Otterford Tourist Information

Otterford Parish is bisected by the B3170 road providing good links from Taunton and the M5 and from Honiton and the A30 trunk road.

The unspoilt countryside is in the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is best known to visitors for the Victorian landscape, awaiting restoration, of the Otterhead Estate which includes the Otterhead Lakes, a nature reserve, in the valley of the River Otter, which it shares with the neighbouring parish of Churchstanton.

The Otterhead car park is within sight of St Leonard's, the Parish Church of Otterford. The main centre of population is Bishopswood to the east of the B3170 road. The main activity is agriculture but the area was well known for quarrying and lime burning in the north and south-east of the parish. Bishopswood Meadows, another nature reserve, contains a restored lime kiln and information on lime burning.

The parish contains the headwaters of the Rivers Otter and Culm and Bishopswood slopes down to the River Yarty. There are Forestry Commission plantations and many public rights of way, including footpaths to Churchinford, the main centre of population in the Parish of Churchstanton.

Prospective visitors who rely on public transport should be aware that the only bus services are infrequent.

Description by Roy Coombs