The northern escarpment
This part of the Blackdown Hills is dramatically steep and well wooded. The linear east-west topography is emphasised by a straight road running along the top – known locally as ‘the ridge road’. Small, hedged fields are a feature.
View point: Quarts Moor, National Trust Car Park
Wooded ridge
This is the softer, rolling end of the escarpment to the east. Here you will find extensive woodland including conifer plantations. Avenues of mature beech trees are banked alongside the roads.
View point: Staple Hill car park (Neroche Forest)
Upland plateau
Here gently-undulating land is crossed by long straight roads bounded mostly by beech hedges and isolated mature trees.
View Point: Dunkeswell Airfield
Rolling ridges
The landscape here is like that of the plateau, but it has a rolling topography with smaller fields. Avenues of trees line the roadsides and you will find views across the valleys.
View point: Half Moon Inn car park, Clayhidon
River valleys
Heavily wooded upper slopes spill down into valleys of pasture, hedge and hedgerow trees. Here you will find small winding roads and isolated farmsteads.
View point: Culmstock Beacon
