Walk along part of the Tarka Trail at Eggesford, Devon
Park off the A377 , about 10 miles north west of Crediton at the Egglesford
Wood Forestry Commission Car Park. This is a four mile easy walk that will take a couple of hours.
- Leave the car park and follow the main forest track - it has red painted tops on the marker posts
- You come to a path running downhill along the brook, and follow that down to the A377
- Over the road, over a stile, under the railway, and over the River Taw.
Down some steps, through two gates, and you will soon see signs for the Tarka Trail
- The Tarka trail is 180 mile long distance footpath, pointing up places mentioned
in the Tarka the Otter books. You are following a short scenic stretch here
- The trail takes you past Egglesford Church. It was the church in the grounds
of Egglesford House, but the house was demolished in 1832. A new house was
built, but that has now fallen into ruin. The church now stands in splendid isolation
- Continue past the church till you meet a lane in a few hundred yards, turn
right and fairly soon left at a junction to "Wembworthy"
- This lane will now take you through woodland, and past a stone commemorating
the first Forestry Commission plantings in 1919
- Turn left here along a bridle way with blue arrows, past Scrabbacleave Farm,
straight across Hayne Valley and Old Globe Farm, to reach a lane
- Turn right and follow the lane for a few hundred yards to Egglesford Fourways,
where you turn left to re-join the Tarka Trail.
- The Tarka Trail will take you back past Egglesford Barton Farm, and you
will pass the point that you entered the trail at.
- Turn right and re-trace your footsteps to cross the A377 and return to the car park
