Doone valley

About trip

1 Cross Robber's Bridge and follow the road to Oareford. Turn left on the bridleway signed 'Larkbarrow'. After a mile (1.6km), at a gate on to open moor with only a faint track continuing ahead, bear left. Follow a fence, continuing over the moorland crest to the corner of the large field. 2 Go through a gate on the left, then a narrow gate on the right on to rougher moorland. Take a green path ahead for 140yds (128m). Here bear slightly right on a smaller path to go through a shallow col or gap. Now a much wider path arrives from the right. Bear left to a gate in a bank marking the edge of an Exmoor Park Access Area. 3 The path ahead leads down, with a bank on its left, to a signpost. Turn right ('Doone Valley') on a clear path that gradually climbs to a gate in the Access Area bank - it runs down to a footbridge over Badgworthy Water. 4 Turn right, downstream. After a plank footbridge a gate leads into the hummocks of the lost medieval village. Go straight up to a wide path and turn right. Continue down the valley to a large footbridge leading across to Cloud Farm. 5 Pass to the left of Cloud Farm, on to a track that passes through a farm shed, then climbs out of the valley. Where it ends, follow the lower side of a field to the edge of a little wooded combe. Turn right for 70yds (64m) to a gate on the left. A track passes above the combe and turns down beyond it. Where the track bends right, keep straight downhill through waymarked gates, to turn left on the valley road below beside Oare church. 6 Turn right, signposted 'Porlock', and follow the road for 130yds (118m) to cross Oare Water. Turn right along the riverside to cross a small stream (there's no footbridge, although one is marked on the OS map). A few paces further on, turn up left to a small, abandoned house and then turn right between gorse bushes. A grass path leads straight up a sharp spur. It continues beside a fence to a stile; keep ahead, across heather, to a plantation. 7 Turn right along a track, and at the plantation's corner keep ahead on a smaller track ('Oareford'). This bends left near a field corner; here keep ahead on a path towards some tall trees. Pass to the right of these trees, which mark ancient field edges, to a small gate. A path leads steeply down to a footbridge into Oareford. Turn left to return to your car.