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Exmoor

          Still England but another world...

Lynton & Lynmouth

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.

Exmoor National Park

• Greatest concentration of Red Deer in England 

• Over 1200 kms/750 miles of way 
                          marked "Rights Of Way" 

• Highest coastal cliffs in England - 800ft/244m 

• 69,280 hectares/267 sq. miles in area

• Inspired writers the like of  Coleridge, Shelley, 
   Southey, Wordsworth, R.D. Blackmore to Ted
      Hughes, Henry Williamson, Margaret Drabble,  
                         James Herbert and Dick Francis

• 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

• South West Coast Path, Britain's longest 
   national trail, extends all along the Exmoor coast

• Longest stretch of naturally 
                   wooded coastline in the British Isles 

• 2nd highest tidal range 
              in the world along the Exmoor coast 

• Rarer than the Chinese panda 
              the Exmoor Pony is a unique species   

• Dunkery Beacon is Exmoor's highest point
                                               - 519m/1704ft

• Exmoor was once a Royal Forest 
                                     and hunting ground

• 1000 different flowering plants 
                           and grasses flourish on Exmoor

• Exmoor's coastline has gained 
                       recognition as a Heritage Coast

• Exmoor's cliffs provide one of the longest 
        and most isolated seacliff traverses in Britain

• Over 550 kms/340 miles of bike trails

• 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