The walk down to Heddons Mouth from Hunter’s Inn is one of those North Devon experiences that stays with you. This is a proper wooded Exmoor valley, the kind of dramatic, steep-sided gorge where the trees crowd right to the water’s edge and the path follows the river all the way to the sea through ancient oak woodland. It is beautiful at any time of year, but in autumn the colour is extraordinary.
The National Trust owns much of the valley, and they manage it with a light touch that suits the landscape perfectly. From Hunter’s Inn, the walk to Heddons Mouth beach takes about 30 to 40 minutes on a good path, dropping down through the woodland to a small pebble cove at the foot of towering cliffs. A ruined Victorian lime kiln on the beach is a reminder of the industrial history of this apparently remote spot, in the 18th and 19th centuries, lime was landed here from Wales and taken up the valley for use on the farms.
For a longer walk, the South West Coast Path connects Heddons Mouth to Woody Bay to the west and Combe Martin to the east. The section above the valley offers dramatic views across the Bristol Channel. This is Exmoor’s coast at its most spectacular.
Hunter’s Inn itself, at the valley bottom, is a non-National Trust pub and hotel in a wonderfully unlikely setting. A good lunch stop before or after the walk, and popular with walkers and cyclists on the Coast and Moor route.
Heddon Valley is about 20 miles from Woolacombe on winding but scenic North Devon roads. Worth every minute of the drive.
The area around Heddon Valley is also excellent for wildlife. Buzzards and ravens are a constant presence on the thermals above the valley rim, and red deer occasionally make their way down from the higher moorland in autumn. The river itself is managed as a salmon and sea trout stream, and in season you can watch fish working through the clear water below the footbridge near the valley floor. Hunter’s Inn provides good pub food in surroundings that feel entirely appropriate to the landscape.
