Watersmeet House is a

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

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 River, West Lyn and East Lyn River, East Lyn rivers, in a gorge directly below the neighbouring town of Lynton, w ...

, in the English county of

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

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

tea room A teahouse 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 that only serve ...

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 ...

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

gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, 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 tend ...

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 ...

and Hoar Oak Water. The house itself lies on the east bank of the river in the civil parish of

Brendon and Countisbury Brendon and Countisbury is an England, English civil parish in the district of North Devon and the county of Devon. The civil parish was created on 1 April 2013, by the merger of the previous civil parishes of Brendon and Countisbury. Referenc ...

, although the other bank is in

Lynton and Lynmouth Lynton and Lynmouth is a civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The parish is named after its two main settlements of Lynton, which stands on a plateau above the Glen Lyn Gorge, and Lynmouth which lies at the foot of the g ...

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 called ''quicklime'' (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is: CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction can tak ...

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 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 of early Eng ...

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 only 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 foun ...

of tree, the Watersmeet Whitebeam ('' Karpatiosorbus admonitor'').

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