Exmoor National Park
Exmoor National Park on the Somerset and Devon border is one of the smallest but most varied of England's national parks, a 693-square-kilometre landscape of high moorland, deeply incised wooded valleys, small farms and villages and a dramatic Atlantic coast that together create one of the finest upland landscapes in the southwest. Designated in 1954, the park combines the openness and wildness of its moorland core with the intimate, sheltered quality of the combes and valleys that cut into it, providing a contrast of landscape characters unusual within such a compact area.
The high moorland of Exmoor, particularly the central plateau around Dunkery Beacon which rises to 519 metres as the highest point in the park, has the character of genuine upland wilderness: open, exposed and subject to Atlantic weather that can transform conditions rapidly in any season. The red deer of Exmoor, the largest wild land mammal in Britain, are the most celebrated wildlife of the park and herds of these animals on the open moorland or in the valley woodlands are one of the defining experiences of any Exmoor visit. The Exmoor pony, an ancient native breed of great hardiness, has grazed this moorland for centuries and small herds can be seen across the open ground.
The Exmoor coast between Minehead and Combe Martin forms the highest sea cliffs in England, with the Great Hangman reaching 318 metres above the Bristol Channel, and the South West Coast Path traversing this section provides walking of exceptional quality with continuous Atlantic views. The Valley of the Rocks near Lynton, where enormous rock towers punctuate a dry valley running parallel to the coast, is one of the most dramatic geological features in the southwest.
The wooded combes running down from the moor to the sea, particularly at Watersmeet, Doone Valley and Horner Wood, provide sheltered walking of quite different character to the open moorland and contain one of the finest surviving stands of temperate rainforest in England.