The Two Moors Way

Guidebook to Devon's Coast to Coast route. The route is a combination of the well-established Two Moors Way with the Erme-Plym Trail. The route is described south to north, from Wembury on the south coast, up through Dartmoor and mid-Devon, through Exmoor to Lynmouth overlooking the Bristol Channel. The 116 mile route typically takes a week to walk, but suggestions are included for alternative more leisurely schedules.

While thousands of visitors flock to Devon every year, few leave the honeypots and coast, so walkers on the Two Moors Way are treated to beautiful and remote countryside, far from the crowds. The 116 mile route winds north from the coast, up past Ivybridge into the wilds of Dartmoor, where the path crosses the upper course of the River Dart, and passes through Dunstone Down and Chagford. The way through mid-Devon visits Witheridge and Knowstone before climbing onto Exmoor and into Somerset, before reaching the sea.

This guidebook combines clear route descriptions and OS map extracts with plentiful practical details on each stage of the route as well as advice on accommodation, facilities, and how to travel to and from the Way. Also included is a wealth of detail on the history, geology and wildlife along the way, as well as noting points of interest to enhance your walk.

August 2015

Page 49

Paragraph 1 “Head across the next field passing a footpath post”  This was not clear as the crops had grown up and the sign was in the middle of a field in the middle of the crops and only seen from another angle which was not apparent when needed.

Paragraph 3 “just before Bowden Farm turn right on a footpath, descending steeply”  (this should be opposite Bowden Farm turn left)

Page 54 Road is not the A3121 but minor road off it. Change to 'Cross a minor road…'

Pg 156- the flood was in 1952 not 1932.

Whether you choose to use this book as a supplement to planning only, or as part of your navigation package for this walk, give it a go, and I hope that you enjoy the walk as much as I did! 

Andrew Hoskins, Backpack Magazine

Walking The Two Moors Way, Devon’s Coast to Coast  is a practical, pocket sized guidebook from seasoned outdoors writer, photographer and walker Sue Viccars.  Her detailed knowledge and love of the 116 mile route from Wembury on the Channel shore to Lynmouth on the Exmoor coast route is manifest throughout.

This guide sensibly divided into eleven day long stages, each headed with a box of key information detailing the start and finish; the distance and likely time required to achieve it; refreshments, toilets, transport, parking, accommodation and maps needed.  Readers are given directional notes on the route, which are brief but sufficient though given that it is waymarked.  These notes are supported by sections of Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger maps.  However, anyone walking the route would be wise to take the more detailed 1:25,000 Explorer with them.

Sue Viccars has added copious additional information in her extended introduction, covering such practical questions as food and drink, planning the walk and public transport.  She has also added sections on history and geology and more varied information on points of interest along the way.  This is interspersed among the directions, but in different type, making it easy to separate the two. 

Indeed, the book could be used as an armchair journey along the path, especially as it is backed by attractive colour photographs, though it is obviously intended as a practical guide for walkers en route.  It certainly fulfils its purpose.

Robert, June 2015