Exmoor

£6.99

Straddling the counties of Somerset and Devon, Exmoor is a place which never fails to stir the imagination, thanks to the coastline of stark cliffs lining the Bristol Channel, the wooded valleys, tumbling streams and wild moorland. Designation as a national park in 1954 has helped Exmoor’s villages and small towns keep their character and, although the moorland can undoubtedly be austere, this unassuming corner of England has an overriding softness and beguiling, timeless charm. The 40 walks in this guide make the most of more than 1000km of public rights of way and the many long-distance walks which criss-cross the landscape, offering something for every kind of walker.

Exmoor

Straddling West Somerset and North Devon, Exmoor was designated a national park in 1954 and covers 693 sq km, making it one of Britain’s smallest national parks. What it lacks in size, however, it makes up for in beauty and contrast as it contains some of England’s most diverse landscapes, including moorland, farmland, woodland and coast.

Like Exmoor’s fictional heroine Lorna Doone, it is both wild and gentle. It’s easy to see why author R D Blackmore chose it as the setting for his novel about a family of outlaws expelled from Scotland who came south and terrorised the locals. The scenery stirs the imagination, thanks to the coastline of stark cliffs lining the Bristol Channel, the wooded valleys, tumbling streams and wild empty moors.

Fortunately, no large urban sites exist on Exmoor, with any settlements protected from commercial exploitation. The lush landscape – in places brushed by the influence of humans, other corners pure unbridled wilderness – is punctuated by quaint villages, small towns and farms. The national park’s rich green landscape, unlike other national parks, ends abruptly at its northern edge upon reaching precipitous cliffs. These high, rugged hog’s-backed monsters have earned the coastline the accolade of possessing England’s highest sea cliffs and, in places, the remotest, as in many spots there is no landward access for miles, thanks to the height and gradient of the cliffs. Although Exmoor isn’t without its bleak, harsh landscapes – as anyone who has walked along the remote bridleway on the high northwestern plateau known as The Chains in winter will testify – there is an overriding softness to this part of the world, exemplified by the smooth, gentle curves of the hills and the soothing whispers of the myriad streams making their way to the open sea.

Geology and climate

The majority of the rocks underlying Exmoor are from the Devonian period (around 416-359 million years ago) and they form three broad ridges running from east to west which have been cut by river valleys. The oldest rocks which make up the highest parts of Exmoor (Dunkery and The Chains massif, and Selworthy Beacon and Croydon Hill) are most resistant to erosion and weathering and can also be seen in the coastal cliffs of Hangman Hill and between The Foreland and Minehead. The younger rocks form a band of slates and sandstones to the south, running through Simonsbath, Exford and Wheddon Cross.

Many different processes have acted on the underlying rocks over millennia to create the landscape we see today, particularly erosion by water. During the last ice age (around 10,000 years ago), Exmoor had a peri-glacial climate. Crags, such as those seen at the Valley of Rocks, were formed through the process of frost-shattering, as were the scree slopes on the high moors and the broken coastal cliffs.

Pollen analysis shows that as the climate warmed, the landscape gradually became colonised by trees, including Scots pine, birch and hazel and then by oak, elm, alder and lime. It is likely that all of Exmoor was wooded until human clearance began around 4000bc. The surviving woodlands which cloak the steep valley sides and coastal valleys were managed for centuries as sources of wood for building, fuel, tools and charcoal.
Today they remain rich habitats supporting a wide range of mammals, birds and insects, as well as many rare plants which thrive in the clean air. On the woodland margins, red deer are perhaps the best known of the creatures that Exmoor’s diverse landscapes support.

Exmoor’s mild climate, with warm summers and cool winters, is influenced by altitude and by proximity to the sea. The uplands regularly receive more than 2000mm of rain per year (the UK average is around 900mm) and snow is not uncommon on high ground. The prevailing wind is from the southwest and while there is some shelter in the valleys, the moors are frequently very exposed to strong winds.

History

Hunter-gatherers in the late Mesolithic period (around 8000 years ago) were Exmoor’s first inhabitants who exploited the woodlands and coastal plain (now under the Bristol Channel) for survival. As people moved to a less nomadic existence, they formed settlements and there are 45 known prehistoric sites, dating from around 4000bc, on Exmoor; this is far more than are found in the rest of Somerset and Devon.

Exmoor is also known for many unusual stone settings (upright stones) dating from the Bronze Age and numerous burial mounds (barrows) survive, usually found on hilltop or ridge-top locations. In the Iron Age, defensive hillforts and other earthworks appeared in prominent sites, usually overlooking valleys, and the Romans also built fortlets and signal stations when they made it to Exmoor’s coast. In the medieval period, the warm climate suited the development of farming, with both livestock and crops grown, and villages and farms were established. Higher land was generally used for common grazing and a network of lanes and tracks developed which are still visible in today’s landscape. The stone-faced banks topped with beech trees which are still prevalent on Exmoor marked the common grazing boundaries. The central part of Exmoor, however, was a royal hunting forest from Saxon times onwards and subject to Forest Law, so access was restricted and farming forbidden. Farming on Exmoor took a big leap forward in the early 19th century when the industrialist John Knight bought the former royal forest.

As well as draining and ploughing the land, he invested huge amounts of time, effort and hard cash building roads and canals. Although arable farming still proved very difficult to advance, Knight’s investment in livestock paid off, particularly with sheep. Enclosure, housebuilding and the digging of drainage channels changed Exmoor, however, and many of the iconic features of the upland landscape, such as straight beech hedgebanks, can be attributed to the efforts of John Knight and his family.
Industry on Exmoor at this time mainly involved mining for iron and other ores, and several limekilns were established near the coast. Traces of the mineral extraction and workings can still be seen around the national park in the form of ruins and spoilheaps.

Recreational use of the landscape grew in popularity in the 19th century as trade and tourism took off with the expansion of the railway from Bristol to Taunton and Exeter in the 1840s. Further development of routes to the coast made it easier to access Exmoor and attitudes to the wild moorland scenery changed, largely thanks to the work of the wandering Romantic poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge and, of course, the novelist R D Blackmore. On the large estates, carriage rides and sporting activities became hugely popular and much money was invested in building bigger houses and establishing gardens full of specimen trees and plants. In the 20th century, the area continued to thrive as a tourist destination, particularly after Butlin’s Holiday Camp was established at Minehead in 1962. Exmoor’s latest important designation came in 2011 when it became Europe’s first Dark Sky Reserve.

Rights of Way and navigation

There are around 1000km of public rights of way across the park, signified by the plethora of green-dashed lines weaving their way across the OS map in every conceivable direction. In this collection of walks, however, preference has been given to circular rather than linear routes, bar the walk along the South West Coast Path. This is largely due to the fact that public transport links across Exmoor are poor which means the starting points for the walks featured here are best reached by car. As well as classic walks for anyone visiting this region, such as the route up to Dunkery Beacon – the highest point not only on Exmoor but also in Somerset – there are several less-walked routes where you’re unlikely to pass a soul. Many of the walks highlighted here can be completed within an hour, while others need a few hours or even half a day.

For each walk, a sketch map provides an overview of the route covered. However, these are not intended to be used for navigation. Instead, they simply provide a visual summary and should be used alongside an OS map when establishing the exact route to be walked. Virtually all of Exmoor is covered by just one map: Ordnance Survey’s Explorer OL9. In fact, it is only the very tip of the southern border which slips onto another sheet – OS Explorer 114. The walks in this volume, with one exception, all feature on OL9.Many people might have the pink OS Landranger map which, in its own right, is very useful. But with the scale of 1:50,000 (2cm to 1km) compared to the Explorer’s 1:25,000 (4cm to 1km), the latter is far superior for walking purposes: it is more detailed, covers more paths and tracks and is easier to use while trekking across the moors and along the valleys.

The orange OS Explorer maps show the areas of open countryside and registered common land that have been categorised as Open Access Land. Such areas are marked on the sheet as a yellow wash and are unmistakable when the map is spread out in front of you.

It was the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 which introduced such areas for England and Wales, providing sections of mountain, moor and heath where walkers are free to venture off the paths. Walkers had campaigned for decades for such rights and celebrated when more than 1.5 million hectares were opened up for people to enjoy.
It has to be pointed out, however, that people need to be responsible when venturing onto Open Access Land. Dog owners, for example, must keep their dogs on a short lead between 1 March and 31 July, the primary breeding period for ground-nesting birds, or at any time of year when near livestock.

Overall, there is excellent signage across Exmoor. Paths are not only generally well maintained, but signs are well placed and clearly marked; the National Park Authority does take particular care, however, in ensuring a balance is maintained between signage and the landscape. Signs are wooden and kept as small as possible in order to avoid detracting from the aesthetic beauty of the surroundings. Signs, waymarks and occasionally other objects, such as tree trunks, are colour-coded according to their classification. While public footpaths are yellow and public bridleways blue, restricted byways are purple and byways open to all traffic red. Several long-distance walks cross Exmoor too, and some are recognised and signed accordingly. The South West Coast Path is indicated, like all National Trails, by an acorn symbol, the Tarka Trail a paw print, the Two Moors Way regional route by ‘MW’, the Coleridge Way regional route by a quill and the Macmillan Way by a ‘MAC’ symbol.

Places of Interest

Allerford
Allotment, The
Anstey Gate
Badgworthy
Barle Valley
Bat’s Castle
Bossington Hill
Brendon
Brendon Two Gates
Broomstreet
Brushford
Butter Hill
Bye Common
Chains, The
Chains Barrow
Conygar Tower
Countisbury
County Gate
Culbone Wood
Doone Valley
Dulverton
Dunkery Beacon
Dunster
East Lyn River
Exe Head
Exford
Foreland Point
Glen Lyn Gorge
Grabbist Hill
Haddon Hill
Hawkridge
Heddon Valley
Hoar Oak Cottage
Holdstone Hill
Horner
Hunter’s Inn
Landacre Bridge
Leighland Chapel
Liscombe
Lynmouth
Lynton
Malmsmead
Martinhoe
Minehead
Mole’s Chamber
Nettlecombe
North Hill
Nutscale Water
Oare
Pinkery Pond
Porlock
Porlock Hill
Prayway Head
Prescott
Punchbowl, The
Roadwater
Robber’s Bridge
Selworthy
Simonsbath
Sister’s Fountain
Tarr Steps
Treborough
Trentishoe Down
Valley of Rocks, The
Watersmeet House
West Anstey Common
Wheal Eliza
Wimbleball Lake 38Winsford
Winsford Hill
Withypool
Withypool Hill
Woodcombe
Yenworthy

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