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Lorna Doone's Exmooor: How to explore the wilds that inspired the novel
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Lorna Doone, a novel of passion, dark deeds and high drama set in the wilds of 17th century Exmoor.
The eponymous Lorna is held by the Doones, an extended family of outlaws who, kicked out of Scotland, have relocated their thieving ways to the isolated wastes of Exmoor in south-west England. Lorna encounters a local farmer, the strapping John, or Jan, Ridd, and they fall in love - even though she is pledged, against her will, to the worst of the Doone clan, the grisly Carver Doone.
As the tale unfolds Carver storms the wedding of Lorna and Jan, shoots and wounds Lorna before being chased into the boggy mires of Exmoor where he meets a suitably grim and gloopy death. Into this fictitious mix are thrown a host of historical characters and events including highwaymen and the Monmouth, or Pitchfork rebellion, which sought to overthrow James II.
Written by Richard Doddridge Blackmore, the book initially flopped before gaining in popularity (thanks in part to the erroneous belief that took hold that Lorna had been a real person with ancestral links to Queen Victoria’s family). The novel has never been out of print and is now safely settled in the literary pantheon between Sir Walter Scott’s historical novels and the Wessex tales of Thomas Hardy.
Author RD Blackmore spent much of his childhood on Exmoor, so unsurprisingly the book features many places that he knew well, showcasing the best of this Devon wilderness. An exploration of these locations, which feature either in the book or as Blackmore’s inspiration, is an excellent way to get underneath the skin of what is the UK’s smallest national park and takes in deep valleys, big skies, red deer and Exmoor ponies.
It’s worth noting that over the years fact and fiction have been interwoven and certainly the Victorian travel industry, alive to the interest in the book, played fast and loose with the truth: even the Doone Valley, which features on Ordnance Survey maps, is itself a 19th century invention. Ridd, however, is a true Exmoor name but while the Doones are thought to have existed as a family of ill repute on the moor, though there is no record of them after the 17th century.
What to see
St Mary’s church, Oare
St Mary’s church in the hamlet of Oare is where Jan Ridd and Lorna are poised to marry before the villainous Culver Doone fires a pistol through a window, the shot hitting Lorna a seemingly mortal blow (spoiler alert: Lorna survives to live with Jan happily ever after).
The church has an idyllic setting, sunk deep in Deddy Combe (a regional term for a steep-sided valley) and is surrounded by a serrated skyline of sheer hills topped by beech trees which cast sharp shadows in the late afternoon sun. The church was familiar to Blackmore, and his grandfather was the rector here. The bell, made in 1770 still rings clearly, piercing the stillness of the valley on the hour.
It’s worth checking to see if your visit coincides with a performance by the Pleasure Dome Theatre Company (pleasuredometheatrecompany.com). Wearing period costumes, they occasionally recreate the disrupted marriage of Jan and Lorna in the church. They also perform a play adapted from the novel within the superb open-air setting of the Valley of the Rocks on the north coast of the moor, near Lynton and Lynmouth.
Across the valley from the church is a Grade I-listed Victorian house, which is thought to have been the location of Plovers Barrow Farm, home of Jan Ridd.
Culbone Church
Tiny Culbone church, tucked into a lush valley set back from the north coast, west of Porlock, is believed to be England’s smallest parish church and pre-Norman in origin. The sides of the combe here are so steep that almost no direct sunlight penetrates the churchyard. A slim line of gravestones forms an eerie guard of honour and includes a handful of Ridd graves. Inside the church you can walk from one white-washed wall to the other in perhaps five strides.
Robber Bridge
A mile or east of St Mary’s, along the minor road that runs parallel to the A39 stands the packhorse bridge known as Robber Bridge. This is thought to be where Jan Ridd’s father, a man of strong principles, refuses to hand over his money to the thieving Doones and is murdered; it is also claimed to be where the highwayman Tom Faggus is caught by the Crown (the real-life Faggus was hanged; in the book he is given a gentler fate and marries Jan’s favourite sister, Annie.)
Dunkery Beacon
At 519m (1,705ft), Dunkery Beacon is the highest point on Exmoor and was the location for warning beacons to be lit when invasion threatened. In the novel, the Doones set fire to the beacon, lighting up the surrounding hills and valleys. From its broad summit you can see across the Bristol Channel to the Brecon Beacons.
How to do it
Head out on safari
There may be no big game on Exmoor, but you can still go on safari. Head out with Richard Growden (from £25pp; discoverysafaris.com) and you will see just how much of Exmoor has remained unchanged since Lorna Doone was written. Richard’s themed Lorna Doone Safari bounces you along unclassified roads and by-ways in his 30-year-old Landrover Defender, often following historical stagecoach routes that would have been familiar to those living and travelling across Exmoor during the time the novel was set.
Given the choice of driving over a packhorse bridge or fording the water in his Landrover, Richard will always opt for the latter. Like the novel itself, Richard is prone to embellishments but retells with some gusto the dramatic highlights of the novel. Highly recommended, especially for children who may question the relevance of a Victorian novel set more than 300 years ago.
Take a walk
A rewarding walk through the Doone valley not only takes in some of the scenes depicted in the novel but also offers superb views of Exmoor from little-visited paths. One fine option is a circular five-mile route taking in the Badgworthy Water and Great Black Hill. Begin from the small car park by Lorna Doone Farm (grid reference SS782478) by the village of Malmsmead.
Head south on the footpath (there’s a 50p entrance fee as it runs on private land). After a mile or so you pass a memorial stone to Blackmore, set in an idyllic spot with the backdrop of heather pulling away up the hills of the valley. Shortly afterwards, the path enters Badgworthy (pronounced ‘badgery’) Wood and begins to climb. Trees here are draped in mosses and lichens and you come to a footbridge and a kink in the river where a series of huge stone slabs act as a waterslide.
In the novel, Jan Ridd, aged 14, clambers up this waterslide to first set eyes on a singing Lorna. Upstream, the river nudges into Lank Combe, the entrance to Doone Valley where this route bears right to climb up the southern side of Great Black Hill. It then returns downhill through the serpentine sessile oaks of Badgworthy Wood. Just before returning to the car park you can cross the river by a footbridge that leads to a tea garden at Cloud Farm. From here, a short walk leads along the river to Oare Church.
Local guide Jennie Wild (wildaboutexmoor.com) is excellent company and offers a Lorna Doone themed walk, where she will guide you along this route, pausing at locations mentioned in the book to read excerpts. By the waterslide, she will recite how Jan describes this obstacle to be a ‘steep black staircase’.
Once you clamber to the top of Black Hill she turns to a passage in the book where Jan Ridd likens the formidable mists that can settle on the moors to soft white pillows. In a touch of ghoulish realism, she will also recite how Jan struggles to get his bearings because the mist has obscured the gibbets that abounded on the high moor and acted as landmarks.
Where to stay
Exmoor White Horse is an atmospheric 16th-century inn with comfortable rooms and an excellent restaurant (exmoor-whitehorse.co.uk; doubles with breakfast from £128).
More information: visit-exmoor.co.uk; visitsomerset.co.uk
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