High-moor Exmoor
Simonsbath
A sheltered River Barle settlement where Royal Forest history, valley walking and locally rooted kitchens meet.
- Best for
- River Barle walks and Royal Forest history
- Give it
- About 70 minutes for the Wheal Eliza Explorer
- Don't miss
- Wheal Eliza's copper and iron mine ruins
The Fox verdict
Where the walking starts
Simonsbath pairs a sheltered River Barle setting with routes into the former Royal Forest and an unusually strong choice of local kitchens.
Begin at Ashcombe for the short Wheal Eliza Explorer or commit to the seven-mile archaeology circuit through Birchcleave Wood and past Cow Castle. Back in Simonsbath, St Luke's, the Exmoor Forest Inn and the Barle Valley Restaurant reveal the settlement's church, food and estate history.
Where to go
Places in Simonsbath
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesSimonsbath and Wheal Eliza Explorer
A there-and-back route along the upland River Barle valley to the ruins of the Wheal Eliza copper and iron mine, following tarmac and firm compacted stone.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: About 70 minutes
- Locality
- from Ashcombe car park
- Access
- Graded Access for Some; gradients reach 1:6 and the route includes uneven stone and exposed bedrock. Accessible toilets are at the start.
Simonsbath Archaeology Circuit
A circuit using the Two Moors Way through Birchcleave Wood to Wheal Eliza, Cow Castle hillfort, the old Royal Forest boundary and Pickedstones mine.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 3 hours 30 minutes
- Locality
- beginning at Ashcombe car park
- Access
- Moderate to strenuous across open moorland; sturdy boots are needed.
Barle Valley Restaurant at Simonsbath House
A hotel restaurant serving traditional English and modern European food, with seasonal meat, fish and vegetarian choices.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 90 minutes
- Locality
- at Simonsbath House
Food & drink
1 placeThe Exmoor Forest Inn
A country inn whose daily-changing menu draws most beef, lamb and venison from its own organic hill farm, with day-boat fish from Bideford, garden produce and foraged ingredients.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Simonsbath
- Access
- The restaurant permits one well-behaved dog per table.
History & heritage
1 placeSt Luke's Church
A compact Early English-style church consecrated in 1856, with lancet windows, a slate-hung gabled bell-cote, pine fittings and a harmonium; it is the principal Simonsbath Festival venue.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Simonsbath
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Three ways to explore Simonsbath
Signature outings
Walk to Wheal Eliza
Take the 3.8 km Explorer from Ashcombe car park along the upland River Barle valley to the copper and iron mine ruins.
Dine at the Exmoor Forest Inn
Choose from a daily-changing menu built around the inn's own organic hill farm, day-boat fish, garden produce and foraged ingredients.
See St Luke's bell-cote
Visit the compact 1856 church with its slate-hung bell-cote, harmonium and role as the principal Simonsbath Festival venue.
The village story
Simonsbath Village Guide
Food, walking and Royal Forest history meet in a sheltered fold of the River Barle.
Farm, firelight and the old inn
The Exmoor Forest Inn sources much of its produce locally. Most of the beef, lamb and venison on its daily-changing menu comes off the inn's own organic hill farm, the fish arrives by day-boat from Bideford, and the gaps are filled with garden produce and foraged ingredients. It has held a Michelin Green Star for 2024 and 2025. An October 2025 sample menu included Exmoor venison haunch steak with braised shallots, red-wine and rosemary gravy and pavé potatoes; homemade mushroom and ricotta ravioli; day-boat fish with fennel confit, scalloped potatoes and creamed leeks; and a blackberry fool with hazelnut biscuits — dishes that change with what's in season. One well-behaved dog per table is allowed, and there is a fire-lit lounge to settle into afterwards.
The present building dates from the 1850s and has included both temperance and licensed phases. For a while it was split into an alcohol-free Temperance Hotel and the William Rufus Inn, and an early visitors' book records complaints about the lack of drink — among the guests was Winston Churchill. The brothers Edward, Freddie and Alexander Greenall bought it in 2021 and refurbished it the following year.
Three kitchens, then the Barle
Down the road, Boeveys Tearoom keeps flowered tablecloths, traditional china and loose-leaf tea. It serves an all-day breakfast, a bacon, Brie and cranberry panini, seasonal quiche and soup, and stocks Exmoor Tea, Dunster Coffee, Besshill sausages and local ales and ciders — it's worth ringing ahead to check it's open. "Our homemade Lemon Drizzle is the most popular cake," say Claire and Louise, who run it. Simonsbath House is another local option, where the Barle Valley Restaurant's sample menu has included slow-roasted pork belly with apple-and-cider jus, pan-fried sea bass with spinach and an apricot-and-fennel marmalade, and a pear, Devon Blue and walnut tart.
For a village this small — a scatter of farms and cottages in a sheltered fold of the River Barle — three kitchens is a lot. Simonsbath earns them by being where the walking starts. From Ashcombe car park, which has toilets and sits at the junction of the B3223 and B3358, the Wheal Eliza Explorer runs two and a half miles there and back along the upland Barle to a ruined copper and iron mine. The longer archaeology circuit follows the Two Moors Way seven miles through Birchcleave Wood — thought to be Britain's highest beech plantation, at over a thousand feet — past Cow Castle, an Iron Age hillfort above the river, and on towards the old Royal Forest boundary.
Across the moor roads into the Royal Forest
The nearest railway is Tiverton Parkway, close to thirty road miles south, with no direct connection, so many visitors arrive by car across slow moor roads.
The former Royal Forest shaped the village's development. The Royal Forest of Exmoor was sold in 1819 to the Midlands industrialist John Knight for £50,000, and he set about dividing the moor with banks, walls and beech hedges into farms. His planned mansion behind Simonsbath House ran out of money and got no further than one wing. His son Frederic carried it on; by 1852 the estate held 281 people, thirty children at the school and fourteen new farmhouses.
Church, churchyard and water-powered craft
St Luke's, built in 1856 for the new parish, is a compact Early English church with a slate-hung bell-cote and a harmonium inside. Its acoustics make it the main venue for the Simonsbath Festival. In the churchyard a stone remembers Anna Maria Burgess, murdered by her father in 1858 and hidden in a mine shaft on the moor.
The sawmill still works. It lost its water power after the 1952 Lynmouth flood, but the National Park restored the leats, sluices and turbine and set it running again in 2004, cutting the park's own signs, stiles and gates.
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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.
- Simonsbath and Wheal Eliza Explorer — exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Simonsbath Archaeology Circuit — exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- The Exmoor Forest Inn — exmoorforestinn.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Barle Valley Restaurant at Simonsbath House — simonsbathhouse.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- St Luke's Church — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access