A dark, stubby breed, the ponies have broad faces and thick coats adapted to their environment.įor 30 miles to the south, Exmoor National Park stretches over rolling moors covered with heather, bracken and gorse. A herd of wild Exmoor ponies grazes contentedly, unmindful of the chill wind off the Atlantic.

At the top, the views sweep over the coast and the broad Bristol Channel to South Wales in the distance, and south to the horizon across ripples of rock and heather. At the quaint village of Porlock the road bobs and weaves two miles up Porlock Hill at a 25 percent gradient to the northern plateau of Exmoor. One of the three remaining Butlins holiday camps dominates the seafront.įrom here, the A39 follows the channel coast all the way to Cornwall. Minehead has long been a seaside playground for West Somerset. Park in the convenient lot on the outskirt of the village and walk down an unspoiled, cobbled medieval street (complete with early-17th-century timbered Yarn Market) to Dunster Castle. You might detour through the village of Nether Stowey for a visit to the cottage of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (in season) or a bit of refreshment at the Ancient Mariner pub across the street.Ī couple of miles before hitting the coast at Minehead, the medieval village of Dunster is something not to be passed by. This is not dual-carriageway, but a country drive through the hedgerows of West Somerset. There’s really only one way in and out of the area that’s the A39 west from the M5 at Bridgenorth. Train lines don’t run to this part of the country even Brunel would have had a hard time building a line along this coast. Perhaps that’s one of the elements that make the region so charming. Unlike its mythical sisters, though, Exmoor and the Channel coastline do exist-it’s just difficult to get to them.

It’s a place to be imaginatively conjured rather than actually explored. Atlantis, Avalon, Camelot and Shangri-la: For most people, Lorna Doone Country has that same mystical quality. The Romance of Exmoor and the North Devon CoastĮxmoor and the lush, sheer coastline of North Devon may be the most famous landscape never visited.

Lorna doone kindle