Barle Valley Walk

The walk along the river Barle from Dulverton up to Tarr Steps (about five miles each way) is one of the classic Exmoor outings — a wooded, often muddy path that hugs the river through oak coppice, with occasional clearings for grazing red deer or otters in the water. Allow half a day for the round trip and a pint at the Tarr Farm Inn.

Shorter circuits from the town are well signed: Burridge Wood gives a 90-minute loop up one bank and down the other; the path up to Anstey Common opens out onto high open moorland with skylarks and Exmoor ponies. Maps and route notes are available at the Exmoor National Park Centre on Fore Street.

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The wild herds of red deer on Exmoor are descended from animals that have lived here since the last Ice Age — the only continuous population of native red deer in England. With around 3,000 of them on the moor, a quiet walk up the Barle valley at dawn or dusk gives good odds of spotting a stag.

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