

Yes, definitely. Parts of it are incredibly gruelling. It’s a tough hike. Certain sections of the North Devon coast are very up-and-down. If you’re carrying your tent and all your supplies, it’s very tough. The area around Hartland and Clovelly is particularly hard, and in the book, Ray and Moth really struggle with the area around Ilfracombe, which goes on for miles and miles, with no trees, and lots of ups and downs. That area’s very hard as well.

Did you follow the path in a linear way for the film’s locations, or did you mix and match sections to particular scenes?

We did it chronologically. But we did move scenes around in the story because we didn’t need to go to an actual location to get the scene we required. We’re allowed to use a little bit of camera magic and cheating.

The scenery’s a huge part of this story. It’s like the third character. It’s what helps Ray and Moth come to terms with their situation. They have lost everything – gone bankrupt, lost their house, lost their whole world, he’s lost his health, and they embark on a journey of self-discovery. The story is about how nature helps them realise they can overcome their hardships and keep going.

It was really important working with Marianne and the production designer Christina Moore about where we were going to shoot, when we should show epic-ness and make them feel tiny, and when we would make them feel ‘big’. When we went out on the coastline, the DP (Director of Photography) Hélène Louvart changed the camera's scale. Before that, when they’re in their house, the shots are all quite tight, and then when they go onto the coast, it’s a wider screen.

The South West Coast Path is such a beautiful stretch of coastline. The natural beauty is always there. We wanted to show the difference as the coastal path progresses from Somerset down into Devon and into Cornwall. It changes quite dramatically. We also wanted to show how gruelling it was at times.

You started in Minehead, of course.

Yes, that’s the beginning of the South West Coast Path. We filmed at the SWCP Monument on the promenade in Minehead – a monument with giant hands gripping a map, designed by Sarah Ward. This is where Ray and Moth arrive and get off the bus, thinking, “What the hell are we doing?” It’s the beginning.

Early on, there’s a scene of Ray and Moth crossing a brooding landscape of skeletal trees, which many people wouldn’t expect to see in England. Where was that filmed?

That’s the salt marshes of Porlock Weir. It’s an incredible place. It’s completely barren. It was once covered in trees, and then the tide came in and killed off all the trees, so it’s become salt marshes. They’re not petrified – they’re just dead. The salt is protecting them from disappearing completely. It was so different from anything else we saw. It felt desolate, and that was what their world was at the beginning of their journey.

There’s a lovely coastal view shortly after that, which is in Exmoor. It’s looking back towards the marshes of Porlock Weir. There is a rocky beach, Porlock Beach, and then you can see green, which is the marshes. Exmoor completely blew me away – it’s a really under-valued area. I didn’t know it particularly well before we started scouting around there. It’s so dramatic, vast and empty. It made the characters feel so small in the landscape.

What was the rugged section of the coast called where there’s a fortress-like, rocky summit that you filmed Ray and Moth walking past?

This place is insane. It’s the Valley of Rocks in Lynton, just in Devon. I know this place well. The main focal point is called Castle Rock. It’s extraordinary. It rises out of the sea, almost like it’s been man-made, or like giants from years ago have thrown rocks at the coast. It’s just absolutely epic, and covered in wild goats, who are an absolute pain in the arse. The place gives an unbelievable sense of scale. It’s so sheer. When you’re walking along the cliff path, if you’re tired and carrying a big backpack, there’s no railing, no nothing: just sheer cliff and sea.

There’s more woodland than people might expect on a coastal path, too, isn’t there?

Yes, a lot more. People quite often think that when you’re walking the coastal path, you’re on the beach a lot. You’re nowhere near the beach for most of the time – you’re high up on the cliffs or in woodland. It’s not always so easy to get down to the sea.

We slightly cheated with some of the woodland locations, including the one where they talk about there being a former leper colony. That scene was shot in Padstow in Cornwall – the name of the estate it’s on is Pridaux Place. The leper colony was actually at Culbone Church, which is in Exmoor. We couldn’t use the real location, as it was too inaccessible. We cheated and used the graveyard in St Petroc’s Church in Padstow instead. The area around Padstow is really beautiful.

One of the most remarkable landscapes is for an important scene, close to the end of the film, with an old building on a towering headland. Where was that filmed?

That is Rame Head, near Plymouth, on the main peninsula just before you leave Cornwall, going into Devon. It’s the south coast. You still have a fair old chunk of the South West Coast Path to do, to go all the way up to Dorset and Poole’s Harbour. That’s really the end scene of the film. It needed to be something extraordinary, iconic, recognisable, and beautiful. It’s an old chapel, called St Michael’s Chapel, from the 14th century, on the clifftop, where a hermit lived many years ago. It’s so iconic. If you’re Cornish, when you see that, you know you’re in Cornwall.

There are several great beaches, including a couple towards the end. Which beaches did you film on?

The one where they’re in their tent is Sandymouth in North Devon, near Bude. It’s an extraordinary beach – very beautiful, and quite hard to access. The cliff above it is really lovely, with a river and waterfall running down to the beach.

Possibly my favourite beach of all is Holywell Beach in Cornwall, where we shot the scene where the sea comes into their tent and they’re running around with the tent above their heads. It’s such an epic beach, with huge cliffs.

The final beach in the film is Tregantle in South Cornwall, near Whitsand Bay. We were filming in the evening, around sunset. We had a team of marshals to ensure we didn’t see other people on the beach. We’d been shooting up at Rame Head in the morning, and then we came down onto the beach. It was the end of the day – the sun was going down and it was really beautiful. The beach in summer is busy, but we shot in June. It doesn’t get too busy – there’s quite a long walk down to the beach, which puts a lot of people off. We wanted it to feel like they were walking off into the distance, with no one else around.

Which other locations stood out to you?

Some of the towns surprised me. I really loved Ilfracombe - it’s extraordinary.

We went to Padstow, which is where Moth jumps up on a box and tries to collect money with a reading of Beowulf. We did some shooting in Bristol, which is always fun, but, of course, we were cheating by using Bristol as part of the South West Coast Path.

There’s a scene with a Peregrine falcon, which was shot at Port Quinn, near Port Isaac, in north Cornwall. There’s a stretch of coastline along there that I think is second-to-none. It’s just so aesthetically pleasing. You feel so small – the headland stretches for miles and miles. There are islands and inlets. The sea, when we were filming there, was such an extraordinary colour.

You also did a bit of filming in Wales, didn’t you?

That’s where we found Ray and Moth’s farmhouse. I said from the beginning that we’d never be able to find that style of house in that landscape without going to Wales. Filming was based out of Bristol, so it was quite easy for us to nip across to Wales to find it. Everything else, other than the domestic house and city stuff, is from the South West Coast Path area.

South-west England is a famously foodie area. Do you have any recommendations?

I’m not a pasty fan, but you can get a damn good cream tea and fish and chips in Padstow. The cream teams are also amazing at Bossington Tea Shop, which is five minutes from Porlock Weir. In the story, Bossington Tea Shop is where Moth tells another man he’s homeless. We recommended it many times, but we didn’t use their tea rooms for filming in the end, just because of logistics.

There’s also an old pub in the film called The Boar’s Head in Aust. It’s not on the coastal path – it’s just off the M5, in Somerset.

Are you allowed to wild camp along the coastal path? It seems from the film that when Ray and Moth camped, it annoyed local people.

It’s not really allowed, and definitely not on the National Trust’s land because most people aren’t as respectful as Ray and Moth are, and they leave a mess. People don’t like it.

Do you worry that after people see the film, the coastal path will become even more popular and possibly crowded?

It’s already very popular. But no, rambling isn’t for everyone. I hope that doesn’t happen anyway. I was a location manager on Poldark, and I’ve had some pretty disgruntled people because of some of the places that have become very popular since then. You have to be a little bit careful.

The Salt Path is in UK and Irish cinemas from May 30, 2025.