It’s one of those places that you might drive through on your way to East Devon and maybe give stopping there at some point a moment’s thought before focusing on the next corner in the road, but if you get the chance you should definitely give Woodbury Common a deeper look. I haven’t explored the area fully myself yet, and probably won’t, but what I’ve discovered there so far has been pretty impressive.

Woodbury Common is a really popular spot for local cyclists, ramblers and dog walkers, but the area’s so vast that you can quite easily find yourself alone in the countryside (yet only 15 minutes out of Exeter or 5 minutes from Exmouth). Add to that the fact that car parking (at least in my experience) is free, and you’ve got a low-cost setting for an adventure in the countryside suitable for all.

I visit Woodbury Common quite frequently – either for a walk or a mountain bike ride – the trails there can quickly change from the busy and tame dirt trail to an extreme ascent/descent with nobody around, so you have to approach each hill with caution and look out for other trail users.

One other thing to be aware of is that you’re never too far from a road – if you look on Google maps at the area you’ll see that it’s criss-crossed with lanes. I tend to use the various car parks as waypoints on my journeys.

If I’m out on my bike, I tend to start at the same point and just head in a direction that I haven’t fully explored yet, like we did this weekend. The photos I’ve put up aren’t in sequence, and aren’t great quality, but they’ll hopefully give you an idea of what to expect when you get up there.

We started at Wheathill Plantation car park, meandered over towards Frying Pans car park, across the lane and into the woods to the North East.

From there, we made our way over to Model Airfield car park, across the EDRCC Flying site, up the lane towards Woodbury Castle, down to Four Firs car park, back through Frying Pans car park to Wheathill Plantation for a small circuit around there.

All in all, the route was around 5 miles long and took an hour or so to get through. It consisted of some pretty exciting downhill sections.

You can see from the photos that the terrain ranges from basic mud track to pebblebed, the latter being more challenging for walkers and cyclists alike, especially on some of the longer ascents.

So, if you’re ever heading over that way, why not seek out a different car park and go for an adventure of your own on Woodbury Common?