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Exmoor: National Trust buys Lorna Doone landscape site

Sarah Hailstone Lorna Doone ValleySarah Hailstone
The site lies across the Devon and Somerset border on Exmoor

The National Trust has acquired a part of Exmoor that inspired the famous novel, Lorna Doone.

The nine-acre site was bought for £1.5m before England went into coronavirus lockdown, the trust has revealed.

The site includes Lorna Doone Farm and the nearby Cloud Farm campsite, which inspired RD Blackmore's novel in 1869.

The trust said it was likely to be its last acquisition for "quite some time" as the lockdown had caused an estimated £200m loss of income this year.

The novel, which has been turned into several films and television series, is a romance set in the late 17th Century in Devon and Somerset.

Richard Coyle as John Ridd and Amelia Warner as Lorna Doone in the 2-part drama, 'Lorna Doone', based on the classic novel by RD Blackmore
The classic novel was turned into a two-part BBC drama in 2000 starring Amelia Warner and Richard Coyle

In the book, Blackmore described the deep green valley "carved from out the mountains in a perfect oval" and wooded hills "swept up to the sky-line" as well as a river that "glided out from underground with a soft, dark babble".

April Braund, visitor experience manager at the National Trust, said: "RD Blackmore's descriptions of the Exmoor landscapes of rolling hills and deep wooded valleys are at the heart of the site."

The trust plans to improve the local facilities and encourage more people to enjoy the area.

Sarah Hailstone Hoccombe Water as you cross at the medieval villageSarah Hailstone
The popular setting is well connected to other National Trust landmarks

Other scenes from the book that can be picked out in the landscape include Badgworthy, the fictional home of the Doones, which is now a ruined settlement, and a 17th Century stone bridge over the river in Malmsmead.

Rob Joules, the National Trust's general manager for the north Devon coast and countryside, said it was "really exciting" to take ownership of this place "just after the 150th anniversary of the book".