The footpath south from the Briarwood to the sea, following a Thalrun road the Withering narrowed to single file. Nothing wider than a person has come down it since, which is why Saltwick's fish goes up to Willowdale on backs.
The Thalrun laid a road from the inner country down to the water during the Spreading Boughs, and the Saltway is what is left of it. The Withering took the traffic off it and the thorn took the width, and what survives runs the old line a single file wide for most of its length. The milestone standing halfway down is dressed granite that came from nowhere on this slope.
It crosses in stages. Open downs first, then gorse heath that smells of warm honey where the sun has been on it, then a stream shallow enough to cross on laid stones. Past the stream the ground lifts once and gives the first sight of the water, and after that everything leans inland, the thorn trees combed back and nothing growing on their seaward side.
Saltwick sends its catch up this way twice a day and Willowdale sends back coin and salt and little else. The carriers walk it with panniers roped high on their shoulders, and the thorn at the top costs them cloth every trip. Nobody has cut it wider in ninety Turnings and nobody has suggested it.
