A Weekend in Exmoor (2025)

For Mother’s Day 2025, my family spent the weekend in Exmoor National Park, in the southwest of England. In recent years, we’ve celebrated Mother’s Day with afternoon tea on a Pullman train or in Portugal, however since my parents have a puppy nowadays, this year we had to accommodate. Nonetheless, we hadn’t been to Exmoor together and had booked a house for the weekend. 

Saturday

My parents and their doggo, Chilli, had driven to Exmoor on the Friday, however since I had Friday evening plans, my brother and I decided to go first thing on Saturday morning instead. The drive to Exmoor is around four hours but we were aiming to get there for brunch, so we left the house at 6am headed for the A3. Although the drive was a long one (especially given we were only staying one night), it flew by as we took turns driving and broke up the drive with a coffee break. I learned that I actually quite like the A3; there weren’t many roadworks, the landscapes are pretty and you even pass by Stonehenge! 

As we approached Exmoor, we headed straight to The Bottom Ship for a fry up, where we were reunited with my parents and Chilli. The fry up was delicious and since we were on the coast, we then walked along the beach, teaching Chilli how to be less fearful of water and bridges. We then headed to the house to unpack and relax, which I was excited for. 

The house was an unusual design as it was essentially two houses joined together, so comprised several living rooms, two kitchens, nine bedrooms and various bathrooms. That said, one of the houses was much eerier than the other, with bedrooms within bedrooms and old wallpaper designs. It was giving The Shining and I wasn’t here for it. Luckily, my brother agreed and so we chose rooms in the less eerie house, where I was planning to spend most of my time. 

After settling in, we took Chilli for a walk in the nearby fields, where he was off-lead running about and loving life. It was the early afternoon by the time we finished walking him and we hadn’t had any lunch so we headed to Withypool Tea Room, where I enjoyed a delicious cream of mushroom soup and Chilli enjoyed some puppy ice cream. 

We then walked back to the house and before we knew it, we were all napping until dinnertime. Some would argue that we could’ve done this in London, but alas, it was still nice to be in the National Park. For dinner, my mum had booked us a table at Exmoor Forest Inn, which I would very highly recommend; the waiters were lovely (and gave Chilli a lot of attention) and the food was absolutely delicious - I cannot fault it. 

After dinner, we continued with the theme of the day (more relaxation), including teaching Chilli how to roll over, watching TV, and catching up. The night took a turn for the worse however, as when we retired to bed, I got the creeps from the armchair at the end of my bed, convinced that I would awake in the middle of the night to an old woman sat in the armchair looking at me, and I kept scaring myself more and more, despite being in one of the less eerie bedrooms. Eventually, I got over myself (read: went on TikTok) and ended up actually having a good night’s sleep. 

Sunday

I awoke to the sound of my door opening and Chilli jumping on me - I was later informed that he’d been sitting outside my door waiting for me to wake up, so my brother decided to let him in. It was a shock to the system but definitely did the job and it’s safe to say, I was wide awake after that. The skies were clear and the sun was shining, so after all getting ready, we headed to Tarr Steps National Woodland Walk with Chilli, a circular 3.5km walk along a river, which was perfect for us and very enjoyable. Chilli got comfortable walking over bridges and did the entire walk off-lead, which was a first for him! 

After returning to the house, my family decided they’d also go back to London today (rather than on the Monday, as originally planned), so we had a delicious breakfast and then started packing up in the late morning. We had a very late lunch booked at a pub in Salisbury and had plenty of time until then so decided to go for a drive through the national park and visit some of the local villages. 

One of the things I love about England is the cute villages you find across its national parks and this was no exception - they were adorable and the park itself was beautiful too (and in parts, reminiscent of the Yorkshire Dales!). Eventually, we arrived at Dinton Park, a National Trust park featuring a lake and a huge house, where we walked Chilli. It was a very relaxing walk and exactly what he needed before our pub lunch. 

We’d really struggled to find a pub with availability for four and a hound, however my brother suggested James May’s pub in Salisbury, The Royal Oak, which had good reviews and was en route to London, so worked for everyone. We ordered some breads and Sunday roasts and the food was absolutely delicious, although the service was very slow (perhaps as it was late in the day or our table was slightly hidden), but overall I would recommend. The main memory that springs to mind was seeing a loose Golden Retriever to the left of my dad chilling, then looking to the right of my dad (where Chilli had been, wearing his harness, which was attached to the lead under my dad’s chair leg) and seeing an empty harness on the floor. As it turns out, Chilli had waited until the precise moment that the mains arrived to attempt his escape and release the shackles. It made me laugh a lot and said a lot about his slyness. 

After lunch, we said goodbye to the parents and headed back to London, which was only a couple hours away at this point, arriving in the evening. It was a lovely weekend, with a lot of quality time with the family and delicious food.