Withypool to Tarr Steps: A Nine-Mile Walk Along the River Barle
The Barle is an impressive tributary of the River Exe – so impressive that one could question why it didn’t win the name game and become ascendant over the mother river. If it had, we’d have Barlemoor, Barleter and Barlemouth on our maps.
It has many a fine moment as it passes Simonsbath, flows under lovely arched Landacre Bridge, slips through handsome little Withypool and ducks and dives through deep woods past famous Tarr Steps and beyond. That latter section makes for a particularly excellent river-side walk.
I can never visit Withypool without recalling what the writer Walter Raymond noted a century ago while describing meetings with various village worthies in a series of articles for The Spectator. What a varied bunch they were… Hurdle-makers, acorn-pickers, stone-crackers, haymakers and, most curious of all, the snail-catcher who collected his prey on behalf of a glass-factory. Alas, I’m ignorant as to how snails can be of any help in the manufacture of glass.
This walk leaves the village by climbing the hill towards Winsford a few hundred metres before crossing a stile on the right which will introduce you to the famous river walk which follows the east bank of the Barle four twisting miles down to the famous clapper bridge at Tarr Steps.
One thing about following a watercourse is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to lose the way. Rivers do not run in circles, so there’s little danger of that classic hiker’s lament of “I’m sure we passed this bit before…”
By the way, being mainly at the bottom of a steep river valley, the path can get pretty muddy so good boots are a must.
But certainly worthwhile. This part of the hike is a stunning mix of sloping meadow and deep oak and beech woodland, always with the fast-running Barle just a few feet away.
A quarter of a mile after leaving the road you might be tempted to skip across the stepping stones which have been placed to accommodate a footpath from the other side of Withypool. Or at least in the summer you might. I have passed by when they were a good two feet under the torrent.
About half-way down the valley the river takes an extravagant sweep and almost curves back on itself as it rounds Pit Wood. There are some old embankments here and close to the path I once found what might be one of Exmoor’s many standing stones. The trouble is that unlike ancient stones in other locations, where they can be as big as Stonehenge, the dolmens or menhirs of Exmoor are often vertically challenged, as they say nowadays.
In other words, many are so small it’s easy to miss them. A problem which faced four-wheel-drive tractor drivers a few years ago as they unwittingly ploughed some of Exmoor’s ancient landmarks into the ground, much to the concern of the National Park. Anyway, this little 18-inch monolith is still at large…
It was in these woods that I once met a national park ecologist, who was out on a lichen hunt: “The thing about Exmoor is that it has some of the purest, unpolluted air in Europe,” he told me. “So it’s a great place to find rare lichens which have, in many cases, died out elsewhere. These extraordinary organisms can act as a sort of barometer for pollution as they are the first thing to go in conditions such as acid rain.”
And so to Tarr Steps with its often busy picnic meadow, excellent pub and, of course, clapper bridge. No-one is sure of the age of this 180-foot slab bridge with its 17 spans – it could be medieval or, if named after the ancient Sanskrit word “tara” meaning crossing, it could be much, much earlier still.
Tennyson came here in the 1800s and he and his son recalled the “tawny cows” cooling off in the river. The beasts belonged to Ashway Farm where the farmer of the time died of an adder bite, but not before having fathered one George Williams. Sir George, as he became, left the lonely moors and went on to become founder of the Y.M.C.A.
As one gazes dreamily at the past it is often the magical names which ring down like the shimmering peals of a distant church. Tarr Steps once belonged to the Rev. D.S. Sweetapple-Horlock who hunted and fished with great enthusiasm and wore riding boots under his cassock as he preached in Hawkridge Church.
Our return journey starts by crossing the clapper-bridge and walking up the drive of the Tarr Steps Hotel, taking a right-hand path to run alongside the wood and on across the fields to Parsonage Farm. Here it’s right again to reach the road up at Westwater Farm.
Now there is a stretch of tarmac up the hill to the cattle grid where you have the choice of the slightly longer, off-road hike around Withypool Hill, or simply carrying on along the lane with its own tremendous views, down to Withypool itself.
My opinion is that you’re home near-as-dammit, so turn left and climb to the top of Withypool Hill where you’ll be treated to one of Exmoor’s most impressive vistas with an ancient tumuli and a nearby Bronze Age stone circle thrown in for good measure.
Either way you’ll have earned a long drink by the fireside at the Royal Oak where you can gaze into your glass and ponder why it was that the local snails were once used in its manufacture.
Walk details
Route: From the village of Withypool south along the River Barle to Tarr Steps, before returning along the hilltops to the west.
Map: Ordnance Survey Explorer OL9 Exmoor.
Distance: Nine miles.
Going: Fairly level with just a couple of steep climbs, but muddy in places.
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