The delightful circular walk from Porlock to Porlock Weir (7.2km, ascent/descent 190m) may take little more than 2 hours to complete but it provides as wide a diversity of landscapes and as many points of interest and reasons to linger as many walks double its length. Moreover, parking is easy and there are any number of places at either end in which to enjoy something to eat and drink.
Porlock

Beginning in the village of Porlock where there is ample parking, you have time to browse the village. Don’t miss the yew tree in the churchyard of St Dubricius which is believed to be over a thousand years old while the church itself is thought to date back to the twelfth century. There are independent shops to browse and plenty of places to grab a snack or a drink before you set off.
Porlock was originally an important port and harbour dating back to Saxon times, its name meaning an enclosed port, but the sea has receded exponentially since then and the village now lies a mile from its harbour at Porlock Weir. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Porlock produced excellent yarn as well as having a thriving herring industry.
Passing the Porlock Village Hall which was opened in 1925, you enjoy unobstructed views across the coast before joining the Coleridge Way which climbs (not steeply) into Coombe Wood. Here, depending on the time of year, you’ll find multiple types of fungi. A very short steep section takes you to a half gate at the top of the hill and from there, you stay with the Coleridge Way as it descends towards Porlock Weir.

Porlock Weir
One of the few places along the Exmoor coast providing safe harbour for small craft, Porlock Weir was a busy trade post during the 18th- and 19th- centuries, seeing limestone and Welsh coal being imported, and flour, corn, bark for leather tanning, bricks, and oysters all exported from its shore. Of these, Porlock Bay oysters are still fished here as they were in the 1830s when it’s said, a Porlock Bay oyster caught in the morning would be on the menu of London’s finest restaurants by evening. The trade suffered sabotage in the 1890s when rival oyster farmers from Colchester and Whitstable stripped the Porlock Weir beds clean, and was only resumed in 2013. You will find Porlock Oysters on the menu at Porlock Weir Hotel and at Harbour Café and they’re available year-round.

As well as several good places to eat, you’ll find galleries and craft shops selling pottery and hand-blown Exmoor glass, and the bijou Boatshed Museum which is packed to its gunwales with maritime memorabilia, old maps and photos.
The Return Route
Leaving Porlock Weir, walk back along the road and then drop left down steps onto the beach to join the SW coastal path heading towards Bossington. The path skirts the edge of Sparkheyes Saltmarsh which was created by a storm surge in 1996, passing its petrified trees that stand like sculptures. Here too is a small memorial to a US Airforce squadron that crashed into Porlock Marsh in 1942 killing eleven of the twelve men onboard.

Beyond Sparkheyes you reach the Holnicote Estate and Porlock Marsh where, at high tide you may spot oystercatchers, shelduck and little egrets. The path emerges at the edge of a housing development and takes you back into the centre of Porlock.