Back in July (I know, I’m so late to the party posting this… life, am I right?), Mum and I were staying at our go to holiday cottage, Periton Court.

Whilst we stayed here we went on lots of walks and I couldn’t not take the opportunity to share some of my favourite hikes with you.

Dunkery Beacon

In a desperate feat to A. go on a long walk, and, B. Not use the car; we did exactly that for 9 hours covering 25 kilometres and a total height gain of 933 meters.

We walked from our accommodation through the woods behind the cottage on Periton Hill (Minehead) which led onto Wootton Common. The views from the top here were amazing which made us all the more excited for the fact that the views could only get better when we reached Dunkery Beacon located at 519 meters up.

We passed through a small village called Brockwell and then picked up the Macmillan Way West footpath to take us directly up to Dunkery beacon.

On a hot day, the height gain was not easy, but we did, fortunately or unfortunately, coincide our walk unknowingly with a mountain bike event meaning we had regular stops to let bikes go whizzing down the hill past us.

Despite the bikes, I did really enjoy the scenery of the footpath up to Dunkery. Exmoor is notorious for it’s heather blanketed hills, but I also find the rocky dusty footpaths quite distinct to the Exmoor hills.

After lots of height gain, we sat at the top of Dunkery Beacon with our lunch and enjoyed the view. Although, it was rather chilly up there so we didn’t stick around for too long.

From here we descended off the other side down to Stoke Pero where we picked up the footpath into Horner Woods, one of our favourite locations on Exmoor.

Walking through the woods alongside the river, fittingly named Horner Water, the dog found a new lease of life and energetically ran to the water, and in, and out, and back to us, on a continuous cycle.

We stopped for a cuppa tea and cake in a tea room in Horner for a much needed rest before we took on the challenge of getting back to our accommodation from here. We still had just over a quarter of the distance left to do so we got back on our feet and carried on– I have to admit, at this point I was knackered and had very sore feet.

We made it back, reheated some left over dinner from the night before and went to bed feeling very chuffed (and tired) from the days walk.

Porlock Weir

Porlock Weir was our ‘recovery walk’ following the big hike up to Dunkery Beacon the day prior. It was still a 12km walk but considerably less height gain.

Despite being a writer and a wanna be wordsmith, I’m not sure my words will be able to do justice to describe how dramatic the scenery was along the coastline to Porlock Weir. We walked from Bossington, and I was truly amazed by the landscape here, I think you’ll have to look at the photos to see what I mean:

We stopped for a coffee in a pub at Porlock Weir whilst we waited for a rather big rain shower to pass before continuing on through the woods in West Porlock, through to Porlock town and back to Bossington.

Cow Castle

Despite being a rather wet day, I LOVED this walk.

I actually chose this walk due to my research into places of where I could wild swim on Exmoor. I did indeed swim at Cows Castle which you can read about in my blog on wild swimming in Exmoor by clicking here.

We parked at Ashcombe car park in Simonsbath and walked from there along the public footpath past Winstitchen Farm, Pickedstones Farm, and down the hill from to join the Two Moors Way trail.

The Two Moors Way follows the river Barle and past Cow Castle, an Iron Age hillfort (aka. a mound). It was beautiful to walk alongside the river Barle especially watching it first emerge into sight from the ferns.

We then followed the Two Moors Way footpath directly back to Simonsbath. If you want to directly go to Cow Castle then this is the best route to take, but we Purvis’ always like to make a walk circular.

Watersmeet

This was Mum’s chosen walk for her birthday.

She had walked it previously with her Ramblers group and decided that she wanted to do it for her birthday, and who am I to blame her, it was amazing!

We parked at County Gate in Malmsmead which is a National Trust car park (so free parking if you are a member like us). It took roughly 2 hours in total to get to Watersmeet from there but that is including a quick stop for me to have a swim at Rockford, which you can read about here.

We followed the East Lyn river through beautiful woodland to Watersmeet where we stopped for lunch in the National Trust café for a jacket potato and of course a slice of cake for Mum’s birthday.

Refuelled, we the followed the river Hoaroak Water up to the road and then climbed Cheirton hill – where we discovered that it’s not the comfiest to climb lots of elevation after a big jacket potato lunch – and emerged into open moorland.

It was quite the experience to go from walking through woodland for hours to then being totally out in the open, it was really refreshing.

We eventually dropped down into Doone Valley and followed Badgworthy Water back to Malmsmead. This walk totalled in at a hearty 23km.

After reading this blog, I’m sure it will be of no surprise to you that we did a lot of walking on this holiday beyond just these main hikes. We also went for a walk to Doniford bay from Williton, we had a walk around Stogumber, and revisited Horner Woods. It was a much needed week of walking for Mum and I.

Do you have any hikes we should make sure to walk next time we are on Exmoor?