Me & husband are going to Minehead in a couples of weeks. Know the area quite well as have been going there all my life and have walked on Exmoor loads, but never been on a bike yet! Hoping to do a 15-20 mile ride, starting at Woodcombe. Thinking of heading out towards Wootton Courtenay, then up to Dunkery Beacon, descending through Horner Woods, then towards Allerford, up onto the moor towards Selworthy Beacon and then back down North Hill to Minehead, either via Culver Cliff or straight back down to Woodcombe.

Anyone got any suggestions on routes? Where are the best descents, and which ascents should I avoid? I've got Viewranger on my phone so need to plot a route, or would welcome any GPX files!

Thank you 🙂

it's been an age since i rode exmoor but that sounds just like my old favourite route! have fun

Sounds like a good plan. One of my fav descents of Dunkery is to initially head west to the first junction, taking the right turn north-west down in the direction of Stoke Pero: fast singletrack with water bars to hop. A bit of road to Stoke Pero, then go through the farm gate and drop on the steep, singletrack bridleway down through the woods into Horner Combe. After crossing the plank footbridge, go straight up the other side (steep and loose). Continue on some lovely contouring singletrack on the west-side of the combe until you drop down to Horner by the packhorse bridge. Time for cream teas!

There's a stunning descent off Selworthy out to Hurlstone Point then down to Bossington, but it's very cheeky! Maybe one to try at sunset? The legal version gets to the point much quicker, but less flowy and contoury.

How technical do you like it? There's a great drop into Porlock from about here:

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/idld.srf?X=285615&Y=147590&A=Y&Z=120&lm=1

This one gets extremely interesting, especially after rain:

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/idld.srf?X=286255&Y=139605&A=Y&Z=120&lm=1

Doone Valley to Clouds Farm is great too, not particularly technical.

I'm riding there this weekend, going to try the singletrack east out of Simonsbath which I hear is pretty good.

Have fun.

agentdagnamit – this bit in red?

Snaps- we were going to ride out and back along the Barle river track, is it worth riding one direction on the route parallel to the north?

Yes we tend do go out one way then back the other, its only about 9 miles in total & we usually do it twice, once clockwise & once anti clockwise.
The North bit has the climbs & decents (and about a dozen gates!) the Barle bridalway is narrow, techy & twisty in places but its not really difficult.
I can email you a higher res image if you want.

Thanks Snaps, if you were just riding it once, would you go clockwise or anticlockwise?

I read the Barle track was "rocky and technical and will have most riders off their bike"….not the case?

Not a lot in it really (depends on the wind)
Anti clock 'Two moors way' climb can drag if you've got the wind in your face but you get a good decent back in to Simmo
Clock wise gets the two biggest climbs out of the way early.
"rocky and technical and will have most riders off their bike" its not that hard really, one or two places its very narrow, short steep rocky sections with the price of failure being a 10' brambly drop in to the river!
Thinking about it I've probably done it clockwise the most.

cheers, looking forwards to it

Snaps, this section certainly had me off the bike, dont mind admitting that

Fair play to you if you ride it, it looked like it would destroy my mech, rotor and both legs.

Lovely ride, the Barle River section is gorgeous.

You went anticlockwise then?
Some of those sections have eroded badly in the past few years & some bits are getting more difficult each time we do them, I'm sure I've riden down that bit, is that the section just before the stepping stones set in the river bank?
Pic of the Barle trail a couple of months back just before we had all the snow

This decent's fun at speed!

Yep, just before the left hand squeeze where the track drops into the river. That drop had too many twists and was too narrow for me. Ms AD stopped at the top as you can see in the pic, where she wont go I dont normally either.

We also rode Doone Valley, another fantastic strip of singletrack.

Simonsbath singletrack in the sun