Cottages in Exford

Exford sits at the very centre of Exmoor National Park, in a green valley where the young River Exe runs narrow and fast below the moor. It is one of the few villages set deep in the high heart of the park rather than along its coast or southern edge, and it has long been known as the capital of Exmoor for its sporting and hunting traditions.

The village gathers around a traditional green, with stone cottages, a couple of old bridges over the Exe, a community shop and two long-standing inns. The Domesday Book of 1086 already recorded settlements here, and the name itself is plain enough – the ford over the Ex. There is a primary school by the green and a play area for children, and the moor begins almost at the last cottage. Walkers, riders and anglers have made Exford their base for well over a century, and it remains one of the finest starting points anywhere on the moor.

Our self-catering cottages in Exford range from snug retreats for two to roomier houses for families and larger groups, and a good number welcome dogs. Some sit on the green in the thick of village life, others a little out along the lanes with the moor for a neighbour. Whichever you choose, the open heather, the river and the high ground are all within walking distance of the front door.

The Heart of Exmoor

Exford lies on the B3224, the main road across the high moor, roughly seven miles north-west of Dulverton and ten miles south-west of Minehead. The River Exe, which rises at Exe Head near Simonsbath and runs the length of Devon to the sea, threads through the village here while it is still young and clear, narrow enough to cross on a stone bridge and shaded by the trees along its banks. Around the green you will find the Exmoor White Horse Inn, a sixteenth-century pub on the river bank with a woodburner and a long shelf of malt whiskies, and The Crown, a Grade II listed coaching inn of some three hundred years, with low beamed ceilings and open fires. Both serve local ales and proper food after a day out.

Dunkery Beacon

Dunkery Beacon, rising to 519 metres (1,703 feet), is the highest point in Somerset and on the whole of Exmoor, and the classic walk to its summit starts from Exford itself. The National Park Authority lists the Exford and Dunkery circuit among its Exmoor Classics – a moorland round of about eleven miles that climbs through deep heather to the Bronze Age cairns on the top. From the summit, marked by a stone cairn, the view on a clear day reaches across the Bristol Channel to the hills of South Wales and south as far as Dartmoor. In late summer the slopes turn purple with flowering heather, and the going is open and exposed, so it is a walk for good boots and an eye on the weather.

Tarr Steps and the Barle Valley

About five miles from the village, reached down narrow lanes off the B3223, lie Tarr Steps – the largest clapper bridge of its kind in Britain, seventeen spans of unmortared stone slabs, some weighing as much as two tons, laid flat across the River Barle. The bridge stands in a national nature reserve of ancient oak woodland, valued for the mosses, liverworts and lichens that thrive in the damp valley air. The riverside path that runs from it is among the gentler walks on Exmoor, a wooded contrast to the open moor above, and the Tarr Farm Inn nearby is a welcome stop for lunch or a cream tea.

Exmoor Ponies and the Exford Show

The hardy Exmoor pony has grazed these moors since prehistory, and Exford is closely bound up with the breed. The Exford Show, first held in 1889, fills the showground above the Exe Valley on the second Wednesday of August, with sheep and horse classes, produce and craft tents, and the parade of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds; the Exmoor Pony Society holds its annual Breed Show alongside it. Come autumn, the moorland herds are gathered down off the high ground for inspection, and foals from the native herds change hands – a working rhythm of the moor that has altered little in a hundred years. Out on the open heather, you may meet the ponies year-round, dun-coated and mealy-muzzled, grazing much as they always have.

St Mary Magdalene and the Village

The Church of St Mary Magdalene stands above the green, Grade II* listed and built of warm red sandstone. Its west tower dates from the fifteenth century and the south aisle from around 1542, while the nave, chancel and porch were rebuilt in 1867. Inside is a fine fan-vaulted screen, made in the fifteenth century for St Audries Church at West Quantoxhead and reassembled here in 1929. The community shop and post office on the green keep the village stocked, and the two inns and a tea room see to the rest, so that even at the heart of the moor little is far to hand.

Riding, Walking and Fishing Country

Few villages on Exmoor are better placed for a holiday spent outdoors. Bridleways and green lanes run straight onto the moor for riders, the high ground around Dunkery and Winsford Hill offers walking in every direction, and the Exe and Barle – which meet a little to the south at Exebridge – are both fly-fishing rivers for trout and the occasional salmon. Whether you come to ride, to walk the high heather, to cast a line or simply to sit by the river with a book, Exford rewards a slow and outdoor stay.

When you are ready to roam wider, Exford makes an easy starting point for the whole of the moor. Browse our full collection of self-catering cottages across Exmoor to find your base.