CyclistClassic UK climb: Dunkery BeaconIts not always obvious where a climb starts. For example, a couple of issues ago Cyclists deputy editor, James Spender, began his description of The Tumble in Wales by offering four potential starting points. In contrast, the start of the climb up to Dunkery Beacon in Somerset is in no doubt.Give way lines at the junction on the road between Crook Horn Hill and Chisland Drive demarcate it as clearly as a race start line. If that wasnt enough, another clue is that the gradient tips up to 16% immediately as if someone has gripped the road, pressed their thumbs into it and bent it like a length of pipe cleaner. Be sure to shift into a low gear before you turn the corner, otherwise your poor derailleur will be forced to crunch and grind your chain up the cassette as you try desperately to keep the pedals turning.The road snakes its way up through dense woodland initially, the trees forming a gloomy tunnel over tarmac in such good nick that anywhere else it would be a joy to ride on. Here, however, the smooth surface is made greasy by leaf litter and the lack of sunlight, meaning you need to contend with the extra challenge of stopping your back wheel from spinning out on a gradient thats almost impossible to remain seated on.A cattle grid pitched at 12% provides a little extra spice a few hundred metres in, but if you make it past that without incident your reward is a gradual lessening in the incline. By the lookout spot of Webbers Post it has dissipated entirely and the road is flat for a couple of hundred metres.Its just as well youve been afforded the opportunity to stop chewing your stem: the area is famed for its views out across Horners Woods, where an oak tree thats more than 5,000 years old resides. Its also an access point to some of the 250km of trails and bridleways that criss-cross the Holnicote Estate, making this part of Exmoor just as good for gravel and mountain biking as it is for road riding.Article continues belowMike MassaroAfter passing Webbers Post, the woodland peters out, replaced by gorse and heather as the road becomes exposed to the wilds of the moor.Mike MassaroThis chicane is just about the steepest part of the climb, around 17%, but its worth looking over your shoulder at the view over Porlock and the Bristol Channel to the Welsh coast.Mike MassaroMike MassaroMike MassaroThe road gets straighter and more open as you climb up onto Exmoor.Mike MassaroMike MassaroThe climb concludes with no ceremony. The end is considered to be adjacent to the actual Dunkery Beacon cairn, higher still on your right.Mike MassaroA gift that keeps givingThe Holnicote Estate makes up over 12,000 acres of the Exmoor National Park, with much of it having been donated to the National Trust by the family that has owned it since the 1700s. In 1944 the Trust was gifted almost 10,000 acres in one go, which remains one of the largest donations ever given to the organisation. This followed an initial 860 acres in the 1930s, when a large cairn was erected on the site of a Bronze Age burial mound to commemorate the donation.That cairn marks the highest point on Exmoor and sits on the top of Dunkery Beacon, which is itself the top of Dunkery Hill and can be visited via a gravel track that starts at the summit of this road climb. But first you have to finish the climb, and from Webbers Post theres still another 2km to go.As the tree cover comes to an end, the steepness begins to ramp upward once more. Its a much steadier increase this time, percent by percent as the road scythes between the scrubby bushes. By the time you reach a chicane almost tight enough to be a pair of switchbacks, the gradient is back in the high teens, but try to take advantage of the road swinging to the left and right to glance over your shoulder at an impressive view over Porlock and the Bristol Channel to the south coast of Wales. Its the only opportunity youll get to do it, because after those bends the road straightens and heads directly up onto the moors proper.The views are more open left and right now. The plunging hills are impressive but a moors-influenced microclimate here can turn a sunny summers day overcast and chilly very quickly. If thats the case, your surroundings become bleak and its hard not to feel isolated and vulnerable, such is the remoteness of Exmoor.Provided mist doesnt obscure your view, the rest of the climb is laid bare ahead, so its a case of avoiding the ponies that have free rein of this area, settling into a rhythm and winching to the top as the gradient peters out as steadily as it ramped up after Webbers Post.When it arrives, the summit is just a layby opposite the gravel track that leads to the cairn at Dunkery Beacon. Its a finish thats as obscure as the start was definite, but the panoramic views out over Exmoor make it memorable all the same.The statsLocation Exmoor National Park, SomersetLength 3.1kmSummit height 449mAscent 334mAverage gradient 10%Maximum gradient 20%Current best Strava timeKoM Andrew Feather, UK, 10min 05secQoM Illi Gardner (pro), UK, 13min 52secThe post Classic UK climb: Dunkery Beacon appeared first on Cyclist.