Twelve and a Half Mile Walk from Withypool to the Royal Oak, Winsford, via the Caractacus Stone

This route turned out to be longer than we expected, but it can be trimmed by three miles or so by parking by the cattle grid near Comer’s Cross on the Exford-Dulverton Road above Withypool and walking straight over Winsford Hill to Spire’s Cross. We started at Withypool by walking out of the village past the Royal Oak pub and up the hill towards Comer’s Cross. Half-way up the hill we climbed over the stile on the right of the road and started off on the well-trodden path along the River Barle towards Tarr Steps. At first the path gives good views of Withypool Hill over King’s Farm, one of Withypool’s several top-class B&Bs, popular with riders, walkers, and shooters alike.

We continued along the river bank through meadows and old woodland until we reached the junction with the bridleway which leads towards Winsford Hill. This led us steeply upwards, eventually through an enclosure into which the Great Bradley shoot releases its young pheasants. With less than two months to go before the start of the shooting season, there already were squads of them scuttling about in panic at our approach.
At the lane which leads down to the farm, we turned left and walked up towards Winsford Hill. Behind us loomed the mass of Withypool Hill, and in the field on our left, grazing with sheep for company, a grey hunter waited patiently for his master to start the new staghunting season.

At the gates by Great Bradley Lodge, we inclined slightly right to take the track up over Winsford Hill until we met the path coming up from Comer’s Cross. Here we angled right so that we walked across the moor parallel to the road, now on our left. Winsford Hill rises to fourteen hundred feet and usually there can be magnificent views from here to the south, first over Anstey Common, and finally to Dartmoor itself. Sadly, on this August morning, despite the weather forecast’s promise of a dry day, the landscape darkened and a shower veiled the horizon. Eventually we could see Spire’s Cross below us, where a narrow lane comes up from Tarr Steps to cross the main road over the hill. We walked just a little way from the Cross towards Dulverton before we were rewarded with a sign to the left pointing towards the Caractacus Stone. We threaded our way through a maze of gorse bushes before suddenly confronted with the Stone snug under its little shelter.

There are endless theories about the Stone but the most persuasive perhaps is that the mysterious letters stand for “Carataci Nepos”, meaning in Latin “a kinsman of Caractacus.”

Caractacus was a Celtic leader who led resistance against the Roman invasion. Captured, he was taken to Rome in chains but, after making a heroic speech to the Senate, he was released to live the rest of his life in Rome. The stone may have been inscribed around 500 AD by a local war leader laying claim to kinship with Caractacus to help rally support against Anglo-Saxon invaders. The stone, after all, may be much older, a Neolithic menhir, on which the local Romano British Taliban carved some boastful graffiti.
From the Stone we walked straight on across the moor known as The Allotment, keeping a field boundary on our left. This path eventually met a track coming down from the right from Mounsey Hill Gate. A little further on we passed through some gates and walked diagonally across a large pasture towards the road at Summerway. Just before we reached the road, we turned left through a gate which led into Yellowcombe. A bridleway, very steep to begin with, descends the wooded combe in parallel to a new track which has been driven through to permit vehicular access and which is private. Sometimes the two merge but for the most part the bridleway continues independently.
At the foot of the valley, in a clearing, stands Yellowcombe Cottage.

We had passed it on an earlier walk, and had speculated then on how this remote dwelling was supplied. The new track does not lead up to the cottage and appears to have been built to service the forestry. The house is ringed by a stream, and how fuel – wood, bottled gas, or otherwise – could be delivered easily, was a mystery. A paraffin lamp standing in one of the windows promised that there were few modern comforts here. The path to the house was printed by the many slots of passing deer.

As we passed on towards Winsford, the owner of the cottage came the other way, his needs packed in a plastic bag.
We came out into Halse Lane descending from Winsford Hill and walked into the village. The Royal Oak is one of Exmoor’s iconic buildings, with its handsome thatched roof. Its sign boasts a very good portrait of Charles II, the monarch who named a thousand pubs by hiding in an oak tree to escape Cromwell’s troopers after losing the Battle of Worcester in 1651.

If England wishes to celebrate a patriotic national holiday, it should do so on “Oak Apple Day”, the 29th May, the date in 1660 when Charles returned to London and to the throne, ending years of religious totalitarianism, and allowing the reopening of theatres, racecourses, cockpits, and everything else that makes life worthwhile.
Thirty years ago we used to stay at this lovely hotel. It has been much altered and extended, but the first part of the bar is much as it always was. It usually offers Exmoor Stag as well as Ale, but this time the Stag sign on the pump had been turned inwards. With the Punchbowl waiting for us, it was probably a blessing that we made do with the weaker beer. Food at the Royal Oak is at the smart end of pub nosh, and you would have to expect to pay a couple of pounds more than cheaper places on the moor. Foodies, however, would appreciate the imaginative menu. For meanies like us, there are complimentary dishes of nuts on the bar.
Winsford, a beautiful village, is a place of streams and bridges.

One of its plainer cottages was the birthplace of Ernest Bevin, the sort of Labour politician that most conservatives would approve of. He was a key member of the Churchill wartime coalition and, after the 1945 Labour landslide, served as Foreign Secretary, championing Britain’s nuclear arsenal as a bulwark, not only against Soviet Russia, but against the United States as well.

We walked out of Winsford up Ash Lane towards Withypool, before turning left into a narrow footpath signposted to the Punchbowl. The path is very straightforward and led us past Withycombe Farm and up the very steep climb up the edge of the Punchbowl. The views are magnificent as much from the bottom

as from the top. From the rim of the Punchbowl we took a path which led across the moor back towards Comer’s Cross. You need to steer a middle course here;- turn too far uphill and you will reach the main road, turn too far downhill and you will find yourself heading for Ash Lane. We reached the road at the cattle grid at Comer’s Gate, and turned left at the Cross to walk back down into Withypool.