Somerset Walks - Selworthy Circular

Social media has its uses, but you wouldn’t have thought a row on Facebook could inspire a country walk. But that is what happened when I kept seeing posts by proprietors of a well-known tearoom complaining that Exmoor National Park Authority was getting all heavy and unnecessary about a small sign they’d had for years down on the main road.  

Periwinkle Cottage Tearoom, located on the famous green at the picture-postcard Selworthy in West Somerset, is as pleasant a place as any in the kingdom in which to enjoy a cuppa and a piece of cake - and I sometimes used take my mum there before she died, because lived in the village for years and we’d go there for old time’s sake. 

Peter Hesp - my dear old father - he and my mum lived at Selworthy for many years

Anyway, seeing the storm-in-a-teacup kerfuffle about the sign on social media had me writing about this well known walk for the newspapers. 

Home of a hundred hikes, each more picturesque, dramatic and ruggedly rural than the next, Selworthy boasts deep, moody woods, swathes of high moorland heather, vast Exmoor panoramas, rolling vistas of Porlock's perfect vale, and wild salty glimpses of the Severn Sea... 

All are on offer within just a mile or two of this extraordinary village. So why not follow me up along the intricate footpaths to enjoy the views offered by Selworthy Beacon, before returning past savage cliffs and through the deep, dark, forest of evergreen oaks... 

You can view Selworthy’s white painted church from miles around, but it’s the car-park a couple of 100 metres up the lane which will offer you the best starting point for this circular route. 

The church is far older than most of the idyllic village (mainly owned by the National Trust) it serves. The thatched cottages situated so perfectly around The Green below, were put there in 1810 by Sir Thomas Acland as part of a model farming commune. But it was not a proper village in the true sense of the word - there never having been a school, a pub or a proper shop.

I remember interviewing a diminutive lady who lived next door to the famous tearoom. Ivy Cann had lived there all her life, and as sexton it was her job to wind the clock in the church tower. The other-worldliness of Selworthy was sort of summed up by the fact that the ancient clock mechanism had no face by which to tell the time and relied upon a single bell to mark the hour - whereas the sister church across the valley at Luccombe had a face, but no mechanism.

Photo I took of the late Ivy Cann some 40 years ago, for an article which appeared in The Guardian newspaper

Just to the left of the gift-shop at the top of The Green there’s a footpath which leads north up wooded Selworthy Combe. The track splits after half-a-mile and I suggest taking the right hand fork for a stride or two until you see Lady Acland’s Hut situated on a bank to your left. You can sit in this attractive chalet and look out at the graceful, delicate beauty of the birch forest which surrounds you, and perhaps think of Chekhov or Turgenev, so entirely Russian is the atmosphere of the place.

Lady Acland’s Hut above Selworthy

Behind the hut a tiny track takes a weaving route up through the woods and eventually reaches the top of the hill, and yet another hut. They liked their huts, the Aclands. One of the squires used to bring his children and grandchildren to the Wind and Weather Hut so that they could admire the superb views and listen to him recite his favourite poetry. Here's a bit of it by Keble inscribed:

Needs no show of mountain hoary

Winding shore or deepening glen

Where the landscape in its glory

Teaches truth to wandering men.

Not too sure what it means but, being a wandering man, it touched a chord in me this week as I crossed the road to reach Selworthy Beacon. And what views there are up there - Wales, the Bristol Channel, the Quantocks, the Brendons and Exmoor with Dunkery vast and looming to the south…

Next there's a bit of South West Coast Path which will lead you down to Hurlestone Point. To the right, a small side path leads over a steep spur and down past incredible cliffs to reach the old Coastguard Look-Out, but be warned, this route is only for people with very good heads for heights.

Just south of Hurlestone two paths head off towards Bossington and you must take the higher one that traverses its way above this village which is yet another picturesque, thatched Acland community for the most part owned by the National Trust.

So steep is the slope below your feet that it’s bit like being in a helicopter, or tied to one of the hang-gliders which are often to be found dangling hereabouts.

And suddenly you’re plunged back into the woods and often along this part of the walk there's no view at all because of the particularly dark aspect of some parts of the forest. That is because many of the trees are evergreen oaks, or Ilex depending on what you like to call them, and the canopy of thick, shiny leaves is just about impenetrable. In fact, this is the largest stand of Ilex in Britain, and it has a curious southerly, Mediterranean feel to it.

Myriad paths criss-cross this great forest, but you don't need to worry as Selworthy is often way-marked and as long as you keep heading south-east along the side of the hill, you can’t really go wrong.

Eventually one of the tracks will deposit you back on The Green at Selworthy and you can join the day-trippers in a cream tea - but try not to worry about the tearoom’s sign which has caused such a furore on social media.

My brother, John Hesp, down on Selworthy Sands: warning - do not attempt to go to the beach without a an experienced guide - all approaches are dangerous and there is a big chance of being cut off by the tide

Fact file

Basic hike: from Selworthy Green up the hill to Selworthy Beacon, from where we descend to Hurlestone Point, returning through the evergreen oak woods. 

Recommended map: Ordnance Survey OL9 – Exmoor.

Distance & Going: six miles, steep in places.

Selworthy Green in winter light

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

Peerless Periwinkle

Having mentioned Selworthy’s cream teas I must recommend you go in for a cuppa -  they do excellent cake and lunches at the Periwinkle Cottage Tearooms on Selworthy Green. 

Okay at Kitnors

In fact there’s a choice of tearooms on this hike - you could visit the excellent Kitnors Tearoom at equally picturesque Bossington. 

Let’s hear it for Horner

Or, a short five minute drive away there’s Horner Tea Garden - which offers a good choice in rainy weather as it has covered booths in which to enjoy your cream tea.

The following National Trust website mentions all three venues and more besides at https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/holnicote-estate/features/eating-and-shopping-at-the-holnicote-estate-