The Tarka Trail
Choose a holiday cottage, luxury self catering cottage or farmhouse bed and breakfast on the Tarka Trail through Cartwheel Holidays.
The Tarka Trail takes its name after the enduring novel ‘Tarka the Otter’ by Henry Williamson and is a 290km circular route in north Devon which in part follows the Tarka Line railway. The figure-of-eight path loops through many towns including Barnstaple, Bideford, Okehampton, Hatherleigh, Torrington, Lynmouth and Ilfracombe.
Tarka country has inspired the promotion of north and mid Devon and the trail offers a vast array of landscapes from river estuaries to coastal cliffs and inland wooded river vales and craggy moors, picturesque towns and villages. Ideal for walking and cycling the trail terrain can vary accordingly from the more demanding to easy depending on the location.
The southern loop shadows the old railway line from Barnstaple to Bideford around the Torridge estuary and back inland along the Torridge valley. The Tarka line then loops south passing through mid Devon to Okehampton and crosses parts of north Dartmoor to the River Taw and back to Barnstaple via the picturesque 32 Km train ride along the Tarka railway line from Eggesford. At this point the trail follows the river valleys to the coastal town of Lynmouth and then westward to Ilfracombe and Braunton before returning to Barnstaple via the Torridge estuary.
The Tarka Trail takes its name after the enduring novel ‘Tarka the Otter’ by Henry Williamson and is a 290km circular route in north Devon which in part follows the Tarka Line railway. The figure-of-eight path loops through many towns including Barnstaple, Bideford, Okehampton, Hatherleigh, Torrington, Lynmouth and Ilfracombe.
Tarka country has inspired the promotion of north and mid Devon and the trail offers a vast array of landscapes from river estuaries to coastal cliffs and inland wooded river vales and craggy moors, picturesque towns and villages. Ideal for walking and cycling the trail terrain can vary accordingly from the more demanding to easy depending on the location.
The southern loop shadows the old railway line from Barnstaple to Bideford around the Torridge estuary and back inland along the Torridge valley. The Tarka line then loops south passing through mid Devon to Okehampton and crosses parts of north Dartmoor to the River Taw and back to Barnstaple via the picturesque 32 Km train ride along the Tarka railway line from Eggesford. At this point the trail follows the river valleys to the coastal town of Lynmouth and then westward to Ilfracombe and Braunton before returning to Barnstaple via the Torridge estuary.