Situated close to the border with North Devon in Somerset, close to Porlock and a few miles from Minehead lies the village of Bossington. The shingle beach offers views to Porlock Hill and out over the Bristol Channel towards Wales. From nearby Bossington Hill, the far-reaching views take in Hurlesone Point, Porlock Bay, and the sands of Minehead Bluff.
Bossington is a little known place that requires turning off of the A39 Minehead to Porlock road to reach when travelling by car. It is part of the Holnicote estate and offers peace and quiet, save for the trickling of the stream. The houses are a mixture of traditional Exmoor cob and thatched cottages, many have impressive, decorative chimney stacks. The vista is mostly pretty with the mixture of old cottages and their well-tended gardens, hedges and old fences. Protected as it is by Bossington Hill and the natural bay on the waterside, the other villages that lead towards Bossington and the sea do so, as though doing so is inevitable. Driving there is a delight, through rolling countryside and past villages and farmhouses. Although, not far from the bustle of Minehead and Porlock, the feeling of the place is of being out of the way, as though stepping back in time, to a slower, more peaceful world.
Chris Heaton, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The beach at Bossington is pebble and quite comfortable enough to sit or lie on to enjoy the tranquillity. The beach also offers opportunities to watch the coastal birds such as little egrets, shelducks and curlews as they enjoy the tidal pools. It is also quite possible to spot porpoise in the bay. A stroll on the beach and you can see the old lime kilns and sea defences that line the shore. Bossington beach forms the east section of a geographically famous pebble ridge.
The Holnicote estate comprises of 12,000 acres of Exmoor National Park and within the 12,000 acres is a varied landscape of rugged moorland, ancient woodland, rolling farmland and coastland with shingle beaches and windswept headlands. The rich and diverse landscape leads in turn to a rich and diverse range of wildlife and fauna such as the rare heath fritillary butterfly, bats, Exmoor ponies and red deer.
Named after the River Exe, Exmoor has the most remote coastline in England. There are large sections inaccessible by land or sea, making the gentle beach at Bossington even more special. Close by are historical places such as the medieval village of Dunster and Dunster Castle. The history of Exmoor though goes back a lot further, and archaeological finds include artefacts from as far back as 8000-4000 BC. Exmoor is also well-populated with prehistoric standing stones and almost 400 burial mounds as well as prehistoric field systems and hut circles on the moors. Little known Bossington is a delight on the western coast of this vast, historical landscape.