Detour #71: Atlantic Highway, Devon, UK
Atlantic Highway is something of an exaggeration. The A39 from Porlock to Barnstaple is a winding single carriageway, but it most definitely delivers on the Atlantic part of its name, with stunning views across the ocean.
It all begins in the village of Porlock, where you can choose to take a toll road through the forest or tackle Porlock Hill, one of the steepest roads in Britain. The forest road is quite picturesque but the handful of hairpins can be great fun if your car and the conditions are favourable. This is a very popular drive, so if you want to enjoy it try to steer clear of weekends and holidays or you’ll find it plagued with slow moving motorhomes, caravans and general meanderers.
Soon you’ll be up onto Exmoor where the A39 flows through the hills, alternatively fast and open, or twisty and challenging. It’s quite beautiful, too, with the purple moorgrass up close and the patchwork of fields in the distance.
Then, as you descend towards Lynton, you catch sight of the Atlantic for the first time. Dropping down hill you can see across the sea to Wales on a clear day. Take a Detour to one the five shingle beaches nearby where you may be lucky enough to catch sight of a dolphin pod playing in the surf. Or nip inland a little for a delicious cream tea at the National Trust’s Watersmeet House.
The rest of the run to Barnstaple is mostly flat and finds you travelling between open fields and close-packed hedgerows before a surprisingly twisty section at Churchill then takes you to Barnstaple for another cuppa or a locally-brewed GT ale.
The Atlantic Highway was the first of seven fantastic roads that I drove with my son in our Caterham Seven. And what a great way to start the trip it was. You can read about the rest of the adventure over at Hagerty.