Worthy

Near Porlock Weir at Worthy there is the gated entrance to a toll road -- the Worthy Combe Road, up Culbone Hill. If you buy a ticket, the gates are opened. You then drive up a narrow, unfrequented lane through steep woodland, a stream rushing past, fern gardens pitching down through the trees on both sides. In spring, the ferns are green flames and the whole place is vibrant with birdsong; in autumn, it has turned to a tapestry of gold and rich brown. You reach the top of the hill, and suddenly the woods have dropped away and you are at the edge of the moor itself, with sweeping views of the Bristol Channel, slate gray, the blue line of the Welsh coast on the rim of the horizon and the great green flanks of the land tipping down to the sea. Turn away from the sea, and there are soft shoulders of moor in all directions, with Dunkery Beacon, the highest point in Somerset, rising to meet the swags of pewter-gray cloud. In just a few minutes, you have climbed a thousand feet and glimpsed the contrasts of Exmoor scenery -- enchanted woods, wild moorlands, sky and water and solitude.

From the Worthy toll road, Porlock, Somerset a view of Porlock Bay

The lower entrance to Worthy Combe Toll Road

Worthy Combe Toll Road - lower entrance

and the Worthy Combe sign says .....

Contributed by: Linda Fortnum