Ten Mile Walk From Dunkery Gate via Dunkery Beacon to the Rest & Be Thankful, Wheddon Cross

This is a walk which punches well above its weight. We had to measure it twice to convince ourselves that it wasn’t much further than the map tried to persuade us. The only answer to the conundrum must be that the various steep ascents and descents involved slow one’s normal rate of progress. There was no problem in parking at Dunkery Gate, even though this was a fine Saturday morning in late July. Anecdotal experience has convinced me for many years that leisure experts consistently overestimate the enthusiasm of the British public for hiking over the moors. What the BP wants are views accessible by road and toilet blocks.

The broad path to Dunkery Beacon starts just above the Gate, and in no time at all you are on the summit. Anyone who does an Exmoor pub quiz needs to know that this is the highest point on Exmoor, indeed the highest point in Somerset, at 1703 feet high.

The views can vary between the magnificent and the impenetrable. On this morning the air was not as clear as it can be, but the compensation was some marvellous cloud scapes above the Bristol Channel looking towards the Welsh coast.

We turned down the well-worn path which carries most of the human traffic between the road and the Beacon, passing the popular car parks and heading downwards towards Wootton Courtenay. This is a steepish track, with clusters of the loose, rough stone typical of the Dunkery area. Still, it’s easier going down than up as hard experience has taught us. See our walk to Wootton Courtenay and Timberscombe. There were good views over the sea, and ponies too, as we headed downwards with the oddly roofed tower of Wootton Courtenay church in the distance.

Just before the track descends into woodland at Brockwell, another path forks away to the right, back uphill through the bracken. It is signposted as “Mick’s Path” and to “Span Gate”. This we followed upwards until we turned downwards into Hanny Combe, crossing a stream, with the woodland of Elsworthy Allotment to our left. It’s important next to stick to the ascending moorland path, following signs to “Span Gate”. As we made our way between the bracken, there was a sudden rustle to our left as a hind jumped up and plunged downwards towards the cover of Spangate Grove.

We eventually climbed to what was clearly Spangate, with a four-way signpost, one of whose arms pointed to Wheddon Cross in rather cavalier fashion through an impenetrable clump of bulrushes. We skirted this to the left and followed the edge of the moor until we reached an inviting gate, with thick wedges of woodland below away to the south which appeared to block the way to Wheddon Cross. The partnership then had a brisk exchange of cartographical theories, but we finally kept to the side of the moor and were rewarded with another gate, duly signed to Wheddon Cross. The signpost is easy to miss as it is stuck up on top of a high bank to your left for some reason.

The path takes you into woodland just at the point where the track from the first, contentious, gate joins you from the left! This is rated as a bridleway, but it would be some horse which willingly negotiated the steep and narrow defile which leads you down to the River Avill. The path then follows the river until you start climbing again, and then cross a narrow lane into Little Quarme Wood. This is a steep haul until you reach the asphalt drive of the Raleigh Hotel, at the gates of which a path to your right takes you round the back of Wheddon Cross cattle market and on to the main road from Exford. From there it’s just a short walk into the settlement itself.

Wheddon Cross couldn’t help but be an important Exmoor centre with the two main moorland roads meeting here. There is a garage and shop, guest houses, the market, and, of course, a substantial hostelry, “The Rest & Be Thankful”. The present owners have spent a tidy sum on it, and it now looks very smart, and is as much a hotel as just a pub. The bar area is long and narrowish. One end was laid up for lunches, and the far end is a “public” with pool table, flashing fruit machines, and jukebox. Geographically and culturally in the middle, there were a couple of low, leather sofas where we established ourselves. There were three cask ales on offer, and we chose Sharp’s “Doom Bar”. The lady behind the bar was having trouble with the pump, which she was pulling with all the desperation of a sailor on a sinking ship. The condition of the pint, however, looked excellent, but I found the flavour on the flabby side. My wife enjoyed hers, and had seconds, but I switched to the ever-reliable Exmoor Ale. The hotel end of the bar was busy with lunches, and the menu looked good value. An 8oz rump steak with all the trimmings was just short of £10, and cod and chips was landed at £6.75. Baguettes were £5.75. It was just what you would expect in an Exmoor pub firmly placed athwart the tourist track.
We walked across the playing field which, like the village hall, is very much on the grand side, considering the size of the village. The public conveniences are decorated with some remarkable murals, as if some rural Banksy, working in mosaic, had passed this way.

The path to Luckwell Bridge is easily found behind them. It’s a pleasant enough walk, and you come into the tiny hamlet near to its eponymous bridge. Luckwell Bridge is one of those places which obviously has seen busier times. We passed “The Old Chapel”, “The Old Shop”, “The Old Inn”, and “The Old Forge”. We crossed the main Exford-Wheddon Cross road, and took the steep track known as “Long Lane”, a wet and dank tunnel which improves as you climb towards Dunkery Gate. If we did this walk again, we would probably seek to find some way of returning via Blagdon and Mansley woods.

As we reached the road just below the Gate, we felt the first inevitable spots of rain. In the twenty five days of July to date, there had been just two dry days on the Moor.