Watersmeet House is a

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

property located some east of

Lynmouth Lynmouth is a village in Devon, England, on the northern edge of Exmoor. The village straddles the confluence of the West Lyn and East Lyn rivers, in a gorge below Lynton, which was the only place to expand to once Lynmouth became as built ...

, in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county of

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

. A former fishing lodge, it is today used as an

information centre A visitor center or centre (see American and British English spelling differences), visitor information center, tourist information center, is a physical location that provides tourist information to visitors. Types of visitor center A visit ...

tea room A teahouse (mainly Asia) or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment whic ...

and shop by the National Trust. Adjoining the house is the Watersmeet SSSI, a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

. The house, which dates from approximately 1832, was built for Walter Stevenson Halliday. It stands at the bottom of a deep

gorge A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

at the confluence of the

East Lyn River The East Lyn is a river which rises high in Exmoor, in the English county of Somerset. It flows through the East Lyn Valley in Devon. Watercourse The river is formed as the Upper East Lyn at Malmsmead from two minor tributaries, the Oare W ...

and

Hoar Oak Water Hoar Oak Water is a moorland tributary of the East Lyn River in Exmoor, Somerset, England. It rises at Hoaroak Hill in the Chains geological site and flows to Watersmeet in the East Lyn Valley in Devon Devon ( , historically known as De ...

. The house itself lies on the east bank of the river in the civil parish of Brendon and Countisbury, although the other bank is in

Lynton and Lynmouth Lynton and Lynmouth, also known as Little Switzerland, is the scenic landscape in and around the villages of Lynton and Lynmouth in Devon, which resembles the landscapes of Switzerland. It includes the surrounding coast and countryside: Valley ...

parish. Approximately from the house on the bank of the river are a pair of

lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone (calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime (material), lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this chemical reaction, reaction is :Calcium carbonate, Ca ...

s dating from the late 18th or early 19th century. Watersmeet House is the starting-off point for some of woodland, streamside and seaside walks. The site has been a

tea garden A tea garden is an outdoor space or garden where tea and light refreshments are served, or any garden with which the drinking of tea is associated. Especially in India, it is also a common term for a tea plantation. The tea garden was a part o ...

since 1901, and has been owned by the National Trust since 1936. The Watersmeet SSSI, partly situated on land also owned by the National Trust, includes an extensive area of ancient oak woodland. The woodland is notable for its

endemic species Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

of tree - the "No Parking Whitebeam" (''

Karpatiosorbus admonitor ''Karpatiosorbus admonitor'', previously classified as ''Sorbus admonitor'' and also called the no parking whitebeam, is a species of whitebeam tree found in Devon, United Kingdom. It is known only from the Watersmeet Valley at Lynton, with two ...

'').

References

External links

{{stack, {{Commonscat, Watersmeet, Devon, Watersmeet
Watersmeet House - National Trust
National Trust properties in Devon Lynton and Lynmouth Grade II listed buildings in Devon Lime kilns in the United Kingdom