Rural Retreats was founded in 1985 with the aim of making the countryside more accessible for holidaymakers and giving them the best possible choice of holiday homes across the UK. Rural Retreats’ continuing success is based on excellent local knowledge and painstaking research, together with a flair for finding delightful and unusual properties. All of this has enabled us to build a portfolio of over 450 exceptionally fine holiday homes in stunningly beautiful locations, all available for you to rent. When you are looking for your own perfect holiday home, our experienced and helpful staff can help to point you to the property of your dreams. Whatever you want to ask about any of our properties, there will be someone on our staff who knows the cottage or apartment at first hand.

Nestled at the foot of the Quantock Hills in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Hearn Lodge is an exceptionally spacious holiday home overlooking a beautiful rural valley.

Information correct at time of writing. You’ll find a walk across the Quantock moors right from the door of Hearn Lodge. A historic drover’s track takes you through combes or valleys, descending steeply through ancient forests and alongside an avenue of magnificent beech trees. The path takes you all the way to the pretty village of East Quantoxhead. Just around the corner from East Quantoxhead is Kilve Beach, with unique rock formations and rock pools. The cliffs are ideal for spotting fossils, although please don’t remove any that you find. One of the best features of this beach is the large grassy area behind the beach which is ideal for picnics. The harbour of Watchet isn’t just home to an attractive marina, the location also has a claim to literary fame as the place where Coleridge wrote his poem The Ancient Mariner. You can visit his home in Nether Stowey nearby. The medieval village of Dunster is dominated by the National Trust’s Dunster Castle, with its dramatic vistas and subtropical gardens. You can also catch a steam train here on the West Somerset railway, which takes you along 20 miles of stunning Somerset countryside. The centre of Exmoor is around 40 minutes’ away from Hearn Lodge, where you’ll find moorland stretching all the way to the coast. Picturesque Porlock Weir was once a smugglers’ port, while the pebbled beach at Bossington village was chosen by The Times as one of the UK’s best beaches. If you’d like to learn more about the local area, The Museum of Somerset has plenty of interesting exhibits and artefacts and is just ten miles’ away in Taunton. Within the 12th-century walls of Taunton’s historic castle you’ll find contemporary gallery spaces and a great day out for all the family. The town is also home to a theatre and independent restaurants, as well as a cricket ground and racecourse. Surrounding villages and towns Porlock Weir - This small harbour has a small home-based flotilla of yachts and is visited by many more in...