Two Moors Way
A hundred and two miles across Devon from Ivybridge to Lynmouth, joining the two moors of Dartmoor and Exmoor
Indicative — sampled from open terrain data along the simplified route.
The Two Moors Way runs 102 miles across Devon, from Ivybridge on the southern edge of Dartmoor to Lynmouth on the Exmoor coast, and is usually walked in six to eight days. It divides into three clear parts: the open granite moorland of Dartmoor at the start, a long middle section through the farmland and river valleys of mid-Devon, and the deep wooded combes and high heather of Exmoor at the finish.
Most of the walking is straightforward and well waymarked, but the two moors ask more of you than the miles between them. The Dartmoor crossing runs over exposed, trackless ground where the signposts give out and you need to be able to navigate; the Exmoor stretch climbs to high moorland with long views before dropping to the sea at Lynmouth and its twin town Lynton. The middle, by contrast, is gentle — lanes, field paths and the valley of the River Dart — and it is where the route is quietest.
Ivybridge has a station on the main line to Plymouth, which makes the southern end easy to reach; Lynmouth has no railway, and is served instead by bus from Barnstaple. The trail passes through villages often enough to be broken into sections.
The route was the idea of a group of Devon ramblers, who linked existing rights of way, and it opened in 1976. In 2005 it was extended south from Ivybridge to the coast at Wembury, giving a full coast-to-coast walk of about 117 miles, though the original moor-to-moor line remains the classic.
