Honiton & Blackdowns hills Devon. Living and riding.

Anyone live this way? What do you think of the area (in general and mtbing)?

Looking to mover further west from my current location on Dorset Hampshire boarder. Would like the move to result with an improvement in the local trails available! Anything else good / bad about the area. What are realistic travel times to Exeter?

Blackdowns is OK road riding. Crap mtb. Quantocks/exmoor aren’t far.

Woodbury down by Exmouth is a nice spot for MTB.

Often drive through Blackdowns and always thought the hills there should have something of interest, but guess not. Bit like south Devon where I grew up. Lots of land but so much is private estates and farm land. Though there is Dartmoor 😉

You’ve also got Haldon near Exeter. Not amazing, not worth a big trip, but for a quick spin if you’re in the area it’s okay, and some reasonable off piste.

Stoke Woods in Exeter supposedly has a trail or two. Never checked it out though.

Disappointing on the mtb front. I thought with all the hill there would be a decent amount of off road. I never instinctively take farm land to mean lack of mtbing.

Woodbury Common is fanstatic; about 3m N. of Exmouth. I grew up 10 minutes from from it. You’ll need a guide to help you make the most of it but there are a couple of great local groups. Without a guide you’re bound to find some great rides albeit with a few dead ends. The best thing about it is that getting lost isn’t a problem. If you pop out into a village there’s always a pub / cafe.

Dartmoor of course is excellent and spectacular and massive but don’t even try to attempt it when ‘off’ season. It’s just cold and miserable. It proved to me that sometimes there is the wrong weather not just the wrong clothing.

Good coastal footpaths all along the South Coast if that’s you thing. The East Devon Way and others. My parents completed the entire length of it (in stages) last year.

Lots and lots of cheeky trails E. of Exmouth around Sidmouth, Beer, Seaton and whilst cheeky, I never once had any issue with riding them.

Haldon – meh. Overpriced cafe, expensive car parking and not a single route I couldn’t ride along with a bike trailer. Fun little pump track though.

The Quantocks are good but have only ridden there a handful of times.

I’ve never made it to Exmoor.

I’d imagine that there’s some good road riding although it’s not really my thing.

I’d allow 40 minutes to Exeter (depending of course where you want to go) but it will probably take 30. The train only takes 20 and runs fairly frequently. If it’s a regualr commute for you, I’d definitely look at non-car options. Parking in Exeter is a right pain in the arse.

I have friends living in the Honiton area. It’s lovely. You certainly get more house for your money than if you were to move further West; the villages in Exeter’s commuting belt are some of the most expensive outside of London.

Good info mch thanks.

If you’re thinking of moving that way why not consider Cullumpton, handy for the M5, 15 minutes to Exeter, 30 minutes to Taunton (45 to the Quantocks another 15 to Exmoor), an hour to Plymouth (passing Dartmoor on the way).

As for the Blackdowns, I agree with jam bo.

Would prefer a station in the town.

Well, this is what you want then TheBrick. Walking distance to the train station and 15 minutes to Exeter Central. 10 mins to some of the best riding in the SW. At the top of my parent’s road so a little biased but one of the greatest places to live.

I live in Ottery, so go a lot of riding around here.

The Blackdowns aren’t very good as far as I can tell. I’ve done a few rides up there but, not found anything great. There is some stuff around the Wellington monument, and I did find some nice (but old) trails in some FC land near Buckland St Mary.

Woodbury is great, loads of varied riding from XC stuff to full on jumpy trails, with loads of singletrack inbetween ifvyou know where to look.

East hill above Honiton had some nice trails (again local knowledge is key!) but gets very sloppy when wet.

Haldon IS good (actually great) but only if you know where the off-piste stuff is. Use the marked trails to link it all up and your sorted.

RE Haldon – got to step in here.

makecoldplayhistory

Haldon – meh. Overpriced cafe, expensive car parking and not a single route I couldn’t ride along with a bike trailer. Fun little pump track though.

Couldn’t be more wrong and I’ve seen this put up several times on here. Haldon, while its no Chamonix, it is a great local hill. I spent two hours up there last night all on trails that you couldn’t get a trailer down. I’d suggest you haven’t ridden Haldon at all if thats your opinion of the place.

edit – what ajantom said.

If you want a railway station why not Taunton, the riding on the Quantocks is much better than anything Woodbury and the Blackdowns have to offer.

indeed. I used to live about 150 yds from taunton station and could be on the quantocks in 10 min by car, 30 mins by bike.

and its not just the riding isn’t great on the blackdowns, it seems to hold water for ever whereas the quantocks drains and dries really quickly.

the riding on the Quantocks is much better than anything (on) Woodbury

I beg to differ. Very different terrain, and I actually prefer Woodbury in some ways.

The Quantocks is much more up and down – ride a combe, climb back up, repeat. Some nice bits of riding on top, but you really go there for the long downs via the combes, or the DH stuff at Triscombe.

Woodbury is more rolling (though it has some sharp climbs) and there is a massive amount of singletrack and trails to be explored. Most people seem to stick to the central common around the castle, but there are actually 10 separate commons running all the way from Aylesbeare to Budleigh, and you can link up Mutter’s Moor and East Hill via un-metalled roads.

I’d suggest you haven’t ridden Haldon at all if thats your opinion of the place.

Well, we’re all allowed our opinions aren’t we! There’s one lovely bit of swooping singletrack down through the woods towards the stepping stones and abandoned old cottage.

Maybe I was spoilt living on the edge of Woodbury Common. Travelling with a bike in the boot seemed an unusual start to a ride and I may have built it up too much in my head.

Blue trail at Haldon is definite trailer friendly. I’ve seen plenty of them. Despite the signs, a lot think it’s a family trail and that’s what it’s become. To be fair there’s nothing technical about it (though get a clean run when not busy and it can be fun with speed).

I’ve also seen one attempt at least at taking trailer on the red. Not to mention the number of times I’ve found walkers and even runners on both.

There’s is the black, but the less said about that the better.

However outside of the official bits, there is some good stuff, and definitely not trailer friendly. Again though, I wouldn’t make a big trip or a day out for the place (and Woodbury is better 😛 )

Maybe not a big trip, but I’d go for a day out there. I normally park down the bottom in Kenn (there’s a nice, bike friendly pub there, and lovely offroad downhill to get there).
It’s also a good place to go with toddler and wife. Do a lap of the blue or family with the trailer, and then leave them in the cafe and do an hour on the off piste stuff. The cafe’s actually quite nice. Not that expensive, massive bits of cake, and some nice locally sourced burgers and chips, etc. for £7 or so.

indeed. I used to live about 150 yds from taunton station and could be on the quantocks in 10 min by car, 30 mins by bike.

hmm me too.. 😉 i grew up in one of those little side streets at the bottom end of cheddon rd, near the chippy.

i don’t live in taunton anymore, but i still work there, and i ride the quantocks 95% of the time (rest being with a group i’ve been hooked up with that ride the mendips!)

Thanks for the info. Sounds like lots of stuff not far away but very little on the doors step. One to think about!

presume you’re going to need to get in to exeter regularly?
there are a few not ‘too’ expensive places to be that can be easy bike or train, and there are some decent spots in exeter that aren’t too pricey IMO.

I live at the bottom of the blackdowns near Taunton

Road riding – I love it. Loads to do and exmoor and Dartmoor good. So many routes it’s insane.

Mtb – not great but then exmoor and quantocks nearby. Blackdowns holds a lot of water as mentioned and except Woodbury, no great trails (but I mainly go to quantocks/exmoor etc so they may be there)

Work – I work in exeter and my commute takes 35mins from near Taunton. The traffic in from honiton can be crap. As above I’d go to cullumpton or even Taunton.

good grief. has anyone recommending cullumpton been there? 😯

good grief. has anyone recommending cullumpton been there?

It’s handy for the M5. 😛

There’s a handy service station

lol!

There was a pub a few years ago in Cullompton (maybe the White Hart?) that had a long running £1 for any drink promotion. Never have I seen such carnage. Or vomit. Oh god the vomit.

Oh god the vomit

sorry 😳

deadkenny – Member There’s is the black, but the less said about that the better.

The black (such as it was) still appears to be closed after the last lot of storms. They’ve built a wooden fence over the entrance now. I would imagine that will be the last we see of that. Besides, it only made that god awful boring fire road climb longer!

slowbloke – Member
They’ve built a wooden fence over the entrance now. I would imagine that will be the last we see of that.

It was too “severe” anyway 😉

it has always been a bit of a shame that trail. i’m told a lot of work went in to it, but it was pretty poorly laid out IMO.
if i have it correct The Plan is to make it more red grade, i think with a change of entry point ( as it was that that defined the grade, I’m told ), hopefully eliminating the daft climb(s) in the middle of it.

also another The Plan is to put in a singletrack climb up the other side of the valley which will eliminate the boring fireroad climb.

when all this will happen, if it happens though, is anyone’s guess. given public funding cuts it might be this side of never.

Charlie The Bike Monger once asked me if it was called the ‘Black Route’ because Cilla had once ridden it…

Good news if they do those proposed changes. How the hell did that entry point make it black – have they never been to Wales?

The only reason that I can think of is that years back when the (unofficial?) huge gap jump with double steep roll in were still there, the area was definitely black grade…

I think when they decommissioned all the free ride stuff they maybe felt that they should compensate somehow