Exmoor National Park (Slow Travel)

by Hilary Bradt 

Publication Date:  03rd Apr 2019


£8.99

Exmoor travel guide – Expert local tips and holiday advice featuring full coverage of the national park, plus towns and villages just outside the boundary. Also included are coast and moorland, the South West Coast Path, walking, hiking, wildlife, birdwatching, beaches, food and drink and historical and cultural background including Lorna Doone.

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About this book

This new title in Bradt’s distinctive series of Slow travel guides to regions of Britain is the only general guide to focus exclusively on Exmoor, covering all of the national park plus towns and villages just outside the boundary. Written by expert resident author Hilary Bradt, coast and moorland, hiking, wildlife and birdwatching are all covered, as are food and drink, historical background and culture both present and past, including Lorna Doone (and Doone country), Wordsworth and Shelley. Divided into ten regions and complete with 13 walks with maps, Bradt’s Slow Travel Exmoor National Park also covers National Trust villages and nature reserves, little-known attractions such as private gardens, and the region’s most interesting little churches.
Exmoor is one of England’s smallest but most beautiful national parks and is also particularly rich in festivals, both cultural, traditional – and frankly bizarre, including Hunting of the Earl of Rone in the village of Combe Martin and the Minehead Hobby Horse. The area is also increasingly recognised as a foodie destination and as a place for active holidays of all types. With its long coastline there are beaches for everyone, both sand and pebble, with wild swimming in the sea, rivers and reservoirs. This is also one of the most rewarding areas for walking in the West Country, combining stunning sections of the South West Coast Path with inland walks over heather-rich moorland and up river valleys.
England’s smallest church and largest number of wild red deer, and Britain’s most distinctive native pony are all found here. Ideal for walkers, riders, foodies and lovers of beautiful scenery and wilderness, Bradt’s Slow Travel Exmoor National Park is the essential companion for a successful trip regardless of age or budget.

About the Author

Hilary Bradt co-founded Bradt Travel Guides in 1974, but now lives in semi-retirement in Seaton, East Devon. After 40 years of writing guidebooks to Africa and South America, she has embraced her chosen home to the extent of insisting that such a large, varied and beautiful county deserved four Slow guides, not just one. Her first visit to the region was as a child on a pony-trekking holiday on Exmoor – a never to be forgotten experience. A keen walker, she has covered many miles of the South West Coast Path and inland footpaths, and most Saturdays see her taking part in one of Devon’s Parkruns (5k, but she’s appropriately slow). She is a productive member of the South West Sculptors’ Association and lectures regularly on travel-related topics at libraries and literary festivals, both in Devon and further afield. In 2008 she was awarded an MBE for services to the tourist industry and to charity and in 2009 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Guild of Travel Writers.

Reviews

Recommended reading Country Life magazine

‘Slow Travel Exmoor National Park goes far beyond conventional guidebooks in celebrating one of England’s most beautiful areas.’ – Exmoor Magazine

Additional Information

Table of Contents

GOING SLOW IN EXMOOR NATIONAL PARK
Exmoor & the hand of man, A taste of Exmoor, Getting there & around, Active Exmoor, Inactive Exmoor, Further information
EXMOOR NATIONAL PARK
WESTERN EXMOOR: COMBE MARTIN & THE COAST
Combe Martin, Beyond Combe Martin
THE INLAND ROUTE: TO LYNTON VIA BLACKMOOR GATE
Parracombe, Challacombe & Pinkery Pond, Exmoor Zoo, Wistlandpound Reservoir, Woody Bay Station
THE COASTAL TRIANGLE
Trentishoe, The Hunter’s Inn, Heddon Valley & Martinhoe, Woody Bay & Lee Bay
LYNTON, LYNMOUTH & AREA
Barbrook & Watersmeet House, Lynton, Lynmouth, The Valley of Rocks
CENTRAL EXMOOR
Doone country, Simonsbath & the River Barle
SOUTHERN EXMOOR
Withypool, Exford, Winsford, Tarr Steps, Hawkridge, Beyond Tarr Steps, Winsford Hill & the Caratacus Stone
PORLOCK & AREA
Porlock, Greencombe Gardens, Porlock Weir, Horner Woods, Stoke Pero & Dunkery Beacon, Tivington & Wootton Courtenay
THE WEST SOMERSET COAST: PORLOCK WEIR TO COUNTY GATE
Culbone Church
EAST OF PORLOCK: THE NATIONAL TRUST VILLAGES
Luccombe & Horner, Allerford, Bossington, Selworthy
MINEHEAD & EASTERN EXMOOR
Minehead, Dunster, Timberscombe, Wheddon Cross & Snowdrop Valley, Dulverton, Exmoor Pony Centre, Walks in the Dulverton area, Wimbleball Lake & Haddon Hill
INDEX