Wooded-valley Exmoor
Barbrook
A small West Lyn settlement for local provisions, sawmill history and outings into the East Lyn gorge.
- Best for
- Woodland walks, local produce and railway heritage
- Give it
- A half day with a pre-arranged farm stop
- Don't miss
- The East Lyn gorge towards Watersmeet House
The Fox verdict
A practical base beneath wooded Exmoor slopes
Barbrook pairs a useful family-run shop with direct footpath access towards Lynmouth and Watersmeet.
The settlement grew around a sawmill community and still carries that history at St Bartholomew's. Nearby choices range from farm tours and East Lyn woodland circuits to the Valley of Rocks and the revived railway at Woody Bay.
Where to go
Places in Barbrook
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesBarbrook Filling Station
A filling station and convenience shop selling groceries, dairy, takeaway food, local produce, drinks, newspapers, logs and coal.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 20 minutes
- Locality
- Barbrook
West Ilkerton Farm
A family-run hill farm selling its own Red Ruby Devon beef and Exmoor lamb, with bookable tractor-trailer tours and a wheelchair-accessible trailer.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 75 minutes
- Locality
- About 2 km from Barbrook
- Access
- Meat collection or local delivery must be pre-arranged and availability is periodic; tractor-trailer farm tours are bookable.
Lynmouth and Watersmeet Explorer
A 5.9 km route following the East Lyn through a dramatic wooded gorge to Watersmeet House.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow about 2¼ hours
- Locality
- Lynmouth to Watersmeet House
- Access
- The route has a steady climb, steps, roots, loose stone, slippery rock and narrow exposed sections.
Food & drink
1 placeThe Ancient Mariner
A bar and restaurant filled with maritime memorabilia, including a full-size torpedo and an octopus sculpture by a local artist.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Lynmouth
- Access
- Dogs are welcome.
Walks & outdoors
1 placeValley of Rocks
A dry valley with ancient rock formations, cliff paths, feral goats and a signed one-mile loop.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 60 minutes
- Locality
- Above the Bristol Channel
History & heritage
2 placesSt Bartholomew's Church
Built in 1875 as a mission church, with a simple nave and sanctuary, north aisle and single bell turret.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Barbrook
Woody Bay Station
The revived Lynton and Barnstaple Railway runs Victorian-style carriages on a two-mile return steam trip from the station.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 60 minutes
- Locality
- Woody Bay
Things to do
1 placeWatersmeet to Ash Bridge Circular Walk
A moderate family circuit beside the East Lyn through woodland.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Watersmeet to Ash Bridge
- Access
- Dogs must be on leads; the circuit includes uneven terrain and steps.
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Three ways to explore Barbrook
Signature outings
Barbrook's mission church
St Bartholomew's was built in 1875 for the sawmill community at Barbrook Mill.
A dry valley above the channel
The Valley of Rocks combines ancient formations, cliff paths, feral goats and a signed one-mile loop.
Steam from Woody Bay
Woody Bay Station runs Victorian-style carriages on a two-mile return steam trip along the revived railway.
The village story
Barbrook Village Guide
Local provisions, Lyn valley walks and a village shaped by sawmill work and flood.
Village provisions and farm produce
The Barbrook Filling Station sells petrol, newspapers, logs and coal, and, if you ask, local jams, chutneys, honey and cider. It is family-run and does a lot of jobs at once: convenience shop, off-licence, hot-food counter, groceries and dairy. Barbrook sits where the A39 meets the B3234, about a mile south of Lynton and Lynmouth, with cottages grouped along the West Lyn in a steep, densely wooded valley.
About two kilometres out, West Ilkerton Farm sells its own meat: pedigree Red Ruby Devon beef and Exmoor lamb, born and raised on the hill, the beef dry-aged for at least three weeks. Chris and Victoria Eveleigh, who goes by Tortie, sell by pre-arranged collection or local delivery, and stock comes and goes, so it is worth a call before you drive up. They also run tractor-trailer tours around the Red Ruby cattle, with a wheelchair-accessible trailer for anyone who needs one.
Food and riverside walks
The village pub, the Beggars Roost Inn, is closed and up for sale, so for a sit-down meal you go into nearby Lynmouth. There the Ancient Mariner is hung with maritime clutter, a full-size torpedo and an octopus sculpture by a local artist among it. The kitchen does steak and Exmoor ale pie, haddock in Tarka lager batter, Cornish mussels in leek, garlic and white-wine cream, Devon venison ragù and its own fish pie. Dogs are welcome.
There is direct footpath access from Barbrook down towards Lynmouth and the riverside walks at Watersmeet, though the ground rewards a proper OS map. The Lynmouth and Watersmeet Explorer runs three and a half miles up the East Lyn through a wooded gorge to Watersmeet House, about two and a quarter hours over steps, roots and slippery rock. For something gentler, the Watersmeet to Ash Bridge circuit is 2.2 miles of woodland beside the river, dogs on leads.
Churches and flood history
St Bartholomew's was built in 1875 as a mission church for the sawmill community at Barbrook Mill, a simple nave and sanctuary with a north aisle and a single bell turret. The wooden reading room that went up beside it in the early 1900s is now the village hall. The Methodist chapel and its schoolroom date from 1870; a stone inside records that John Glidden laid it on 5 July that year, and the original pews and a mahogany-railed reading desk are still in place. Rose Cottage, older still, is a 17th-century two-room house built hard against the rock, with the remains of a cloam oven inside.
On 15 August 1952, nine inches of rain fell on Exe Plain and the Chains and drove the Lyn rivers into flood. Thirty-four people died across the disaster; Barbrook lost buildings, and some of what stands now went up afterwards to replace them. PC Derek Harper and the fire crew pulled someone to safety near Barbrook Bridge that night; Harper later received the George Medal. The bridge itself came down later that night.
Rocks, railway and onward travel
Beyond the village the ground opens out. Nearby, the Valley of Rocks runs dry above the Bristol Channel, its cliff paths grazed by a herd of feral goats, and the signed loop around it is a mile. At Woody Bay the revived Lynton and Barnstaple Railway still runs restored heritage carriages on a short steam trip along a line that first opened in 1898.
Barnstaple, eighteen miles off on the Tarka Line, is the nearest station; the 309 and 310 buses connect it through to Lynton and Lynmouth. At night the valley goes properly dark, with the settlement sitting partly within Exmoor's Dark Sky Reserve buffer zone, and the woods on either side close the village back in.
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A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- Barbrook Filling Station — barbrookfillingstation.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- West Ilkerton Farm — westilkerton.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- St Bartholomew's Church — achurchnearyou.com national body or asset manager
- The Ancient Mariner — bathhotellynmouth.co.uk other published source
- Lynmouth and Watersmeet Explorer — exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Watersmeet to Ash Bridge Circular Walk — nationaltrust.org.uk national body or asset manager
- Valley of Rocks — exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Woody Bay Station — lynton-rail.co.uk other published source