Enjoy the fresh air, peace, quiet and beauty of Exmoor on this walk that takes in marshland, woodland and stony beach. Explore the quaint villages of Porlock and Porlock Weir on your way.

Why it’s on my list

Technically this walk is in Somerset, but it’s just a hop, skip and a jump from North Devon. It’s nestled in Exmoor National Park, which extends across both North Devon and Somerset.

I had visited Porlock very briefly many, many years ago – it was the finish point of my bronze Duke of Edinburgh walk. At that time (and at that age!) I wasn’t very interested in what was going on in Porlock and just wanted to get on the minibus home. Now, it felt like an intriguing place we wanted to see. Knowing that it is by the sea and on Exmoor, we thought it would surely be quite nice to visit. And so my husband planned a walk for us one weekend.

Walk Information

Location: Start at the National Trust car park at Bossington, just past Porlock.

Parking: National Trust car park at Bossington, free for National Trust members or £2 for two hours, £5 all day.

Length of walk: Around 5 miles – it took us around 2.5 hours.

Type of walk: Circular walk. This was a reasonably flat walk, there were only a few small inclines to contend with. 

Dog friendly? Yes. There are some bits on or by roads, so you will need to have dogs on leads at a few points.

Overall verdict

This walk was like taking in a deep breath of fresh air, and it was so incredibly peaceful. The marshland and woods were beautiful. There were some lovely shops to visit in both Porlock Weir and Porlock – we even bought ourselves some rhubarb and strawberry jam to take home from a place called Cherry Tree. I’d recommend popping in just to try all the tester jams, curds and chutneys – yum! I finished the day feeling that I would love to live in Porlock and promptly got on to Rightmove when I returned home.

The route

My husband plotted this one on Google Maps so that we could get an idea of how long it would take. Once we got started there were loads of signposts, a super easy walk to follow. It’s also very obvious where Porlock, Porlock Weir and Bossington are at all times, so you can’t go far wrong (as long as it’s not high tide!).

Leaving the car park in Bossington, we took a right and walked past some cute cottages and marveled at the stream running right next to the road – it felt like something straight out of a Studio Ghibli film.

Fairly quickly we came across our first of many signposts, which pointed us towards Porlock Weir. There are signs for Porlock too, but we wanted to go along the coast first and back inland, so we stuck with heading to Porlock Weir.

The path is stony at first and then opens up into a wide, beautiful expanse of marshland. Signposts continue to guide the way.

We came across this interesting boardwalk and, our curiosity piqued, we followed it along. It was lovely to walk along it with the water rushing underneath. The tide was going out and the water was moving really fast – the water level lowered significantly whilst we walked across it to the beach and back again. As the path is submerged by the tide coming in, you’ll want to make sure you aren’t on it when the tide is coming in and it’s nearly submerged.

The path takes you to the stony beach, where you can climb up and see wide views of the sea, coastline, and even Wales across the way. The signage says that you can’t get to Porlock Weir following this stony beach as there is a breach in the stones, so we went back the way we came across the boardwalk and on to the path across the marshland.

There was another boardwalk in place – it’s good to see there is investment in this kind of infrastructure to help lots of people enjoy walks here.

Over a wooden bridge and carrying on along the signed path, we walked past the skeletal remains of trees, which looked like they had stood up to decades of wind, rain and sea.

We carried on along the path, eventually walking along the stony beach into Porlock Weir. We had a lovely potter round looking at the cottages, shops and boats. There is a hotel there and it looked all festive and cosy – I reckon it would be a wonderful place to spend a holiday.

When we were done in Porlock Weir, we walked along the road out of the village for a little bit, until we came across a footpath that led up into woodland. 

After a little bit of a climb, the path levelled out and we walked on the hillside above Porlock Weir and West Porlock, eventually taking us into Porlock village. We did this walk in November and the woodlands were beautiful, with a carpet of fiery orange leaves on the ground.

We followed the road through Porlock, and what a lovely village it is. We walked past a tearoom, a bakery and a home furnishings store where I would gladly have spent a month’s salary. There were convenience stores too, a pharmacy and more little gems – I left thinking that I could definitely live here.

After walking through Porlock High Street, we then came to the fork in the road that we took on the drive to Bossington. We walked past some beautiful houses, which we looked at very enviously, before arriving back in Bossington.

The best

I just loved Porlock Weir and Porlock. Both places were adorable, with little shops selling things like jams, art, homewares and knick knacks, plus little cafes and tearooms. The feeling of the area was so relaxed and peaceful whilst still having plenty of life to it. I could potter round for ages.

Not the best

We were lucky enough to do this walk when the tide had been going out for a few hours. That meant we were able to walk on the boardwalk across the water. A sign said that at high tide it can be submerged by up to 10 metres! The signs warning of path flooding also made me think that occasionally you just wouldn’t be able to do this walk. So I would advise avoiding high tide.

Top tip

You can make this walk longer by combining this with the Bossington Hill and Selworthy walk. That’s what we did and it was a wonderful full day out. I’d recommend doing this and then Bossington Hill/Selworthy so that you’ve got the Selworthy Tearoom near the end (you’ve got to have a good carrot on a stick).