Within an hour
Days out from Lynton and Lynmouth
The villages fill several days on their own. When you want a change of scene, the rest of North Devon and West Somerset is within an hour.
Everything here is further than it looks. The roads are single-carriageway A-roads and moorland lanes, and an hour on the map is an hour and a quarter in July. These are the places worth the drive, roughly in order of distance.
-
AI-generated image 01
West along the coast
Combe Martin
Twenty minutes west, at the end of a long single street running down to a sheltered cove. The closest thing to a conventional seaside village in reach, with rock pools at low tide and a coast path that climbs Great Hangman, the highest sea cliff in England, immediately to the east.
Ilfracombe
Thirty-five minutes. A working Victorian resort town with a harbour, a tunnel-fed tidal bathing pool, a cluster of galleries and the boats out to Lundy. Bigger and busier than anything nearer, and useful for a wet day.
The Atlantic beaches
Woolacombe, Putsborough, Croyde and Saunton, between forty-five minutes and an hour. Three miles of sand at Woolacombe, surf at Croyde, and the biggest low-tide beach in the region at Saunton. See surfing and swimming.
Clovelly and Hartland
About an hour and a quarter south-west, and worth the drive once. Clovelly is a privately owned village of cobbled stepped street descending to a harbour, closed to cars, with an admission charge. The Hartland peninsula beyond it has some of the most violent coastal geology in England - rock strata folded almost vertical - and a historic house and gardens set back from it.
-
AI-generated image 02
East along the coast
Porlock and Porlock Weir
Thirty minutes over Countisbury and down Porlock Hill, or gently via the toll road. Porlock is a proper village with a good high street; Porlock Weir, a mile on, is a small shingle harbour that is among the prettiest stops on this coast. Both sit on the 21 Mile Drive.
Dunster
About an hour east. A medieval village with a castle above it, a yarn market in the middle of the street and an unusual amount of intact old building. The most concentrated bit of history within reach.
Minehead
Forty-five minutes, and the eastern terminus of the West Somerset steam railway as well as the start of the South West Coast Path.
-
AI-generated image 03
Inland
Dunkery Beacon
Forty minutes and a short walk from the car to the cairn at 1,705 feet, the highest point on Exmoor, with a view over the Channel to Wales on a clear day.
Barnstaple
Forty minutes west and the practical town for this area - the pannier market, the supermarkets, the railway station and the Tarka Trail. See market days.
Simonsbath, Exford and Withypool
Half an hour into the middle of the moor. Small, quiet, and the reason to go is the road there rather than the destination.
Inland means the moor proper: Simonsbath at the head of the Barle, Exford with its horses, Withypool and Winsford in the valleys south of the high ground, and Dunkery Beacon standing over all of it. The distances look small and drive long, because the roads follow the combes rather than the map, and that is the point of going.
-
AI-generated image 04
How to fit them into a week
Nothing on this list is far in miles and everything is far in minutes. A workable week keeps two or three days entirely local - the villages, the coast path, Watersmeet, the Valley of the Rocks - and spends the rest on one destination per day rather than two. Pairing works where the geography does: Porlock with Dunster, Ilfracombe with the beaches, Clovelly on its own because it eats a day.
A workable week alternates. One day local and on foot - Watersmeet, the Valley of the Rocks, the harbour - then one day out with the car, west along the coast or south onto the moor, then local again. Trying to do a long drive every day turns a small area into a lot of driving, which is the commonest way to waste a week here.
Common questions
What can you do near Lynton and Lynmouth for a day out?
Combe Martin and Ilfracombe west along the coast, Porlock and Dunster east, the Atlantic beaches around Woolacombe and Croyde, Dunkery Beacon on the moor, and Clovelly on the Hartland peninsula.
How far is Clovelly from Lynton?
About an hour and a quarter by road to the south-west. It is a privately owned village, closed to cars, with a stepped cobbled street to the harbour and an admission charge.
What is the nearest town to Lynton and Lynmouth?
Barnstaple, about forty minutes west - the pannier market, supermarkets, the railway station and the Tarka Trail. Minehead is about forty-five minutes east.
How long does it take to drive to Woolacombe from Lynton?
Around forty-five minutes via Blackmoor Gate, longer in summer traffic.
