Heddon's Mouth Circular walk

Short walk to Heddon's Beach, and along the South West Coast Path from a remote country pub. Travel by car only.

Length 9.1km / 5.6 miles
OS Maps Explorer 9 (Exmoor)
Toughness 4/10 - Easy going on good paths - long slow climb to the top, and a long slow descent
Walk Notes

This is a popular walk from the Hunter's Inn - a remote country pub - along a valley to Headon's Mouth beach. Then its along the South West Coast Path (SWCP) to Woody Bay. Then its back along a parallel but higher path at the top of the cliff.

Optionally, you can walk down to Woody Bay, returning on the same path.

This is a car-only walk - the local roads are narrow, and not served by buses, which have to detour inland at this point.

Travel

Park at The Hunter's Inn, EX31 4PY

Lunch and Tea
Exmoor

Exmoor is a small National Park (NP) on the north coast of Somerset and Devon. It has a dramtic rocky coastline with the highest sea cliffs and largest coastal forest in England. Inland are steep sides valleys which lead up to bleak moorland plateau ("The Chains") and the NP's highest point - Dunkery Beacon at 519m / 1703 feet. The southern side of the plateau, bisected by steep valleys slopes much more gently, as is used for sheep farming. Formerley a royal forest, the NP has few towns, but 2 large seaside resorts outside it - Minehead and Barnstable. See Exmoor's wiki page

Travel

There are no train stations nearby. To get here, take 1) a National Express Coach to Minehead or 2) a train to Taunton, and then a bus to Minehead.

Regular buses run along the coast on the SWCP day 1 route to Porlock, then a summer only services along the SWCP day 2 route to Lynton. The coastal road heads inland, and doesn't rejoin the coast until the end of SWCP day 3 route - a summer weekend only bus service. NB the #300 bus along the coast runs in 2 sections: i) Minehead to Lynmouth, and ii) Lynmouth to Illfracombe

Bus Routes

  • National Express : London to Minehead
  • #28 Taunton (train station) to Minehead : year round
  • #39 Minehead (day 1 start) to Porlock and Porlock Weir (day 1 end / day 2 start) : year round
  • #300 Minehead (day 1 start) to Porlock (near day 1 end / day 2 start), County Gate (day 2), Lynmouth and Lynton (day 2 end) : April to October, reduced service on Sunday
  • #300 Lynmouth (day 2 end / day 3 start) to Combe Martin (day 3 end / day 4 start) and Illfracombe (day 4) : April, October: weekends; May-September: daily
Profile
Help Us!

After the walk, please leave a comment, it really helps. Thanks!

You can also upload photos to the SWC Group on Flickr (upload your photos) and videos to Youtube. This walk's tags are:

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By Car

Start Heddon's Mouth, EX31 4PY Map Directions

Map Walk This walk requires an OS map and a compass or GPS for navigation. You can print out OS maps using the link above.
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Help

National Rail: 03457 48 49 50 • Traveline (bus times): 0871 200 22 33 (12p/min) • TFL (London) : 0343 222 1234

Version

Apr-17 Andrew

Copyright © Saturday Walkers Club. All Rights Reserved. No commercial use. No copying. No derivatives. Free with attribution for one time non-commercial use only. www.walkingclub.org.uk/site/license.shtml

Walk Directions

The directions for this walk are also in a PDF (link above) which you can download on to a Kindle, tablet, or smartphone. OpenStreetMap (not OS) mapping is used in the PDF for licence reasons.

Map 1
© Saturday Walkers Club. All Rights Reserved. No commercial use. No copying. No derivatives. Free with attribution for one time non-commercial use only. www.walkingclub.org.uk/site/license.shtml