Exmoor
Exmoor Walks: Moorland, Coast and Valley Routes
Looking for the best Exmoor walks? This complete guide brings together my favourite routes across the high moor, wooded valleys and dramatic coastline. Whether you’re after a short riverside stroll or a longer hike to sweeping viewpoints, you’ll find detailed guides, photos and local tips here.
Browse my full collection of Exmoor walks below, organised by landscape and difficulty.
Why Exmoor Is Unlike Any Other National Park
A tribal chieftain from a land-locked African republic once came to visit my father and when we took him onto Exmoor to see the sights he beamed with delight. Seeing the wide open moors with groups of deer and wild horses dotted here and there, he claimed it was a little similar to the savannah at home. Seeing the lush tree cover in the deep river valleys, he said it reminded him of the jungle. But when we came to the edge of one of the big ridges, he burst into tears.
Far below was the ocean – something he had never seen before. And to come across it in an environment that reminded him of his own diverse and beautiful land was overwhelming for him.
That is the unique beauty of Exmoor. If it had been situated in some landlocked part of the country it would have been wonderful enough – but because it is perched beside the sea there is something about the nation’s least visited national park that pushes far more buttons in the way of expectation and excitement.
The official area of Exmoor covers 693 square kilometres, with approximately two thirds located in West Somerset and one third in North Devon. To the north it is bordered by the vertiginous shores of the Bristol Channel; inland it rolls away in great sweeps of moorland broken by wooded combes and river valleys.
It is sparsely populated – just over 10,000 residents scattered among farms and villages – and that remoteness has preserved something rare in modern England: a genuine sense of space.
Exmoor Walks: Moorland, Coast and Valley Routes
No other place in the region lends itself so well to walking. The hills boast huge areas of open access land where you can wander almost wherever you wish. Because of the topography, the area is rich in circular routes that carry you through contrasting habitats in a single outing.
You might spend the morning above the dramatic twin towns of Lynton and Lynmouth, ride the cliff railway and stroll through the Valley of Rocks; enjoy lunch in a moorland inn; then escape entirely onto high heathland in the afternoon where skylarks hover and the wind carries the tang of the sea.
A good deal of Exmoor may be empty, but none of it is dull. The fact that it remains the country’s least visited national park is one of England’s more agreeable mysteries.
Best Exmoor Walks by Area
Moorland Walks on Exmoor
Explore high, open moorland routes with sweeping views, including Dunkery Beacon and the remote Chains.
River and Valley Walks
Follow wooded river valleys such as Tarr Steps, Watersmeet and the East Lyn.
Coastal Walks on Exmoor
Discover dramatic cliff-top routes around Lynton, Lynmouth and the Valley of Rocks.
Wildlife of Exmoor: Red Deer and Wild Ponies
Being so thinly settled, Exmoor is a haven for wildlife. Most famously it plays host to England’s largest herd of wild red deer, numbering somewhere around 3,000 animals. Secretive though they are, they can be seen if you know where to look and carry a decent pair of binoculars.
The national park’s other great emblem is the Exmoor pony. These hardy creatures are thought to be more closely related to the original wild horse than almost any other surviving breed. There are only around 1,100 in the world, with some 160 still wandering freely across the moor.
Exmoor’s wilderness status owes much to the deer. In 1204 King John disafforested Devon “up to the metes and bounds of Exmoor and Dartmoor” and for centuries thereafter the hills were preserved as royal hunting forest.
Prehistoric Exmoor: Stones, Barrows and Hillforts
People have lived on what is now Exmoor National Park for at least 5,000 years. The vertically lodged stones in circles and long straight rows are the legacy of Neolithic communities who cleared primeval woodland with stone tools and shaped the upland plateau into the moorland we recognise today.
Exmoor is rich in barrows – sepulchral humps scattered from the Brendon Hills to the lonely Chains. Two of the best known, Joaney How and Robin How, sit on the slopes of Dunkery Beacon.
The hill-forts – often misleadingly called castles – crown remote eminences such as Cow Castle in the Barle Valley and Bury Castle above Selworthy. They are not crenellated stone strongholds, but earthwork enclosures whose low banks still hold a savage atmosphere. You can imagine moor-dwellers retreating there in unsettled times.
Nowhere is prehistoric engineering more elegantly expressed than at Tarr Steps, the ancient clapper bridge across the River Barle, believed to date from around 1000 BC. Some of its stones weigh five tons.
The Rivers of Exmoor
Any mention of Exmoor’s waterways must begin with the river that gives the place its name. The Exe rises in the boggy uplands of The Chains and, rather than flowing north to the nearby coast, turns south on a 60-mile journey to the sea at Exmouth.
The Barle also emerges from The Chains, passing Pinkery Pond – a high-moor reservoir constructed in the early nineteenth century. From there it winds through deep valleys before eventually joining the Exe.
To the north, the Lyn Rivers tumble through some of the steepest wooded combes in England. The East Lyn gathers strength through Brendon and Rockford before meeting tributaries at Watersmeet. In their final mile the gradient steepens dramatically as the rivers plunge toward Lynmouth – a topography that helps explain the devastating flood of 1952.
Horner Water rises in lonely upland folds south of Lucott Cross before descending into one of the largest tracts of semi-natural woodland in the country. More than 330 species of lichen thrive here, many surviving only because the air is so clean.
Forest Law and the Knights of Exmoor
Visitors are often puzzled by the historic reference to “Exmoor Forest”, for trees are scarce on the central plateau. The term referred not to woodland but to a royal hunting preserve governed by Forest Law.
From the thirteenth century onward, wardens and officials enforced those laws – sometimes harshly – across the moor. In 1651 the remaining forest passed from Crown ownership into private hands.
The most transformative figure arrived in 1818 when John Knight purchased the central moors for £50,000. Determined to improve and cultivate the land, he built a 29-mile boundary wall, new roads and the dam at Pinkery Pond. His son Frederick continued the agricultural experiment, establishing remote farms and importing sheep from Scotland.
Ultimately the harsh geology – the iron pan that restricts drainage – defeated large-scale arable farming. The Knights showed extraordinary determination, but Exmoor resisted complete domestication.
We should be grateful. An Exmoor of wheat fields would not possess the wild, untamed character that makes it so compelling today.
A Landscape That Rewards Exploration
A visit to Exmoor should be more than a dash to one or two beauty spots. It should be an immersion – in moorland wind, in wooded silence, in deep time and older stories.
It is a place that rewards those who wander.