Tag: lynton and barnstaple railway

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Woody Bay #50places2026

The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway opened in 1898 and ran for 19 miles connecting the North Devon town of Barnstaple with the twin towns of Lynton and Lynmouth.  Due to the difficult terrain    a narrow gauge railway was constructed. It was never a success, it became part of the Southern Railway, and despite investment, the railway was closed in 1935.

The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Trust was formed in 2000. They worked on the railway and a short section was reopened to passengers in 2004, which was extended in 2006.

We made our first visit to Lynton & Barnstaple Railway in June 2006. Back then we rode the train to Killington Lane. It has to be said that there isn’t much to do at Killington Lane.

We did another visit in April 2011 and once again we rode the train. Our last visit was in April 2014.

Over the last ten years I have driven past Woody Bay a few times, and do remember at least once seeing the train steaming to the station along the line.

Since I visited in 2014, the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Trust had gained a new steam locomotive, Lyn, a replica of one of the steam locomotives that the Southern Railway used in 1923. I had wanted to plan a return visit to see this loco in action.

This time, it was a fleeting visit, and I didn’t travel on the train itself. However, I did take the time to visit the tearoom, and did treat myself to a teatowel in the shop.

I did enjoy watching this recreation of the original Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Trust steaming in and out of Woody Bay station.

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Lovely Lynmouth

I didn’t think it had been that long since I last visited Lynmouth, as we walked around the town, but checking my photographs (which is always a good indicator of when things happened for me) I realised that the last time we had visited Lynmouth was in 2011. Was it really nine years ago we had driven along the A39 along the coast to this pretty North Devon town? I felt we had been there more recently.

So it was a sunny Sunday in September when we thought it would be nice to visit Lynton and Lynmouth again. Once we were all ready we set off, Waze gave us directions via Tiverton and then up the A361, which in theory, though longer in distance, would be quicker than travelling along the A39. I am not quite sure it was. However I thought I would give this route a chance and it would be different. If we didn’t like it, I would drive back along the A39 past Minehead (which in the end is exactly what we did do). Driving this route I was reminded of our journey home once from the Barnstaple area many years ago where we got delayed by some trucks loaded with the huge blades of a wind turbine. The turbines always look small, but that’s because they are far away. Driving next to one reminds you how big these things are.

It wasn’t too long before we were directed by Waze off the A361 and onto the A399 and we headed towards Lynmouth.

What was nice, was as we passed Woody Bay Station we saw the Lynton & Barnstaple steam train. I had read about how the heritage railway now had a replica of the trains that use to run there in the 1920s before it closed and along with original coaches, looked very much the way it did when it was operating as a commercial railway. I would certainly like to visit there again in the future. Though we hadn’t been to Lynmouth since 2011, we had been to Woody Bay in 2014, but even that doesn’t feel like six years ago!

The road into Lynmouth is quite steep and narrow, but with care we got through the traffic and parked cars. Arriving at around lunchtime it was a little challenging to find somewhere to park, as the car park was not only quite full, but our car is quite big and the spaces didn’t seem big enough. We eventually found a space right at the end of the car park (typical).

You could tell how thing have changed since we last came, as I paid for our parking using an app on the phone! We grabbed our packed lunch and headed to the beach. Continue reading “Lovely Lynmouth”