Walk further Have an adventure Protected Landscapes ® If you have never walked a long distance path Why not add to the adventure The Coleridge Way runs between two protected before this is the ideal introduction: The Coleridge and find details on the website landscapes, the Quantock Hills AONB and Exmoor Way can be easily walked over a leisurely week, of other activities to enjoy National Park. Nationally protected landscapes alternatively download the route guide and along the way such as apps, exist in part thanks to the Romantic poets. choose sections to do one at a time. Either way, story boxes and geocaches. Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron and Shelley all the information in this guide can be used to help wrote about the beauty of the ‘untamed’ make your trip enjoyable and easy to plan. The countryside and saw wildness as a metaphor for Coleridge Way also links with other promoted Stay over the human heart. This began a shift in public routes including the South West Coast Path and consciousness towards valuing nature and Two Moors Way if you wish to walk further! Visit the website for full accommodation listings, many providers will offer baggage transfers or natural beauty. Wordsworth famously claimed include packages where they make the transfer the Lake District as “a sort of national property, arrangements for you. Discover Moor in which every man has a right and interest who Exmoor, the coast and Quantock Hills have so has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy” much more to offer so why not allow a few extra This statement began a Travel this way days to discover wild moorland, high coastal journey lasting 150 cliffs, a heritage coastline, and some of the finest years towards To make the most of this linear route there are a countryside on offer. protecting the number of options to help you travel from one end For full details visit www.visit-exmoor.co.uk country’s most to the other. Public Transport services operate beautiful between Lynmouth and Minehead and Minehead Watersmeet landscapes for to Nether Stowey (check Traveline for latest Ride the Coleridge Way the nation to schedules - 0871 200 22 33 ). The MoorRover For those on horseback or mountain bike there is enjoy. Exmoor Where there’s a Quill provides a pre-bookable on-demand service along also the Coleridge Way Bridleway from Nether National Park there’s a Way the length of the route for walkers, in addition to Stowey to Exford (33 miles). Visit the website for was designated local taxi firms - further information on the website. information and a route guide. The route is signposted in both directions making in 1954. The use of the quill logo. The website offers a full Quantock Hills route guide and mapping to download. Walkers was the first are advised to also carry OS Explorer Maps 140 Area of (Quantock Hills & Bridgwater) and OL9 Exmoor. Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) to be Walk the Coleridge Way to designated in Brown Argus discover the landscapes that Photo courtesy England of Butterfly Conservation in 1956 . inspired the Romantic Poets The Coleridge Way, The poet Robert Southey, a friend of Coleridge’s, may have lodged at the Ship Inn, Porlock, in 1799 ® n o Romantic Poets d n o when he wrote his sonnet ‘To Porlock’. Walking L , y r e l l and literary links a west from Porlock you pass close to the house G t 51 miles i a r t r built for Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron. o The Romantic Movement P Walk 51 miles through the breathtaking l a n o i t Ash Farm in Culbone is reputedly where Coleridge blossomed in the late 18th a countryside of the Quantock Hills, the N century. Its followers found © stayed when he wrote ‘Kubla Khan’ and where he Brendon Hills and Exmoor National Park. of breathtaking particular inspiration in nature. Some of the most was famously interrupted by ‘a person on An area so beautiful it inspired writers such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge who produced famous of the Romantic poets were drawn to the business from Porlock’. some of his best known work, often wild beauty of the open moors and coast of West ‘In Xanadu did Kubla Khan composed and planned out whilst walking Somerset and North Devon. countryside A stately pleasure dome decree’ in these wild and remote landscapes. The Coleridge Way begins at Nether Stowey The route takes you up over open moorland, down where Samuel Taylor Coleridge came to live in As the Coleridge Way drops into the valley of the ancient wooded valleys and through historic villages, 1797 and from where he set out on almost daily East Lyn, you pass Oare church where Carver finishing on Exmoor’s dramatic coastline in Devon. walks over the Quantocks and Exmoor with his Doone shot Lorna in Blackmore’s novel (1869). The walk can be completed over a leisurely week, close friends William and Dorothy Wordsworth. Watersmeet, further downstream, was also a making the Coleridge Way a perfect introduction to long distance walking. Stay along the way in a They trekked over moors, down combes and favourite spot of Coleridge and Wordsworth. Arriving at Lynmouth you pass Shelley’s Hotel choice of high quality accommodation, all offering along streams, composing poetry which resulted a warm welcome and friendly local advice. whence the poet Shelley, 1792-1822, fled by boat in ‘Lyrical Ballads’, a book seen as marking the Photos courtesy of Exmoor National Park Authority, Quantock start of English literary Romanticism. to Wales with his wife and sister-in-law. Hills AONB and Ruth Luckhurst. Front cover photo by Jon Coole. St. Audries Park from West Quantoxhead Visit www.coleridgeway.co.uk for all the information you need to plan a visit. If you have any questions call either of the friendly teams at Porlock Visitor Centre on 01643 863150 or Lynton www.coleridgeway.co.uk Coleridge Cottage Tourist Information Centre on 0845 4583775. ® Highlights along the Coleridge Way : 10 1 Nether Stowey in the foothills of the Quantock 5 Fascinating buildings in very picturesque 10 Wheddon 12 Webber’s Post Beautiful viewpoint where wild 17 The route follows the valley along tranquil Hills AONB was home to Coleridge between Bicknoller which lies on the lower slopes of Cross rugged moorland gives way to wildlife-rich riverside paths beneath towering hills passing 1797 and 1799. The award winning Coleridge the Quantocks. Part of the church, which has a is the woodland. Malmsmead and Brendon en route to the Cottage, owned by the National Trust, is well huge yew tree in its grounds, dates from the highest 13 Pass through ancient Horner Wood, part of celebrated waterfall and wooded setting of worth a visit before you begin. 12th century. village on the National Trust Holnicote Estate, to discover Watersmeet Exmoor 2 Holford is surrounded by beautiful ancient oak 6 Monksilver, on the boundary of Exmoor the medieval packhorse bridge at Horner also 18 Lynmouth The western end of the Coleridge combes, climbing to open heathland hilltops. National Park, takes its name from the Latin and known as Hacketty Way Bridge. Way is located near the pretty harbour, outside “Silva” meaning woodland i.e. Monks Wood. famous for the National Park Centre at the Pavilion. From 3 William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy 14 “Porlock! thy verdant vale so fair to sight” ‘Snowdrop here you can follow the South West Coast Path lived at Alfoxton Park during their friendship 7 The steep climb up Bird's Hill is rewarded with (Robert Southey). A great place to take a break with Coleridge. views of ancient woodland and glimpses of the Valley’ in the midway along the Coleridge Way. Explore up to Lynton 400ft above Lynmouth (linked by a Bristol Channel through the trees. nearby Avill Valley. Porlock Vale, the shingle beach, marshes, Victorian water powered cliff railway). 4 Extensive views over the Bristol Channel and Your first taste on the route of real open wildlife, woodland, plus the village itself. Call From Lynton, the Valley of over West Quantoxhead as the route skirts the 8 Roadwater lies close the West Somerset Mineral 11 19 Quantock Hills. Railway Line which in the 19th century transported Exmoor moorland with views of Dunkery into the visitor centre to sign the Coleridge Rocks ,which Coleridge iron ore from the Brendon Hills to Watchet. Beacon , Exmoor’s highest point. Keep an eye Way log book and find out more. visited in November out for Exmoor ponies. Culbone Woods near England’s smallest 1797 with 9 The high ground above Luxborough is an ideal 15 place to look back over some of the high points church and the farm where Coleridge Wordsworth, of the route between here and Nether Stowey. conceived his poem ‘ Kubla Khan’ . is a short stroll away. 16 Follow the steep-sided Deddy Combe into the wild Doone Valley to Oare with its 19 church. made 19 18 famous as a location in R D Blackmore’s 17 15 romantic novel ‘ Lorna 16 Doone’. 14 14 13 12 11 17 3 4 2 5 1 10 6 8 9 7 9 17 18 12 5 2 14 4 1 www.coleridgeway.co.uk 15 6.