Coleridge Way

80 km / 50 miles

Devon, Somers
Established in April 2005, the Coleridge Way originally finished at Porlock but in May 2014 a 15-mile extension to Lynmouth was launched. The Coleridge Way is a now 50 mile/80 km footpath in Somerset and Devon; the route links several sites associated with the romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge starting from Coleridge Cottage at Nether Stowey and finishing in Lynmouth, with walkers having the option of continuing along the South West Coast Path to Lynton and Poets Corner in the Valley of Rocks.

Walk in the Footsteps of Coleridge through the stunning Somerset countryside of the Quantock Hills, the Brendon Hills and Exmoor, a landscape that inspired Coleridge to produce some of his best known work. The route from Nether Stowey on the Quantock Hills, where Coleridge lived for three years, goes through quiet and unspoilt northern fringes of the Quantock Hills through the villages of Holford, West Quantoxhead and Bicknoller, the little known Brendon Hills through the villages of Monksilver, Roadwater and Luxborough, across Lype Hill to Wheddon Cross and the remote Exmoor moorland fringes of Dunkery Hill to the woodland village of Horner to reach Porlock, formerly the end of the route, close to the South West Coast Path National Trail.

From here the extended route climbs inland through Worthy Woods past Ash Farm before descending down into the picturesque Brendon Valley passing Oare, Malmsmead and Doone Valley, to tollow the East Lyn River on to Brendon, Rockford and Watersmeet, before finishing on the seafront by Lynmouth Pavilion Exmoor National Park Centre.

There is a variety of landscapes: heathland, moorland, deciduous & coniferous woodland, farmland, deeply wooded valleys and historic villages with expansive views over to the North Somerset Coast and Wales. Every village has at least one pub to provide you with welcome refreshment. There are also a number of delightful tea rooms and village shops to visit.

A route description and maps are available from the website below and stripmaps are available, listed below.

There is also a separately described, partly overlapping sister bridleway route for horse-riders marked with blue markings (yellow on the footpath route), also covered on the website below. This Coleridge Bridle Way is a challenging horse ride linking the Quantock Hills and Exmoor, from Nether Stowey to Exford.