HF Houses - Selworthy - Leaving the Car at Home.
Holnicote House. The house and surrounding estate were given to the National Trust in 1944 by Sir Richard Thomas Dyke Acland, 15th Baronet.
HF lease it from NT. It has 32 rooms which is not as large as some HF houses.
Getting There
The nearest railway station is Taunton (unless you can go on the heritage railway to Minehead).
The options from Taunton to Selworthy are:
- Two buses changing at Minehead to go all the way by bus.
- Taxi from Taunton to Selworthy.
- Bus to Minehead and book a taxi from Minehead to Selworthy.
- Stay over in Minehead which makes the buses more practical.
To get from Taunton to Selworthy, by bus, requires two buses:
- Firstbus route 28 from Taunton to Minehead (timetable)
- Atwest route 10 from Minehead to Selworthy (timetable)
When I went, the timetables did not align very well so, doing train+2 buses in one day was not practical for me. If you do go via Minehead I have put information about changing buses on the page here.
The local Taxi company seems good compared to taxis at other houses. Booking a taxi from Minehead seems a good compromise as the fare between Minehead and Selworthy is about £15 which is cheaper than a taxi all the way from Taunton.
I chose to stay over in Minehead at Premier Inn for a couple of days to extend the holiday and make the buses more practical. See the page about Minehead here.
Bus From Taunton to Minehead
At Taunton station there are lots of signs directing you to the 'S1' bus stop for to 28 bus to Minehead.
This is on the same side of the station as the arrivals from the London direction so you don't need to cross the rails. The station destination display shows the time of the next bus.
Go here and wait at the 'S1' bus stop:
Bus route 10 outside the house:
As you can see from the picture route 10 is a 16-seater minibus. When I went the driver knew the HF house and kindly let us off at the main entrance to the HF house but officially the bus stop is 'Selworthy Turn' which is about 200m before this entrance.
If they stop here you can either walk along the grass verge a bit to this gate here:
or walk around the NT offices here:
Because I stayed overnight in Minehead I got an early bus to Selworthy as I didn't want to hang around in Minehead with the luggage. Even though we got to the house very early we got a good welcome and Caroline made us a pot of tea.
An alternative, if you are very early, might be to leave your luggage at the house and walk to the tea shop in Allerford. Along a lane then across this pack horse bridge.
This is the tea shop:
The HouseMain house, Butlers Cottage and Guns Cottage (quite small). Holnicote house is surrounded by fields and Holnicote Estate (NT). There are various footpaths from the house. Pictures of the main House: |
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Guns Cottage:
Discovery point:
| Butlers Cottage: |  |
| I was in room 9: |  |
Padded seats in the boot room, I think HF guests are getting soft.
The dining room has just been decorated (Nov 2025). Its good to see that there are still carpets and curtains, so its not as noisy as houses like Church Stretton. Of course it helps that Selworthy is a smaller house and it was not full but its nice to be able to hear other conversations on the table. Its also good to have 6 or 7 people per table unlike the bigger houses which cram in more people per table. Some houses put the table mats in portrait mode, to fit more people in, which does not give much elbow room.
Walks from The House without a Car
Selworthy and Selworthy Beacon
Walk up to Selworthy from the house, its more pleasant to go up the footpath rather than the lane:
Periwinkle cottage is an NT tea room:
There is also a NT shop and museum:
Further up the hill is Selworthy Beacon:
Porlock
You can either walk to Porlock or catch the bus. Note if you catch the bus before 09:30 bus passes don't work.
This is described on the page here.
Porlock Weir
You can catch the bus to Porlock Weir which is the end of the route and then walk back to the house. In Nov 2025 the one way fare was £2.60.
This is described on the page here.
Minehead
In the past I did walk from the house to Minehead but its quite a long walk and there was not much time to do anything when I got there. Its a bit more relaxing to get a bus in one direction.
You can catch the bus to Minehead and then walk back to the house either along the coast or via Dunster Castle.
When I did this the bus was very busy. I think this was because it was the first bus after 09:30 and lots of locals were going into Minehead. If anyone tries it I would be interested to hear how busy it is.
This is described on the page here.
Coast Walks
There is a higher level and a lower level South West Coast Path so you can do a circular walk from the house.
For instance, can go via Selworthy to North Hill:
then across to the lower coast path and round to Hurlstone Point:
Or could go the other way round to Saint Agnes Fountain where there are 3 paths:
- down to Bossington
- mid level to Hurlstone Point
- or up to Selworthy Beacon
Dunkery Beacon
There is a sort of horseshoe of hills up to Beacon. So can go via Webber's Post and Dunkery Hill or via Horner Wood.
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Then you can walk along the ridge in either direction.
Return Journey Home to Taunton via Minehead
Bus 10 to Minehead at 09:48 was full when I used it during the week (I had the last seat) it is only a 16-seater minibus. I think this was because it was the first bus after 09:30 and lots of locals were going into Minehead. Therefore I did not use it to get back to Minehead I used the taxi instead. If anyone tries it I would be interested to hear how busy it is.
When catching the 28 bus from Minehead to Taunton it stops on the other side of Taunton station ('S2' bus stop) so you are the correct side of the station for going back toward London without crossing the tracks.
Other Documents on this site
Click on the following for more information
| Former HF Houses | |
|---|---|
| Conwy (1914- 2011) |  |
| Newlands (1914- 1987) |  |
| Swanage (1947- 1995) |  |
| Isle of Arran (1925- ) |  |
| Scarborough (1954- 1998) |  |
| Lulworth |  |
| Beddgelert |  |
| New Inns |  |
| Penrith |  |
| Milford-on-Sea |  |
About This SiteHere is some information I have gathered together about getting to and walking from HF houses when leaving the car at home. On these pages I have also put some history about former HF houses I have visited. The information here is based on my visits to HF houses over the years. It may be out of date so don't rely on anything here without checking. If you find any errors why not let others know by putting a post on the HF Holiday Fans ( unofficial) Facebook forum. I will try to quote such posts here so they don't get lost. This is information I have discovered over the years which would have been useful to know before. Unfortunately the travel information on the HF website, for getting to houses by public transport, is poor. I think it would be better if the information on this page were on the HF website. |
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