Woolacombe Without a Car: Bus, Train and Walking It

Short answer: There is no station at Woolacombe. Take the Tarka Line from Exeter to Barnstaple, then the bus along the north coast. Once you are here, the village, the beach, Mortehoe and Morte Point are all walkable — which is more than most of this coast can say.

Getting here

Woolacombe has no railway station and never had one. The nearest is Barnstaple, the terminus of the Tarka Line from Exeter, and from there buses run out along the north coast towards Ilfracombe, Woolacombe and Combe Martin.

It is a genuine journey rather than a hop, so treat it as a day out from Exeter or a way of arriving for a stay, not as a casual afternoon trip.

Bus timetables in Devon thin out sharply from October and change between summer and winter. Check the operator's current timetable before you plan a day around a connection rather than trusting an old printout or an app that has not refreshed.

Once you are here, it works

This is Woolacombe's saving grace. The village, the beach and the walk up to Mortehoe are all on foot, and Mortehoe is where the best of the area is anyway. You do not need a car once you have arrived, which is not true of Croyde or Putsborough.

What you can reach on foot

• The full three miles of beach — walk south and it empties within ten minutes.
• Mortehoe — about a mile up the hill, with the museum, two pubs and the cream teas.
• Morte Point — the headland loop from Mortehoe, with seals on the rocks below.
• Bull Point Lighthouse — a mile and a half each way from Mortehoe on a track.
• Barricane and Grunta — the coves north of the main beach, reached along the coast road.

The uphill problem

Woolacombe sits at the bottom of a slope. Walking up to Mortehoe is a proper climb and walking back down at the end of the day with tired legs is the easy half. Plan the day that way round — up first while everyone is fresh, then downhill home.

What you cannot reach

Putsborough, at the southern end of the same sands, is approached through Croyde's lanes rather than from Woolacombe and is effectively car-only. Saunton and Croyde both need transport. Rockham is walkable from Mortehoe but the descent is steep and the steps have been closed at times.

The advantage nobody mentions

Parking in Woolacombe is all paid, fills by mid-morning in season and is the single biggest source of frustration here. Arriving without a car removes the entire problem, and the money you would have spent on a day's parking covers a good chunk of the bus fare.