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Photo: Roger Cornfoot · CC BY-SA 2.0
Hawkridge · Exmoor National Park

The Birches

Our verdict

For Barle valley devotees — a nameless-feeling steep most Tarr Steps visitors walk beneath without looking up. Take the riverside path towards Hawkridge, climb through it, and the crowds are gone in ten minutes flat.

A birch-and-oak steep above the River Barle between Tarr Steps and Hawkridge, in the wooded gorge country where the river runs peat-brown under mossed boulders.

Steep valley woodland above the Barle near Tarr Steps, reached on foot. Leads on near stock.

Where it is