A short walk with lunch in Dulverton on Exmoor.
Total Distance: 8.4km (both ways)
Total Time: ~2.5hours (both ways)
Route Summary
This walk starts at Beech Tree Cross and descends into Dulverton itself for a pub lunch – I would recommend The Bridge at the bottom of the village. The walk back to the cars at Beech Tree Cross is quite a steep pull uphill but is through cool and pleasant woods and past a deer park of sorts.
Parking
As I mentioned, there is space to park cars at Beach Tree Cross – although only one or two. It is also one of the only places around with mobile service, so the parking spot behind the signpost often has phoneseekers in it.
The Route
Walking south from Beech Tree Cross (signed Dulverton) for around 200 meters, you come to an iron framework sign to Oxgrove Farm, and immediately afterwards to a public footpath (on the other side of a hedge, signposted) through a rusty iron gate. The path runs between a hedge on the right and a high deer fence on the left – there are often herds of hundreds of deer in these fields. It leads on down past several fields (Dunkery Beacon, Exmoor’s highest hill, is distantly visible to the right) before bending left into a pine forest. At the bottom of the hill, you come to a wider road (A396), on which you turn right for a few hundred meters before again turning left across a footbridge.
Barlynch
Once over the footbridge, turn right, then follow the curve of the path round practically 180 degrees. Keeping right on this path and following the signs leads you straight up to Hollam Cross. As you ascend, there are views of Baronsdown, on the site of a manor house, and down to Barlynch Farmhouse, near where the Augustinian priory of the same name used to be. From Hollam Cross, the route follows a winding, narrow lane down into the top of Dulverton from where you can descend further to The Bridge at the bottom of the village or visit Dulverton’s restaurant, Woods by turning right just after the petrol station and garage and then left below the church.
The walk back to Beech Tree Cross follows the same route, although the pull from the A396 to the cars is long and steep – but pleasant and rewarding.
Altogether, this is a lovely walk with lunch in Dulverton. Although steep at times, the walk leads you along many, fairly untrodden paths.