Tarr Steps, Somerset

Before going to Tarr Steps, we called in Dulverton for a stroll around the town and hopefully have a coffee. We struck lucky and found a lovely little coffee shop called the Copper Kettle where we sat out in the secluded garden and had a cappuccino each. We killed two birds with one stone and bought a couple of takeaway sarnies to eat later in the day. It really was a welcoming little place, everyone just seems to be so happy at having people using their businesses once again.

Tarr Steps is a 55m (180ft) long clapper bridge across the River Barle just west of Liscombe village, in the southern region of Exmoor National Park. The bridge is built with 17 large stone slabs laid end to end and supported on stone pilings. The pilings, in turn, are buttressed by 'raking stones' to protect against the force of the water. The bridge ends in a causeway, or raised bank, and those daft enough, can use this part of the river as a ford. A Range Rover did drive through, but I wouldn't like to risk driving through in a normal car.

It was certainly in existence by early medieval times, and it seems likely that it has been built and rebuilt for thousands of years before then. The most extreme estimate is that the first bridge was erected around 1000 BC, making it approximately 3000 years old. The 'Tarr' part of the bridge name may come from the ancient Celtic word 'Tochar', meaning a causeway. If true, this would suggest that the bridge indeed has an ancient origin.

The Nature Reserve takes in 33 hectares of woodland surrounding the river and the bridge itself, and provides habitat for woodland creatures such as dormice and the rare barbastelle bat, also otters can be found along its river banks.

We had a nice walk along the banks of the River Barle but turned round when a fellow walker said that there was no bridge across to get on to the return path. Once we got back to Watchet, I got my map out, checked on the internet and there was in fact a bridge only another half mile up the river. Thanks for that one mate!

I thought the whole area was so beautiful, and the steps were so much more impressive than I had imagined from the photos I'd seen. To top the day off, we parked high up on the Exmoor hills to have our butties and the decision to buy them at the café had been a good one! They even threw in some crisps, also we caught our first sighting of some Exmoor Ponies.