Exmoor, Somerset
Distance 27.5km (17.1 miles) Climbing 1,250m Time 2hrs 30mins to 4hrs 30mins
Route summary A steep, hilly ride, offering great views and technical, rocky trails throughout, which mostly drain well so it’s a good all-year-round ride
Start/ inish Horner pay-and-display car park (grid ref SS 898/455, postcode TA24 8HY)
1
Turn left out of the car park onto the road, ride past two tea-rooms and, as you start to climb, turn right onto a bridleway. Go left through a deer gate and follow the main track ahead, climbing to a road, where you go right, uphill.
2
Fork left, up onto the moors. Ride for 1.5km, then turn left on a bridleway before the top. Go ahead at the track crossing, then left at another, downhill. At the fork shortly after, go right for a rocky descent, finishing in the trees by a road. Go left, then right at the junction, through Wootton Courtenay.
3
As you descend, bear right by a house and turn left onto a bridleway. Go uphill in the woods, keeping right, to the main bridleway (Macmillan Way West) at the top. Turn left on the northernmost of two parallel tracks, past the trig point. After a bridleway crosses the track, fork right and start to descend.
4
Take a left-hand turn to join the Tivington bridleway, down to the road. Go right on the tarmac, proceed to the A39 and go straight across it, onto a rough lane. Turn left at the T-junction with a better track, up to, and to the right of, the farm buildings. Climb to a road and go right, then immediately left back onto a bridleway, signed ‘Selworthy Beacon’. 5
Ride up this long ascent, over a track crossing, then bear left on a track just before a road. Cross the road and follow the track left. Climb to the Beacon and go ahead, heading downhill. After a track joins from the left, fork left then head for the bridleway post, to come o the main track to the left. Descend and take a sharp left on an easy-to-miss bridleway, down the combe. Keep ahead, crossing a ford. The track becomes tarmac by houses, and you go left on the road.
6
Continue through Allerford village, up to, and right on, the A39. Proceed to a right-hand bend and go left on a bridleway here. Cross a footbridge, continue to a road and go left on it, then right at the junction past the farm. Head up to a fork and go left, up a horribly steep hill, until you reach a bridleway near the top. Join the (Flora’s Ride) bridleway.
7
Go across the top and left into the woods. Follow the (Granny’s Ride) bridleway, finishing with a steep, loose descent to Horner Water. Turn left to follow this track along the valley bottom, back to Horner (tea-rooms) to finish.