Lower Hook Hill
About
Hidden in the secret combes of this part of Somerset where Exmoor tumbles down the Brendon Hills on to the North Somerset Coast, Lower Hook Hill is situated a mile down a country cul-de-sac. It's perfect hideaway on its own rural estate and the seaside is within easy reach.
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It is set in a mature one-and-a-half-acre garden which is a profusion of lilies, traditional English roses and a gigantic butterfly bush. It has a sun-trap lawn overlooking a sweeping landscape of grass pasture and forestry. From it, you can see a private deer park with its herd of native red deer. Indeed, Britain's smaller deer wander past on a daily basis - including fallow and roe. Otters come up the stream that runs past the garden, too. There is a waterfall a short walk away.
From the house, a footpath leads to the old Mineral Line narrow gauge railway that took quarried iron ore from the Brendon Hills via railway to Washford until the beginning of the 20th century. You can stroll up the incline where they pulled the trains to nearby Raleigh's Cross. It makes a delightful one-hour walk with views across the Bristol Channel to the hills of South Wales.
The house is within Exmoor National Park with all the holidaymaking amenities that brings. All the woodland locally is crisscrossed with paths and even wider tracks if you want to rent horses and ponies. It is situated in a few hundred yards from one of the best-known named footpaths in the West Country, the Coleridge Way. The family who own the house can also organise clay pigeon shooting.
The family also breed and show Exmoor ponies. They have had their own herd for 150 years and were responsible for saving the breed in the 1950's. The family have been farming in the Brendon Hills for more than 500 years.
Great pubs abound in this part of Somerset. The house is near the Raleigh's Cross Inn, as well as other popular local pubs including the Valiant Soldier at Roadwater, the White Horse at Washford, and the Notley Arms at Monksilver. It is a 10-minute drive from the sea at Blue Anchor Bay, where you can book fishing boats.