Exmoor events: West Somerset Railway Spring Steam Gala, Exmoor National Park Big Adventure days, Simonsbath Festival

Whatever time of year you visit Exmoor, there is always something going on. Below are a few examples coming up in the next few months.

Steam train at Bishops Lydeard station

 The annual West Somerset Railway Spring Steam Gala runs from March 27th - 30th in 2014, with guest engines reflecting this year’s theme, the Atlantic Coast Express. There are special events, exhibitions and attractions to visit at stations along the route between Bishops Lydeard and Minehead. And, brand new this time, visitors can download a free augmented reality Heritage Hunter app. 

 
 


Exmoor National Park’s Big Adventure

Woodland near Nutcombe Bottom

Days for all the family start on April 16^th with an adventure on Haddon Hill. You can take a moorland safari, learn bushcraft skills or join the hunt for the Exmoor Beast! If you can’t make that date, the next adventure is at Nutcombe Bottom on May 29^th: build a woodland den, visit the tallest tree in England and explore Dunster Forest.



 

Simonsbath Festival, from May 5^th to June 20^th, is now in its third year and going from strength to strength. As well as a great range of concerts, the programme includes film nights, guided walks, poetry, historical talks and family fun days: something for everybody.  

Exmoor House is at Wheddon Cross in the heart of the National Park: if you stay with us you will be very conveniently situated for getting to all the events, and of course you can enjoy our wonderful food.

Showing off!

I’ve been in the media recently, on behalf of Exmoor House. And, because I love to show off, I’m including the links here to a video and a podcast, both starring moi.


The video is a testimonial I did for telnames, the company from whom we bought our mobile website – www.exmoorhouse.tel  Of course, it promotes their services (which I find very good, as you’ll see if you watch the video) but it also includes some nice shots of our place and mini-tours of some of the rooms. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjxcrru1iOA&feature=youtu.be

The podcast is by Walks Around Britain, and it includes an interview with me about walking on Exmoor. Here it is:
http://audioboo.fm/boos/1244914-edition-015-a-walk-to-mam-tor-andy-leader-s-holmfirth-photography-exmoor-tom-heap-on-nettles

You can also download the podcast (and all the others they’ve done) free of charge to itunes. Walks Around Britain is an innovative video website; we’ll be working with them and West Country Walks shortly as they’re making a video about a walk on Exmoor near our place.

In the printed media, I did an interview for the February issue of Somerset Life magazine, as part of an article about Wheddon Cross and Snowdrop Valley. The magazine can we viewed here: http://somerset.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/digital-archive/ (the article is on pages 52-53). And, late last year you may have spotted comments in the Guardian magazine, by Frank and me, about what it’s like to live on Exmoor: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/dec/14/lets-move-to-exmoor-somerset-devon

If you need an inexpensive, easy to edit mobile website, do check out http://www.telnames.com/ and for loads of useful info including walking routes in many different areas, see http://www.walksaroundbritain.co.uk/

I mentioned http://www.westcountrywalks.co.uk/ (also known as Combe Walks). They produce a range of excellent pocket-sized walking and cycling books covering North Devon and Somerset, and they also organise the Exmoor Walking Festival, which this year has a particularly good range of walks for all tastes and abilities. It starts on 27th April: http://www.exmoorwalkingfestival.co.uk/

If any of this is making you feel that a visit to Exmoor is overdue, then we'd be delighted to see you! We've space for most dates at the moment, and there is even a special offer this month, if you hurry... take a look at our freshly-redesigned website for more details.

What's happening on Exmoor in March and April

In my last blog post I mentioned some of the Exmoor events coming up in February, March and April. There’s still time to catch some March events if you hurry… and check out our website at http://www.exmoorhotel.co.uk/  for details of some great special offers we’re running this month.


Thursday 22nd March: Take Advantage of Your Future (the software programme for the brain). This seminar, run by Rollo Clifford, is at the recently-reopened Hobby Horse in Minehead. We were lucky enough to participate in one of Rollo’s seminars last December, and found it a fascinating and enlightening day. Book a place if you can! More details at http://www.theknowledgecloud.info/

Thursday 22nd – Sunday 25th March: The West Somerset Railway Spring Steam Gala continues, with a whole host of things happening. You can see when particular locomotives are appearing, download the brochure and book tickets online at
http://www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk/section.php/4/1/spring_steam_gala

Going into April, we’ve still some rooms left at Exmoor House over the Easter weekend, 6th – 9th: we recommend that you book soon though! You can reserve rooms online or direct with us by phone.

The North Devon and Exmoor Walking Festival (27th April – 6th May) is operating in a slightly different way this year, giving a flavour of some of the very diverse places within the National Park (both in Somerset and Devon) and slightly further afield. For the first two days, the walks are based around the Ilfracombe area. From the 29th until 1st May there are walks in the Lynton area. May 2nd, 3rd and 4th have walks around the Porlock area, and on May 5th and 6th the focus is on the Dunster area. So if you wanted to make a holiday of it, you could base yourself in Ilfracombe or Lynton for a few days, then move on to Wheddon Cross for the rest of the time! On the festival website at http://www.exmoorwalkingfestival.co.uk/  you can search the walks by area, date and several other criteria (e.g. linear/circular; on bus routes).

We hope to see you soon!

Spring 2012 events on Exmoor

What’s happening on Exmoor? Quite a lot, as ever! I keep saying this, but it does bear repeating: there is always something going on here, but the area remains peaceful and unspoilt. Here’s some information about things happening over the next few months, takuing us through the rest of winter and into spring.


The big event, from now until early March, is Snowdrop Valley, here at Wheddon Cross. Beautiful and unique – don’t miss it! More information on our website, in my blog post of 12th January and at http://www.wheddoncross.org.uk/ Our dining room opens each day as a tearoom from 4th February until 4th March, so you can enjoy our great food before or after your visit to the valley.

On 14th – 16th February, the West Somerset Railway is running a special Snowdrops & Steam service: combine a scenic ride on a steam train with your snowdrops viewing. For details of this and other railway events, visit http://www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk/section.php?xSec=2&xPage=1&jssCart=e278a8fbb51ca16b9c3636d860c4b1c3

March 16th – 18th sees the 4 x 4 on Exmoor Jaunt & Challenge, in aid of Wooden Spoon children’s charity. The teams start and finish at Wheddon Cross and enjoy an active weekend while raising funds for a very good cause http://www.4x4onexmoor.co.uk/
Also in March is the West Somerset Railway Spring Steam Gala (17th – 18th and 22nd – 25th)

Easter weekend falls on 6th-9th April this year – book your break at Exmoor House now! Later in the month – on the 21st - there’s the Somerset Stages rally, which is always interesting to watch. More info here: http://www.btrdarally.com/2012-Somerset-Stages.asp And, new for this year, there’s the Exmoor Beauty Cycle Challenge on the 22nd (sister event of the infamous Exmoor Beast): http://exmoorbeauty.org/

The North Devon and Exmoor Walking Festival starts on 27th April and continues until 6th May. A guided walk is a fantastic way of getting to know the countryside better, and on Exmoor we are extremely lucky to have an amazing choice of walks. Find details and updates at http://www.exmoorwalkingfestival.co.uk/

There’s an active theme to these events, which is fitting as Exmoor is such a wonderful area for getting out and about. Later in the year, however, there’ll also be arts and cultural festivals – I’ll cover these in another blog post. In the meantime, for those of you with a taste for outdoor adventures, here are two more websites to check out:
http://www.activeexmoor.com/
http://www.exmooradventures.co.uk/

Exmoor ponies in the spring

At Exmoor House we’ve had several people staying who were going to the Exmoor Pony Centre to visit a pony they’d adopted. A free afternoon last weekend coincided with the centre's Easter open day, so we went along to have a look for ourselves: a chance to see some of these unique and fascinating little horses close up.    

Some of the visitors were queuing to groom a patient pony until it positively gleamed; others took a ride round the field. The rest of the resident ponies were feeding, posing for pictures or basking in the sun. Most still had some at least of their thick winter coats, though I suspect they'll now be losing them rapidly.


The centre, with the Moorland Mousie Trust (Moorland Mousie is the pony protagonist of a children’s book) works ‘to promote and conserve the Exmoor pony’. Staff and volunteers help to re-home ponies, mainly excess young foals from the moor. As well as adopting a pony, there is the opportunity to sponsor a foal. In addition you can book a taster session to learn about caring for ponies, or a moorland ride.

No ponies on Winsford Hill that day; perhaps they were all at the centre! We carried on into Dulverton after our visit, calling in to the Town Mills (highly recommended) for tea & cake and visiting the Heritage Centre (lots to see, including this time a display of work by local artists and an exhibition about Exmoor Horn sheep).

It was a perfect sunny spring day: big skies, soft light, hazy shadows... The circular route we followed, from Wheddon Cross to Exford, on to Dulverton via Winsford Hill and Ashwick and back through Bridgetown, shows off some of the amazing variety of Exmoor's scenery.

Exmoor Walking Festival coming up soon

Just a quick reminder about the North Devon & Exmoor Walking Festival, which starts on 29th April and runs through to 7th May. It's the tenth one, and also the biggest so far. There's a great range of walks, from easy to strenuous, covering coast, countryside, woodland... A good number of the walks are accessible by public transport, too.

In the heart of Exmoor National Park at Wheddon Cross, Exmoor House is a great place to stay as a base if you're visiting for the festival.; as I write, we've still some rooms available on most of the days. If you can't make it this time, there is another walking festival in Autumn (1st to 4th October). This coincides with part of the Exmoor Food Festival, and some walks incorporating the opportunity to try local food will be included. Fresh air and food - two of my favourite things...

By the way, don't be worried that Exmoor may get crowded with all these walks and walkers! Places are limited on the walks, and it is always very easy indeed to escape in this area. It's not unusual to walk all day without seeing anybody else. The beauty of guided walks, of course, is that there's no chance of getting lost (we've all done it - haven't we? Or is it just me and Frank?) and you have the benefit of the guide's local knowledge.

There are fabulous walks you can do on Exmoor all the year round. In previous posts I've included some we've done, and I'll post more as we discover them.