Lynton, Lynmouth and Exmoor
I had heard about the beauty of Exmoor and the Northwest Devon Coastal Path. In fact, Lynton and Lynmouth where known by the Victorians as Little Switzerland. John and I finally had the chance to see it for ourselves. It did remind me a bit of Switzerland -- it certainly has it's own spectacular beauty with hints of alpine charm. It very quickly became another one of our favorites places in England. It's one of those places we could happily return to again and again.
Two villages on the coast, one about 500 feet above the other, Lynmouth is the harbor village below and Lynton is built on the cliff above. They are connected by very steep roads, trails, and fortunately a funicular cliff railway.
Lynton and Lynmouth are also known as the walking capital of Exmoor. One of the most popular walks leads west along the coastal path to the Valley of Rocks with its wonderful scenery and a flock of wild goats. Even on a lightly misty morning, we were awestruck with the beauty and ruggedness along this path. The path here is quite flat and steady, although the drop down to the sea is steep and not for anyone afraid of heights.
About a mile from Lynton is a rock formation called "White Lady" whose supposed shape of a woman's face appears in the cracks between the boulders making up Castle Rock (I never could see a face in the formation). From here you can continue west along the spectacular coastal path or there is an easy loop back to the town of Lynton - about a two-mile walk in total.
The other popular walk from Lynmouth is the National Trust path up the river gorge to Watersmeet where the Trust has a shop and a tea room. This path is one of the loveliest river walks we have found in England.
The sound of rushing water, chirping birds, and the lush green dotted with bright bursts of wild flowers make this walk breathtaking.
The path leads to Watersmeet House, a former fishing lodge which dates from approximately 1832. It stands at the bottom of a deep gorge at the confluence of the East Lyn River and Hoar Oak Water. The site has been a tea garden since 1901 and owned by the National Trust since 1996. They have delicious scones here, Devon style, which means you put the clotted cream on first then the strawberry jam.
One of the reasons we look forward to returning is that Watersmeet House is the starting-off point for some 40 miles of woodland, streamside and seaside walks. We covered just over 12 miles of those trails. I'd love to walk the rest.
The East Lyn and the Hoaroak river combine just inland from the harbor at Watersmeet and sweep down the gorge where the National Trust path runs, through the village, to the sea. On August 15, 1952, a terrible flash flood swept down these rivers through village of Lynmouth. Thirty five people died as a a torrent of water and thousands of tons of rock poured off the saturated moorland and into the village destroying homes, bridges, shops and hotels. It was one of the worst flash floods in British history.
You can still see some scars from the terrible flood and there is a museum in Lynmouth that contains photographs, newspaper reports and a scale model of the village, showing how it looked before the flood. It's well worth a visit.
We stayed in a lovely Guesthouse, the South View Guest House in Lynton. It was clean, quiet, comfortable, reasonable, with delicious breakfasts and the a delightful host and hostess.
Our guest house wasn't far from the famous and ingenious cliff railway which connects the two villages. In 1887, the town's main benefactors Sir George Newnes and Sir Thomas Hewitt began building the funicular cliff railway. It opened in 1890 and is the highest and the steepest totally water powered railway in the world!
The rail system runs using the weight of water and passengers as a counterbalance. The car at the top has water poured into it's tank (from a nearby stream) making it slightly heavier than the car at the bottom. When the breaks are released on both cars, the weight of the top car combined with with gravity send it down the track pulling the bottom car up the track. In other words, no other power is used other than the weight of the water and the passengers. I think that is rather ingenious green technology, especially for a 1887 invention that is still working perfectly today. In fact, there has never been an accident on this funicular since it started running!
About 3 miles east of Lynmouth, the Exmoor moorlands begin. That is where we spotted a small heard of "wild" Exmoor ponies. They are wild in the sense that the herds roam freely on the moor, but they all belong to someone. A few years ago people were afraid that the ponies might become extinct so the National Park Authority bought young stock and now owns two herds.
While we mostly walked the coastal trail and the beautiful Watersmeet National Trust trail, there are endless walks out on the moorland. We saved those for another day.
The call of exploring the northwest coastal path of Devon and Cornwall pulled us westward. Next stop, Tingagel.
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