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| Explore Exmoor |
The refreshing, relaxing 'Great Outdoors' to be found on Exmoor is a natural choice for all
kinds of holidays and short breaks. Take your time and enjoy a few days beside the seaside.
Or head for the countryside. Go walking, horse riding, fishing or wildlife spotting. Stay in a picturesque village or popular resort. Explore Exmoor's remarkable range of beautiful landscapes and seascapes.
Lovers of breathtaking scenery take delight in beautiful
Glen Lyn Gorge, with its waterfalls and in the ‘Little
Switzerland’ of the Valley of Rocks near Lynmouth. In the
deep and spectacular Doone Valley, north of Simonsbath,
Exmoor’s ‘own author’ R.D. Blackmore set memorable scenes
from his smash hit novel Lorna Doone. Ancient monuments
include the magnificent clapper bridge of mighty stones that
crosses the River Barle at Tarr Steps, and the Bronze Age
burial mounds on Dunkery Beacon.
Among Exmoor’s many superb old buildings you’ll find the
impressively romantic Dunster Castle on its hill above the
medieval village of Dunster, Cleeve Abbey at Washford, the
tiny and highly atmospheric ‘Church in the woods’ at
Culbone on the coast path, National Trust properties as fine
as Arlington Court, south of Combe Martin, with its rare and
delightful Victorian pleasure grounds and fantastic
collections of shells and model ships, and Knightshayes
Court, south of Dulverton, where Victorian Gothic designer
William Burges gave his eccentric genius full play in
over-the-top splendour.
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Active facts
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Exmoor National Park has 3 information centres –
at Dulverton, Dunster and Lynmouth – along with
knowledgeable visitor centres at Watchet, Porlock and
Minehead to help you get active and explore. |
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Tarr Steps is the largest clapper bridge in Britain, and has
been a source of fascination for locals and visitors alike
for hundreds of years. Yet even after countless expert
investigations, no-one can be sure how old it is – 1000 BC
seems the best guess. Or should that be 1000 AD … ? |
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At only 35 feet long, the Church of St Beuno at Culbone
claims to be the smallest church in Britain. |
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For one of Britain’s most breathtaking collisions of land
and water, go to Great Hangman near Combe Martin, an
awesome 800ft (244m) sea-cliff. |
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The terrifying and lawless Doone family of R.D.
Blackmore’s Lorna Doone were based by the author on a
gang of Scottish outlaws who arrived on Exmoor in the
early 17th century, took refuge in Lank Combe, a remote
valley of the moor, and proceeded to rob, torment and
murder the locals. So brutal were their deeds that, when
he came to write his novel in the 1860s, Blackmore had
no trouble digging up grisly tales that had remained in
family folklore on Exmoor for almost 250 years. |
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Walkers are spoiled for choice with three
long-distance paths to explore – the South West
Coast Path National Trail running east-west along
the cliffs and shores; the Two Moors Way that
comes up from south Devon and crosses the moor
from south to north, ending in Lynmouth and the
Coleridge Way, opened in 2005, that runs 36 miles
from Nether Stowey (once the home of the poet Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, of Kubla Khan and The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner fame) across the Quantock and Exmoor hills to
Porlock Visitor Centre. Then there’s always the fantastic Watchet Mineral
Line trail to explore, following the path of the old railway up into
the hills.
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