Exmoor Self-Guided Walking Tour 2024

You’re welcome to check in from 4pm onwards. 

Accommodation: Holnicote House (D)

Check out the Discovery Point Library at the country house – stocked with maps, walks and local area information. 

For stays of 3 nights, you will have 2 days at your choice.

For stays of 4 nights, you will have 3 days at your choice.

For stays of 7 nights, you will have 6 days at your choice.

Accommodation: Holnicote House (B, L, D)

Enjoy a leisurely breakfast before making your way home. (B)

Our easiest routes allow plenty of time to savour the beautiful scenery. All our walk notes suggest the best places to stop, great pubs, and tea rooms.

• Holnicote Estate walk – 1 mile
• Selworthy Beacon from the car park – 1 mile
• Dunkery Beacon from the car park – 2 miles
• Selworthy village – 2 miles
• Valley of Rocks – 2 miles

Some longer walks, generally on good paths. Experience the beauty of Exmoor as you walk through delightful moorland scenery.

• Lynmouth to Watersmeet – 4 miles
• Dunkery Beacon from Webbers Post – 4 miles
• Selworthy Villages walk – 4½ miles
• Webbers Post – 5 miles
• Around Dunster – 5 miles
• Selworthy Beacon – 5 miles
• Selworthy Beacon & Hurlstone Point – 6 miles
• Around Lynton & Watersmeet – 7 miles

For those who enjoy striding out. We’ve included some longer walks across Exmoor and along the coast.

• Quantocks Circuit – 8 miles
• Selworthy: Coast, Views & Villages – 9 miles
• Dunkery Beacon – 9 miles
• Dunkery Beacon & Horner Water – 12 miles
• Coast Path & East Lyn River – 13 miles

Lying near the attractive village of Selworthy, in the heart of the Exmoor National Park, historic Holnicote House stands within a series of peaceful gardens with spreading lawns. Once the centrepiece of an extensive 12,500 acre estate, the charming and characterful house was gifted to the National Trust in 1944. Since then it has been reimagined as a walkers’ retreat, with wonderful access to the countryside. As well as 32 delightful bedrooms, there are two comfortable lounges and a sociable bar. The landscaped gardens are still part of the wider Holnicote Estate and provide a wonderful area to wander. Outside the house, explore wild Exmoor, walk in the Quantocks, climb Dunkery Beacon and stroll on the Somerset Coast Path with the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, drop in Dunster Castle, ride a Victorian cliff railway and watch for wildlife including the majestic red stags.

Less than a mile from Holnicote House is Selworthy village. At first glance the thatched cottages seem typical of many ancient settlements in this area. However, Selworthy is not as old as it looks, having been rebuilt in 1828 by Sir Thomas Acland. Sir Thomas was a philanthropist and designed the ‘model’ village himself to provide housing for the aged and infirm of the estate. He used traditional designs and materials to create a deliberately old-fashioned village.

The West Somerset Railway is Britain’s longest steam railway with a line which goes from Minehead to Bishops Lydyard. Now lovingly restored by volunteers, the line recreates a classic Great Western Railway branch line with steam trains operating daily from April to October. Minehead station is 10 minutes’ drive from Selworthy, or can be reached on the number 300 bus.

An historic castle transformed into a comfortable stately home for the Luttrell family. Some highlights include the ‘modern’ 1950s kitchen and the snooker room. Dunster Castle sits in extensive gardens, complete with its working watermill. The adjacent town of Dunster is full of character and also well worth a visit.

The quaint Victorian town of Lynton sits high on a hill, overlooking the coast and Lynmouth harbour. The two settlements are connected by the historic cliff railway. The short walk from Lynton to the Valley of Rocks is highly recommended.

The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) and his wife Sara lived in the village of Nether Stowey, about 45 minutes’ drive from Selworthy, from 1796 to 1799. In 1909 Coleridge Cottage was acquired by the National Trust, and later restored and opened to the public.

Hestercombe Gardens, around an hour’s drive away near Taunton, were constructed in three periods – a landscape garden from the 1750s, a Victorian terrace and shrubbery from the 1870s, and Edwardian gardens of 1904-1908 designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll.

Arlington Court, about an hour’s drive away near Barnstaple, is a fine Regency house set in an extensive estate. The grounds include a formal Victorian garden whilst the stables house the National Trust’s carriage collection of over fifty horse-drawn vehicles.