The Blackdown Hills National Landscape covers 370 square kilometres (143 square miles) across Devon and Somerset. Its tourism profile combines quiet countryside pursuits, heritage assets, working farms and a substantial network of walking, riding and cycling routes. The figures below describe the landscape, its communities and its visitor offer, with measurement periods kept explicit.
Contents
- The landscape and its communities
- Road access and getting around
- Rights of way and outdoor recreation
- Farming and the rural visitor setting
- Heritage, conservation and local activity
- Walking, cycling and horse-riding options
The landscape and its communities
The 2024 State of the Blackdown Hills report gives the National Landscape a population of 14,130 people, a population equivalent to Chard. The area lies within 43 parish and town councils. It was designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1991 and is now described as the Blackdown Hills National Landscape.
The population profile helps explain the type of visitor experience available. In the 2021 profile, 68% of residents were of working age, down from 71% in 2011. The same profile recorded 56% of residents as employed, 2% seeking work and 42% not seeking work. Between 2011 and 2021, managerial and professional occupations rose by 5%, while employment in land-based industries fell by 7%. Employment in distribution, hotels and restaurants fell by 1% over the same period.
Health and mobility figures are also relevant to accessible tourism. The 2024 State of the Blackdown Hills report says 83% of residents reported good or very good health, while 4% reported bad or very bad health. A further 17% were disabled under the Equality Act and 8% had a long-term physical or mental health condition. Car access is high: 94% of the resident population had access to at least one car or van.
The landscape itself is split approximately between 260 square kilometres in Devon and 110 square kilometres in Somerset, according to the Annual Review 2009-2010. The newer 370-square-kilometre figure provides the overall area used in the 2024 state report. These are geographic descriptions rather than visitor-volume estimates.
Road access and getting around
Road counts show how strongly the visitor geography is shaped by a few major routes. The State of the Blackdown Hills 2024 report uses counts from 2017-22 and gives the following average daily vehicle figures:
| Road | Average vehicles per day | Measurement period |
|---|---|---|
| A303 | 14,404 | 2017-22 counts |
| A35 | 10,497 | 2017-22 counts |
| A30 | 3,485 | 2017-22 counts |
| A373 | 3,198 | 2017-22 counts |
These figures are traffic counts, not tourist counts, and they should not be read as the number of visitors entering the National Landscape. They do, however, indicate the relative scale of movement on the named roads during the measurement period. The A303 had the highest reported average, followed by the A35; the A30 and A373 had lower average counts in the same set of 2017-22 observations.
The 94% car-or-van access figure describes residents, not visitors. It is therefore useful context for planning trips in a rural area, but it does not measure the proportion of tourists who arrive by car. Public transport availability can vary considerably by route. For example, the Broadhembury and North Hill walking information notes only one bus per week on that route.
Rights of way and outdoor recreation
The recorded rights-of-way network extends to 436.5 kilometres across the National Landscape, according to the State of the Blackdown Hills 2024 report. Footpaths make up 340.6 kilometres of the network and bridleways account for 86.1 kilometres. The report also records 8.9 kilometres of restricted byways and 0.9 kilometres of BOAT byways.
| Rights-of-way category | Recorded length |
|---|---|
| All recorded rights of way | 436.5 km |
| Footpaths | 340.6 km |
| Bridleways | 86.1 km |
| Restricted byways | 8.9 km |
| BOAT byways | 0.9 km |
The categories describe recorded network length, not the number of routes or the number of journeys made by visitors. The balance is nevertheless clear: footpaths are the largest named part of the network, while bridleways provide a substantial second category for riders and walkers.
Accessible green infrastructure covers 2% of the National Landscape. This is a land-cover or access measure and is distinct from the 436.5 kilometres of recorded rights of way. The 2025 management plan says tourism and recreation provision will be supported where it contributes to the local economy without harming the landscape. It also says outdoor recreation for residents and visitors will be supported through access and enjoyment measures, and that positive action will help everyone enjoy living in and visiting the National Landscape.
The visit page presents 30 ways to explore the Blackdown Hills. Its offer is grouped into places to see, walks and rides, what’s on, a visitor guide, easy access, visitor advice, heritage sites, wildlife sites, viewpoints, 30 ways to explore and videos for children. These are descriptions of the published visitor offer rather than attendance statistics.
Farming and the rural visitor setting
Agriculture is a major part of the setting in which tourism takes place. The 2024 State of the Blackdown Hills report says 78% of the National Landscape is under agriculture. Agricultural land covered 28,781 hectares in 2021, after declining by 8% from 2011 and by 3% from 2016. In 2021, 80% of agricultural land was owner-occupied and 20% was rented.
The number of agricultural holdings stayed around 625 over the decade covered by the report. Of those holdings, 42% were smaller than 20 hectares and 44% were between 20 and 100 hectares. Lowland livestock grazing farms accounted for 48% of holdings. These figures describe the rural land-use pattern behind the countryside that visitors see; they are not counts of tourism businesses.
Livestock figures add detail to that working landscape. Poultry numbers reached 1,006,928 animals, up 7% from 2016 and 26% from 2011. There were 22,573 breeding ewes and 17,965 cattle. Sheep numbers were down 6% from 2016, while cattle numbers were down 5% over the same comparison.
Farming employed 9.8% of the resident population in 2021. Farm employment was about 1,300 people across most of the period and peaked at 1,522 people in 2016. In 2021, 8,246 hectares were entered into agri-environment schemes, covering 22.8% of the National Landscape. Higher Level Stewardship covered 2,550 hectares, or 6.9% of the National Landscape. The total annual agri-environment agreement value was £2,113,434 in 2021, up from £1,017,856 in 2017.
The Blackdown Hills AONB Management Plan 2014-19 characterises tourism as largely based on high-quality accommodation and quiet countryside pursuits. That description fits the land-use figures: the visitor offer sits within a landscape where farms, grazing, access routes and conservation agreements remain prominent.
Heritage, conservation and local activity
The Blackdown Hills Historic Environment Report recorded 4,058 sites and buildings of archaeological and historic interest in the AONB, including 767 listed buildings of architectural and historic interest. The State of the Blackdown Hills 2024 report records Listed Buildings at Risk at 0.3% of the total heritage asset stock at risk and Scheduled Monuments at Risk at 19.2% of the total heritage asset stock at risk.
The two risk percentages refer to different heritage categories, so they should not be combined into one overall risk rate. They also describe the reported heritage asset stock, not visitor numbers or annual visits. For people planning a heritage-focused trip, the figures indicate the breadth of the historic resource while retaining the distinction between listed buildings and scheduled monuments.
The Annual Review 2020-21 reports 134 planning applications considered during that review period, up 13% year on year, with advice or comments provided on 73 of them. The same review reports 468 volunteer hours and says eight explore-and-create videos were commissioned for children. These are organisational activity measures for 2020-21, not tourism demand indicators.
The Blackdown Hills AONB Management Plan 2014-19 recorded around 200 BHBA business members in March 2013. It also reported that more than 70 projects had been funded under the Making it Local programme. Because these are legacy figures, they are retained with their original dates and source label rather than presented as current business or project totals.
Walking, cycling and horse-riding options
The Walks and Rides archive describes six circular walks in the southwestern Blackdown Hills, six in the northeastern Blackdown Hills, six in and around Stockland and six in and around Hemyock. It also describes five horse-riding circuits in the National Landscape and eight cycle routes. These route counts describe the archive’s published groupings, not unique visitor trips.
Individual route measurements show a wide range of scale and difficulty. The Otterhead Lakes walk is approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) with a total ascent of 4.86 metres. Stockland, Happy Valley and the Umborne Brook is 2 miles (3.2 km), with 109.31 metres of ascent. Broadhembury and North Hill is 4.5 miles (7 km), with 177.81 metres of ascent.
Staple Hill and Staple Park Wood is 5 miles (8 km) and has 211.42 metres of ascent; the walk reaches around 1,000 feet above sea level. Castle Neroche and Curland is 4 miles (6.5 km). Thurlbear and Orchard Portman is 4.25 miles (7 km), while Wytch Lane, Rower Fort and North Hill is 4.5 miles (7 km). Blackborough – following in the footsteps of the whetstone miners is approximately 5 miles (8 km).
Longer routes provide a different measure of the visitor offer. Churchinford, Upottery and Culm Valley is 17.5 miles (28 km) on its main route, with an optional shorter route of 12 miles (19 km), and total ascent of 400.86 metres. Dunkeswell and Sheldon is 20 miles (32 km), with 535.29 metres of ascent. Wellington, Buckland Wood and Hemyock is 17 miles (27 km), with 521.24 metres of ascent, plus an optional easy route of 4 miles (6.5 km).
Other published route data includes Lovely countryside around an Iron Age hill fort at 6.5 miles (11 km), with 256 metres of ascent. The archive also lists Hemyock and along the Culm Valley and Hemyock to Culmstock Beacon among the six circular walks in and around Hemyock. Together, the published route groups range from a short, low-ascent lakeside walk to multi-mile cycling and walking options with more than 500 metres of ascent, giving visitors measurable choices without implying that any one route is suitable for every ability or season.