Exmoor
Still England but another world...
Lynton & Lynmouth
Exmoor is so very rich in history, culture and beauty and yet many of us seldom explore what we have in our very own back garden!
Making for one of Devon and the South West’s prettiest picture postcard resorts, the twin villages of Lynton & Lynmouth in North Devon are situated on the dramatic and rugged Heritage Coast of Exmoor National Park. Lynton at the top of a gorge is connected by the world famous water powered funicular cliff railway to the harbour village of Lynmouth below.
Lynton & Lynmouth were “discovered” in the first decade of the 19th century when the Napoleonic Wars closed the Continent to travellers. Unable to make their Grand Tours of Europe due to the conflict visitors to Lynton & Lynmouth and the Lyn Valley area christened it “Little Switzerland” as it was reminiscent and evocative of their sojourns through the Alps en route to Italy.
It’s spectacular beauty inspired famous literary figures such as Wordsworth, Coleridge Blackmore and Shelley.
Lynton & Lynmouth are situated on the north coast of Devon in Exmoor National Park on the A39 between Minehead and Barnstaple.
For public transport information CLICK HERE
Exmoor National Park
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Greatest concentration and
largest Red Deer herd in the country
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Over 1200 kms/750 miles of way
marked "Rights Of Way"
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Highest coastal cliffs in England - 800ft/244m
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69,280 hectares/267 sq. miles in area
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Inspired writers the like of Coleridge, Shelley,
Southey, Wordsworth, R.D. Blackmore to Ted
Hughes, Henry Williamson, Margaret Drabble,
James Herbert and Dick Francis
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England's Tallest Tree! - On the Crown
Estate's Dunster Forest Tall Trees Trail
a Douglas Fir, Pseudotsuga Menziesii, has
been measured at more than 60m-197ft tall
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South West Coast Path, Britain's longest
national trail, extends all along the Exmoor coast
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Longest stretch of naturally
wooded coastline in the British Isles
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2nd highest tidal range
in the world along the Exmoor coast
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Rarer than the Chinese panda the
Exmoor Pony is a unique species and
oldest pure-bred pony in the country
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Dunkery Beacon is Exmoor's highest point
- 519m/1704ft
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Exmoor was once a Royal Forest
and hunting ground
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1000 different flowering plants
and grasses flourish on Exmoor
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Exmoor's coastline has gained
recognition as a Heritage Coast
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Exmoor's cliffs provide one of the longest
and most isolated seacliff traverses in Britain
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Over 550 kms/340 miles of bike trails
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Tarr Steps is the oldest and
longest clapper bridge in the country
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A wealth of local folklore, legends and
seasoned tales including the Beast of Exmoor,
a cryptozoological cat, a phantom cat that
is reported to roam Exmoor
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Culbone church, situated in a tiny hamlet in Exmoor is reportedly the smallest church in use in the country. At only 35 feet long, the Church of St Beuno at Culbone has been mentioned in both the Domesday Book and the Guinness Book of Records.