Midway between Higher Town and Quay Town, the tourist office at 17 Friday St, off the Parade (April-June, Sept & Oct Mon-Sat 9.30am-5pm; July & Aug Mon-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm, Sun 10am-1pm; Nov-March Mon-Sat 10am-4pm; tel 01643/702624), has information on the moor and coast. If you want to stay in Minehead, try the budget Avill House on Townsend Road (tel 01643/704370; under ?40), a short walk from the seafront past the tourist office; or 100 yards further up on the same road, the more comfortable Kildare Lodge (tel 01643/702009; ?50-60), a reconstructed Tudor inn designed by a pupil of Lutyens. There's a youth hostel a couple of miles southeast, outside the village of Alcombe on the edge of Exmoor (tel 01643/702595).

Minehead is the terminus for the West Somerset Railway , which curves eastwards into the Quantocks. The line's first stop is about a mile from the old village of DUNSTER , three miles inland, and dominated by the towers and turrets of Dunster Castle (April-Sept Mon-Wed, Sat & Sun 11am-5pm; Oct Mon-Wed, Sat & Sun 11am-4pm; grounds daily: April-Sept 10am-5pm; Oct-March 11am-4pm; ?6; grounds only ?3; NT). Most of the castle's fortifications were demolished after the Civil War, following which it became something of an architectural showpiece, and Victorian restoration has made it more like a Rhineland Schloss than a Norman stronghold. A tour of the castle takes in various portraits of the Luttrells, owners of the house for six hundred years before the National Trust took over in the 1970s; a bedroom once occupied by Charles I; a fine seventeenth-century carved staircase; and a richly decorated banqueting hall. The grounds include terraced gardens and riverside walks - and drama productions are periodically staged here in the summer. The nearby hilltop tower is a folly, Conygar Tower , dating from 1776.

Dunster village preserves a few picturesque relics of its wool-making heyday, notably the octagonal Yarn Market , in the High Street below the castle (1609). At the end of Mill Lane, the three-hundred-year-old water mill (April-Oct daily 10.30am-5pm; ?2.20; NT) is still used commercially for milling the various grains which go to make the flour and muesli sold in the mill shop and riverside cafe, making this a good spot for lunch. For somewhere to stay , try the Gables 33 High St (tel 01643/821496; no smoking; ?50-60), which has rooms under the eaves overlooking the Yarn Market. There's a visitor centre at the top of Dunster Steep by the main car park (Easter-Oct daily 10am-5pm; Nov-Easter Sat & Sun 11am-3pm; tel 01643/821835).