Eggesford Station - Eggesford Barton - Homeland Wood - Southcott Wood - Nethercott - Eggesford Station

We did this walk on a sunny June morning and saw not another soul on foot, despite using two national trails, the Tarka Trail and Ridge and Valley Route. The walk starts at quiet Eggesford Station, where all trains on the Tarka Line between Exeter and Barnstaple must stop (this was a condition of sale when the land for the station was purchased from the old estate). But if you wanted to, you could start (even park) at Eggesford Garden and Country Centre, between Waymarks 2 and 3. That leaves you well-placed for refreshments in the restaurant at the end of your walk (and if you're taking a dog, you'll find the garden centre encourages you to take it in, rather than leave it in the car – even to one of the rooms in the restaurant).

If you start from the station, you'll immediately cross the Taw, perhaps admiring people fly-fishing this lovely river. You walk along quiet lanes until you pass the garden centre, Eggesford All Saints Church (open most days and worth a look inside) and reach open country.

The walk soon takes you into woodland and across the Taw again, before going gently uphill, through sunny glades and wide forestry commission trails. Much of the woodland is deciduous, but you'll also find conifers underlaid with glorious ferns. The downhill slope is also gentle, with some lovely views. At the road, avoid the potential short cut back to the station along the busy A377 (there's no footpath and the cars are fast). Instead, take the footpath to Nethercott, past the house by the road and across open pasture next to woodland, where you're as likely to see deer as cows. You climb a sweeping bowl of hillside, almost an amphitheatre, cross a field and reach another quiet road. This takes you back down to the station. You're on tarmac now, but the far-reaching views compensate. You can see Chulmleigh with its distinctive church and even the radar station at Burrington Moor.

England - Devon - Woodland or Forest

View a road map to the starting point of this walk.