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Walking on
Exmoor and the Quantock Hills |
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News and updates (latest
first)
Watermouth and the western Exmoor
coast Updates to Walking Dulverton and area
are here. Updates on
pause May 2025 I apologise for the
slow rates of updates which is due to an ongoing knee problem. Please check the walks against path
closures (see the ‘Useful links’ page) and ideally use the route descriptions
in conjunction with a map. Tea room changes May 2025
– earlier changes can be found below Near Dulverton,
the Marsh Bridge tea garden has now closed.
It is featured on walks 58, 63, 64 and 68. On the Quantocks,
the former Foxy Bean in Adscombe has reopened as the Street Bean
Coffee Company. The Blue Ball Inn at
Triscombe opens for special events only. Path closures March 2025 Most of the winter
storm damage has now been cleared, but there are several path closures going
into summer 2025: (1) Walk 41. The cross-fields
route between Simonsbath and Cow Castle is closed due to a collapsed bridge,
basically meaning that the route is not viable until the bridge is
repaired. ENPA estimate that the
closure will continue into the summer. (2) Walk 79. The small
footbridge near Hartford has also collapsed, affecting shorter walks A and
B. An alternative is available. (3) Walk 6. The
steps down to Broad Strand are broken away. (4) Walk 17 (shorter walk).
Fallen trees have closed the return route between the A39 and
Middleham Gardens; an alternative is described in the walk instructions. Dulverton
Information Centre March 2025 The National Park
Information Centre in Dulverton is in Exmoor House, the National Park
offices, rather than next to the library in Fore Street. Exmoor House is the large building next to
the River Barle, at the back of the green along the road from the Bridge Inn. New bridge at Great
Bradley October 2024 Exmoor NP has added
a new bridge at Great Bradley
where there was formerly only a ford. When walking south along the eastern
bank of the River Barle from Withypool, walkers will now be directed to cross
over at Great Bradley and continue along the western side to Tarr Steps (it
is still possible to cross back over just before Watery Lane). This affects walks 58 and 59, which will be
updated in due course. Changes to the SW
Coast Path July 2024 Several sections of
the Coast Path have recently been re-signed, generally to use routes closer
to the coast (for instance the Rugged Coast Path between North Hill and
Bossington Hill, and the narrow path around Hurlstone Point). The details, with plans, are here (click on
‘Exmoor and North Devon’, then the specific area). They don’t affect the walks other than that
sometimes where I refer to the ‘Coast Path’, the route will now be a normal
public path, while a different path is now signed as the Coast Path. I will change the instructions when I
update the relevant walks. Buses April 2024 There have been
some minor changes to bus timetables including the Exmoor Coaster (running
from the end of March to the end of September and no longer from Watchet),
route 25 from Taunton to Dulverton, and route 28 from Taunton to Minehead
which is slightly less frequent.
Please check the timetables from the bus operator or Traveline SW. Plans for 2024 April 2024 We moved from
Dulverton to Staplegrove, on the NW edge of Taunton, in March. Once we are settled in I’m aiming to add
some new walks north of Taunton and along the A358 corridor, e.g. in the
Bishops Lydeard and Tolland areas, to complement the Brendons and Quantocks
walks already on the site. We will
also spend some time walking on the Blackdowns and into Dorset and east
Devon, so while we will still be frequent visitors to Exmoor inevitably the
walks on the site won’t be updated as often. Tea room changes 2024 –
changes in 2023 are below In Brushford
(near Dulverton, on walk 68), the Carnarvon Stores now has a small café which
opens from 7.30am (closed Sundays). Boevey’s in
Simonsbath is now open again
with new owners; closed on Sundays. Tea room changes 2023 On the Quantocks,
the Foxy Bean at Adscombe has now closed (but see the 2025 tea rooms entry
above). Planning permission has been
granted to rebuild the burnt-out Pines café as a house, so it is unlikely
that a tearoom will reappear there any time soon. The Blue Ball at Triscombe looks unlikely
to open any time soon, though the Rising Sun in West Bagborough has now
reopened. Overall the Quantocks are
very short of refreshment options. In the west of the
region, in Combe Martin there is now a kiosk (Bobbie’s Bakes) with
outdoor tables overlooking the beach, next to the small car park directly off
the A399. In Ilfracombe, if you
start from the long-stay Hillsborough car park there is now a choice of two,
Larkstone Diner just down from the swimming pool and the Lime Kiln café
further along above the harbour. There is a tea room
again at County Gate – the Rambler’s Rest – very welcoming with
lunches as well as tea and cake, and a few groceries for sale. Another reopening after a long closure is
the Horner Vale tea garden (so there are now two refreshment options
in Horner, as well as ice cream from the farm shop next to the car
park). The Parracombe
community shop and café has been open since 2022. There is limited parking, but enough room
to leave a car there for a walk. Bratton
Fleming community shop – again with a small car park, so viable as an
alternative start for walk 33 – also has a small café. The popular Bridge
Cottage in Winsford closed at the end of 2023 due to the owners’
retirement. Porlock Pilgrim’s
Trail October 2023 This 29-mile trail
takes in nine churches and chapels in the north-eastern part of Exmoor, to
the south and west of Minehead. It
divides easily into three day walks.
You will need the trail guide: it is £8 but profits go to the
churches. More details here: https://www.porlockpilgrim.co.uk/
Exmoor
superlatives October 2023 I was involved in a
discussion recently about the highest church, village, inn etc. on
Exmoor. There are some surprising
(wrong) claims made, such as that Stoke Pero church is not only the highest
on Exmoor but in England! Here’s a
page with the results of my research: highest.pdf
Walk 67 Dulverton
and Ansteys – bridge now repaired May 2023 The bridge and
steps at Beer Cottages just west of Streamcombe have now been repaired. The approach to the bridge can still be
quite muddy. North Devon parking
charges April 2023 All-day parking
in many North Devon car parks has increased to £10-15, particularly between
March and November (and all year in Lynton and Lynmouth) – please check
parking charges here before
planning to use a particular car park.
This is more than a three-fold increase for some car parks, e.g.
Mortehoe which has gone from £4.40 for a day in 2022 to £15 in 2023 (with no
long-stay alternative). You may like
to use alternatives where they are available, such as starting from County
Gate, Woody Bay or Hillsford Bridge, or using the bus connections where they
exist. If you are put off doing a walk
by the parking charges please complain to North Devon Council. When I revise North Devon walks I will aim
to point out alternative parking where possible, e.g. walk 15 (Lyn gorges)
can now be started from the National Trust car park at Hillsford Bridge. Dulverton walking
book March 2023 Walking
Dulverton and area is no longer available online. Exmoor National Park Authority will
continue to sell the book through the Dulverton information centre. The updates can be downloaded here. New web site February
2023 Walking on Exmoor
and the Quantocks is now hosted at https://devmts.org.uk/weq/
rather than on emyspot. The old site
just has a note with this address on, and http://exmoorwalker.uk now
redirects here. You can bookmark
either exmoorwalker.uk (it directs to the homepage)
or a specific page on this site, but please update any links to the old
emyspot site. If you notice any
problems with this site, please send me an email. All text, photographs and maps © Stan Lester 2024 |
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