Watersmeet is one of the largest remaining ancient woodlands in the south-west. Oak dominates the canopy but other species are present including a number of rare whitebeams. There is a rich ground flora including bilberry, sweet woodruff and dog's mercury, and there are diverse communities of lichens and mosses.
Watersmeet Devon - photo presented with the kind permisssion of www.grumpystumpy.com
The East Lyn River cascades through the woodland, meeting Farley Water and
giving the site its name. Watersmeet also supports some important areas of heathland. The site has a very diverse breeding bird community, including ravens, redstarts, pied flycatchers and all three woodpeckers.
The nearby Foreland Point, also managed by the National Trust, provides an excellent example of coastal heathland making this a very rich wildlife area.
Warersmeet House was built in 1832 as a fishing lodge by the Reverend W.S.Halliday, the son of a rich businessman at a time when Exmoor was becoming fashionable through the works of Wordsworth, Shelley and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The stone for the house was quarried at Watersmeet, above the East Lyn River. The disused quarry can still be seen today.
Reverend Halliday was a devotee of the Romantic School of poetry and part of a poem by Wordsworth, written for his sister Mary, is quoted over the door of Watersmeet House.
The poet Shelley lived in Lynmouth for a while and Samuel Taylor Coleridge is said to have been inspired to write “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner” while walking the cliffs in North Devon.
Despite its tranquil appearance today, Watersmeet was a site of industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Just across the East Lyn River from Watersmeet House is a mine adit (horizontal shaft), the remains of an unsuccessful attempt to mine iron ore. The mining venture was funded by wealthy Victorian landowners who invested large sums of money in mineral exploration of the area.
One of Britain’s first hydro electric power stations was situated a short distance up the East Lyn from Lynmouth. It supplied electricity to Lynton and Lynmouth until it was destroyed by the 1952 floods.
The floods also destroyed the disused factory buildings of the Lynrock mineral water works. The site near Lynrock Bridge is marked by a wooden plaque and old stoneware bottle by the stream.
There are two lime kilns a little way up the East Lyn River from Watersmeet House. These were used to burn limestone brought over from South Wales by boat. The resulting lime was spread on local fields to counteract the acidity of Exmoor’s moorland soil.
Many of the Watersmeet paths began as tracks associated with the woodland industry. Every 25 years or so, the oak was coppiced. The stems were cut down as part of a cycle and allowed to regrow. The cut stems were put to various uses – charcoal and limestones burning, as pit props in South Wales and as fencing and hurdles. charcoal was also carried by mule to Lynmouth and shipped to South Wales for smelting metals.
Hoaroak Water at Watersmeet
Canoeist at Watersmeet
The countryside around Watersmeet near Lynton is one of those special areas of deeply wooded coombes, sparkling waterways and peace and quiet even in the busiest times of the year. Dippers, Birds of prey, salmon, trout and pleasant walking can all be enjoyed on the way down stream to Lynmouth via Myrtleberry, or up stream to Hillsford Bridge and the high country of farmland and moor, via Winston's Path, named after Winston Singleton who was Warden of Watersmeet for 34 years and built the path in the 1970s..
Watersmeet (743486) is so named from the confluence of the East Lyn with the Hoar Oak Water. Close by is The National Trust tea and gift shop, once a fishing lodge built by the Hallidays of Glenthorne Estate at County Gate on the Devon and Somerset border, but a tearoom since 1901.
Watersmeet House - The Hoar Oak Water meets the East Lyn
Watersmetet Exmoor
Watersmeet is a picturesque wooded valley where the East
Lyn meets Farley Water. There are a number of waterfalls and a
series of rapids. The old 19th century hunting lodge built on the site
has been converted into a very good tea shop. From Watersmeet there
are well made up footpaths up stream to Brendon or down to Lynmouth both
footpaths follow the river along the spectacular valley.
Watersmeet House is a delightful fishing lodge from 1823
located at the picturesque spot in the East Lyn Valley where the waters
of the River Lyn and the Hoare Oak Water meet.
When the property came into the hands of the National Trust they refurbished
it to provide a pleasant tea room for visitors. This is now one of England's
longest established tea-gardens, it occupies a spectacular setting in a
deep gorge, fanning out from here are miles of stunning walks amongst woodlands,
streams and the rich Devonshire coastline.
See below for other recommended nearby attractions and towns to visit near
Watersmeet House, hotels near Watersmeet House, and Watersmeet House visitor
reviews.
The National Trust's Watersmeet and Countisbuiy property covers some 2000 acres (8OO ha) of rocky cliffs, open moorland, steep wooded valleys and fast flowing rivers. Much of it is a 'Site of Special Scientific interest' because of its extensive oakwoods. There are 38 miles of footpaths cross the property centred on Watersmeet House with its shop and tea garden, which are open April to the end of October.
At Watersmeet the Hoar Oak Waterr joins the East Lyn River. The house was built about 1830 by the Halliday family as a fishing and shooting lodge. During the summer
months it is a restaurant, shop and
information centre.
Just across the East Lyn River from Watersmeet House is a mine adit - a horizontal shaft - where an attempt was made in the 1800s to extract iron ore. Further up the river is a restored lime kiln where limestone was burned with coal to produce quicklime with which to "sweeten' the soil. Beside the kiln is a quarry where the stone for Watersmeet House was extracted.
Scattered through the woods, which are mainly of sessile oak, is the Devon whitebeam. Sorbus deuoniensis, and the closely related Sorbus subcuneata. Watersmeet is one of the two sites in mainland Britain where the Irish spurge;. Euphorbia hybema. is found. There is a wide range of plant communities, from the lichens of the almost barren scree slopes, to the luxuriant growth of ferns and mosses in the wetter parts.
Small birds abound, notably grey wagtails and dippers, flying low over the tumbling waters of the rivers. Red deer are occasionally seen away from the more populated places.
Marry of the paths started as donkey tracks in connection with the charcoal and tanning industries. One hundred years ago smoke spirals among the trees showed where the charcoal burners were working. Every twenty-five years or so the oak woods were coppiced: the trees were cut down, the bark stripped for use in tanning, and the poles used for fences, hurdles, or shipped to South Wales as pit props. The rubbish was sold as firewood.
The August 1952 flood disaster occurred after 9in of rain fell on the high ground of Exmoor in twenty-four hours. Gigantic landslips carried hundreds of trees into the rivers, ail the bridges in the area were swept away, houses demolished and thirty-four people lost their lives
Watersmeet is a popular beauty spot at the junction of the East Lyn and Hoaroak Water. The rivers flow through deep wooded gorges with numerous footpaths and bridges, all well maintained by the National Trust. The Trust has a visitor centre and tea gardens at a former nineteenth-century fishing lodge with access for disabled visitors (by appointment) and toilets. Otherwise there is a short but steep walk down from the car park on the A39 or a mile and a half walk up river from Lynmouth. The gorge is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and there are rare ferns, flowers and trees.
OS Grid Reference: SS7448
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