Forest bathing at Horner Wood

Horner Wood covers about 800 acres of the National Trust's Holnicote Estate near Minehead, following river and stream valleys on the lower slopes of Exmoor. It is a National Nature Reserve and one of the largest ancient oak woods in Britain. The old oak pollards are covered in mosses, ferns and lichens, and one, known as the General, is more than 500 years old. A 17th century packhorse bridge crosses Horner Water, and there is a Tudor iron-smelting site among the trees.

Most visits start from the car park in Horner, which has toilets and a tea-room nearby. Three waymarked walking trails head up into the woods along Horner Water; the valleys are steep-sided, so the streamside paths are the gentlest. Look out for red deer, dippers on the water, and pied flycatchers and wood warblers in early summer. On autumn evenings, bats come out over the stream.