Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts

Friday, 16 March 2012

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!

Saturday, 4 February 2012

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/

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

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.