Exmoor, West Somerset, North Devon. October 2021

 For our first walking trip away since 2019, three of us returned to Minehead in October 2021. 

Having driven down in the morning, we arrived in time to have lunch at the Hood Arms in Kilve. Kilve is a small village at the foot of the Quantocks, an area much loved by Wordsworth and Coleridge, both of whom lived in the area for a while. After lunch we walked down the appropriately named Sea Lane to the beach about a mile away. The rocks here contain oil shale and formed the basis of an embryonic, but ultimately unsuccessful, oil shale industry in the 1920s. A retort dating from that time still stands near the beach. 

We had supper in the Old Ship Aground by Minehead harbour, a pub which has prospered since being taken over by a local farming family.

The following day saw us walking down through the town, across the A39 and then steeply up through the woods onto the ridge that runs south of Minehead. From a height of 230 m (750 feet) there are spectacular views over Minehead, North Hill and along the Bristol Channel coast. We walked east along the Macmillan Way for a couple of miles until we descended into the medieval village of Dunster. Lunch was taken in the garden of the unpretentious, but very welcoming, Stag’s Head Inn. 

After lunch we continued our walk north through the village to the coast, via Dunster station on the preserved West Somerset Railway. There was much to interest us here, with an ex-London Routemaster bus in the station yard and the imminent arrival of a steam train from Bishops Lydeard. Trains normally run into Minehead, but level crossing improvements at Minehead require them to terminate at Dunster. After seeing the locomotive run around its train for the return journey, we carried on towards Dunster beach and made our way along the coast path, past the West Somerset golf course and back to Minehead. 

That evening we adjourned to the bar of the Luttrell Arms in Dunster for supper.
On day 3 we headed west along the A39 through Porlock and into north Devon, to park in the Valley of Rocks, next to what must be one of the most picturesque cricket pitches in the country. The feral goats were enjoying the autumn sunshine as we walked west along the valley. At Lee Abbey we started climbing the steep hill; well worth it for the views up and down the coast and over the valley several hundred feet below. 
After a mile or two we descended into Lynton, hoping to get lunch at the Crown Hotel. We were disappointed to find that they were closed until 2 pm but a ‘phone call confirmed that the Blue Ball in nearby Countisbury was open, so we walked back to the car along the cliff path and drove there in time to have a pleasant lunch on their terrace overlooking Countisbury church and the East Lyn valley.

In the evening we returned to the Stag’s Head Inn in Dunster for supper. On the way home the next morning, we did a short walk at Luxborough, stopping to take a look at the attractive church with its unusual tower.