Featured holiday Exmoor Explorer Two Moors Way in five walking days Devon and Somerset

You reach your first overnight stop in the course of the day. Remember to pre-book a table if you want to dine in. Allow time to check your kit, pack your rucksack and study your guides and maps. Witheridge is situated between Dartmoor and Exmoor and on the route of the Two Moors Way. In the Square is the church and the old coaching inn, the Mitre, dating from the 1830s.

This is a good introductory day as you may want to plan ahead and treat yourself to dinner in the Michelin-starred Masons Arms in Knowstone this evening (closed on Sunday evenings and Mondays at the time of writing). Woodland, water meadow, fields of wildflowers and wildlife such as fallow deer and buzzards can be found today. As you cross the Little Dart you’ll see Bradford Mill which was a working mill from the 17th until the 20th century. There is also moorland at Creacombe where you climb to over 800ft (almost 250m) above sea level and enjoy views over the rolling farmland towards the southern edge of Exmoor. Soon you’ll experience another Devon green lane and then open land surrounded by a network of small fields at Knowstone Moor. There is the Outer Moor and the Inner Moor and along with nearby Hares Down, these patches of land are now rare culm grassland, a mixture of purple moor-grass and wet heath, which absorbs water at five times the rate of ordinary grassland. Locals still have common grazing rights to the land. Knowstone is a pretty cluster of houses and a designated conservation area with a 15th century church and unspoiled churchyard.
Distance: About 8 miles
Time: About 4 hours

The day starts by a traverse of the mid-Devon rural landscape, down and uphill. On Owlaborough Moor are tumuli, vestiges of the occupation of this land over the centuries and a little further on is the dismantled track of the Devon and Somerset Railway and the tiny village of Yeo Mill, where there are signs in its former coaching inn and village shop that these places would have been busier in times gone by. Enjoy the streams, hedges, green lanes and wooded patches before reaching the village of West Anstey with its 14th century church dedicated to St Petrock. You skirt common land and soon enter the start of the Exmoor section of the Two Moors Way. Note the sign which tells you that there are only 24 miles to go to Lynmouth. You have views to the village of Hawkridge sitting above the valley of Dane’s Brook to the south and the attractive valley of the River Barle to the north. At Hawkridge you meet the Exe Valley Way. The Two Moors then follows the side of the ridge, forested below you as it drops down to the river, before you descend to the iconic Tarr Steps. Tarr Steps is a 17-span clapper bridge located at an ancient fording point of the River Barle and one of the longest of its kind in Britain. The woodlands around the Tarr Steps and along the banks of the River Barle are a National Nature Reserve and are significant for the mosses, liverworts and lichens that are found here. There is also a moss found in burrows which appears to glow in the dark. There are mature hazel, blackberry and honeysuckle and otters feed on the fish and eels found in the river. Dippers and kingfishers are likely to be seen on the river. Just above Tarr Steps is Winsford Hill and its extension, South Hill, home to the Anchor herd of Exmoor ponies, free living and thought to be a race of wild horse rather than a breed. From Tarr Steps the gradients are gentler, but conditions underfoot are often uneven and muddy, as the riverside path to Withypool has suffered flood damage over the years. From Tarr Steps you head along the riverside path which does become uneven over rocks along the edge of the river for a relatively short stretch, although this can be wet. There are also spots which will be muddy in between tree roots. Having said that, it is a magical stretch of the walk, as the sunlight plays through the branches and leaves of the trees and you listen to the water of the river as it tumbles over rocks. After a while there is a charming stretch through riverside meadows before an ascent into woods above Withypool, before you drop down by the road into the village and find the Royal Oak Inn on your right-hand side.
Distance: About 14 miles
Time: About 7 hours

From Withypool you ascend from the village through fields and then follow a quiet lane gently uphill until it reaches moorland. The track crosses the moorland above the wide valley affording wonderful views and from here you can see the historic Landacre Bridge. Exmoor ponies may be seen in this area too. The track across the moor is wide and easy before you drop down slightly to follow the river more closely. Ahead is Cow Castle, an iron age fort, and beautiful wildflower meadows along the riverbank. In high summer there are splashes of orange crocosmia along the route here. It can be boggy and wet underfoot before you reach the higher ground as the path tracks around Cow Castle. There is more beautiful riverbank before you reach the remains of Wheal Eliza, once a copper mine. From here to Simonsbath the path has been restored for all levels and it’s quite wide and relatively flat as you follow it slightly above the river at this point.
Distance: About 6 miles
Time: About 3 hours

Today you use Simonsbath as your base for exploring Exmoor. Simonsbath is an Exmoor village created largely in the 1800s by John Knight who developed the area. Simonsbath House was the original residence of John Knight’s family. There is a sawmill that the National Park restored and is used to cut sessile oak for signs and gates, powered from a leat taking its water from upstream. The River Barle rises nearby at Pinkery Pond. In May and June there is the Simonsbath Festival. There is a local circular walk of about 3.5 miles to Prayway Head or ask the hotel to suggest.

This is the final stage of the Two Moors Way and it’s a fitting end to the route with what can be a demanding day with the ground underfoot being rough and boggy as you climb out of Simonsbath and the valley through the Ashcombe Plantation onto moorland towards the source of the River Exe and the watershed. You cross the Chains, Exmoor’s highest and remotest area, which rise to 1599 ft (487m) and usually displaying white cotton grass in high summer. You follow the side of the valley of Hoaroak Water to reach the Hoar Oak tree which marks the boundary of the Royal Forest and which stands on the Devon-Somerset border. Here you re-entre Devon and then proceed over more high ground at Cheriton Ridge. Views to the east are towards Brendon Common and beyond that Doone Country, which inspired R D Blackmore’s novel Lorna Doone. You enter the woodland of the National Trust’s Coombe Park which incorporates one of the largest areas of semi-natural woodland in the southwest. There are tremendous views over the wooded, steep valley of the East Lyn river and patches of sea to be spied ahead. Following Coombe Park wood is the National Trust’s Watersmeet House, at the confluence of the Hoaroak and East Lyn rivers. You pass the iron age enclosure of Myrtleberry South and then enjoy the spectacular views as the East Lyn runs through Myrtleberry Cleave. There is still some uphill climbing with a zigzag just before, finally, there is a long descent into Lynmouth.
Distance: About 11 miles
Time: About 6 hours