Christopher Somerville

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window


The old wool-trading and lace-making village of Thorncombe lies up and down its sloping street, a handsome huddle of old cottages in a steep, remote piece of countryside where Dorset tips over into Somerset.

The sun was finally groping its way through the clouds after days of miserable rain. The fresh wind and brilliant autumn colours of the woods put a spring in our step as we followed the rim of the deep ferny cleft of Stonelake Brook.

The Monarch’s Way led north through pastures where the wet grass polished our boots for us. Flints underfoot crunched and crackled. Off on our left side the church and houses of Thorncombe sloped down their hillside, framed by oaks and beech trees in wind-tattered gold and scarlet.

Down at Synderford bridge we picked up the Jubilee Trail and followed it north across the red mud squelch of rain-swollen brooks and the broad clover leys on Chitmoor. Devon Ruby cattle grazed the fields at Wheel House Lane, the sturdy little bull inspecting the females with close solicitude.

A screeching chorus of pheasants arose from a maize field as we neared Forde Abbey, where the last of the afternoon was slanting across the old monastic buildings. The view down the drive from the ornate gates was of a surf of pink, white and purple cyclamen along the lime avenue leading away to beautiful gardens and fountain pools.

Just beyond Forde Abbey the meanders of the River Axe mark the Dorset border. We crossed the bridge into Somerset and turned west through lush river meadows dotted with fine old cedars. Along the river, the pink blooms of Himalayan balsam opened their spotted throats to release a spicy fragrance. We edged round a deep gravel pit, pushed our way through an elephantine jungle of maize nine feet tall, and skirted the empty yards of Forde Abbey Farm.

Now the sun made a belated return, streaking the sky with patches of blue and fringing the clouds with a sharp lining of silver. Lemon yellow beech leaves scuffed under our boots as we came past Whistling Copse and turned for home.

A great view of rolling country to west and east, and we were crossing Thorncombe’s cricket field where goldfinches in a flicker of wings were gobbling up the grass seed laid on the pitch by the groundsman in hopes of a perfect surface for next summer’s opening match.

How hard is it? 6½ miles; easy; field paths. NB GPS and OS Explorer map are helpful for route-finding.

Start: St Mary’s Church car park, Thorncombe, Dorset TA20 4NE (OS ref ST376034)

Getting there: From Crewkerne (A30, Chard-Yeovil) follow ‘Forde Abbey’, then ‘Thorncombe’.

Walk (OS Explorer 116): Path through churchyard to road; left to junction at chapel (376032); right uphill. In 100m pass ‘Old Alley’; left (375032, fingerpost/FP). At stile, ahead (yellow arrow/YA); in 2nd field, stile (377027, ‘Liberty Trail’) through trees. In 200m, sharp left on Monarch’s Way/MW (377025) to pass Yew Tree Farm (383031, ‘Wessex Ridgeway’). At road, right (380035).

At Synderford sign, left (382037, FP, Jubilee Trail/JT), skirting water treatment plant. Cross brook; bear right up field slope with hedge on right to gap (380037, JT). On by hedge, following JT waymarks to cross brook in trees by stepping stones (376041). Left up hedge, left through hedge at top of bank (375043); right to kissing gate/KG. Follow right-hand hedge; in 200m, right (374045, KG); left up hedge. In 200m, left with hedge on left (374047); follow JT to Wheel House Lane (371048).

Left; opposite Thorncombe turning, right (366047, FP, JT) across fields to road (362053). Right past Forde Abbey gates, across River Axe. Left (362054, ‘Horseshoe Road’). In ½ mile, recross Axe (356051, YA). Follow Liberty Trail/LW and YAs clockwise round gravel excavation at Westmills Plantation (354050). Cross road (355046, ‘Forde Abbey Farm’) across field. Skirt to right round Forde Abbey Farm buildings (357042); follow farm drive. At fuel tank fork left (363037, blue arrow) across field to Horseshoe Road (366037). Right (LT). In 200m bear right along hedge (366036, FP). In 650m path descends and bends right; left here (368030, stile) to stile in conifer hedge (370030). Across recreation ground to cross road (371031), then more fields (YAs) to Thorncombe.

Lunch: Bell Inn, Winsham TA20 4HU (01460-30677)

Accommodation: Haymaker Inn, Wadeford, Chard TA20 3AP (01460-64161, thehaymakerinn.co.uk)

Info: Chard TIC (01460-260051); fordeabbey.co.uk

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window


Above the thatched cottages of Selworthy, the whitewashed tower of All Saints Church looked out across a wide green valley to the high undulating skyline of the Exmoor hills. A perfect view for a perfect winter’s day of blue sky and brisk wind.

A buzz like that of an angry wasp showed where someone was busy cutting wood in Selworthy Combe. The path rose through the trees between banks of tiny trumpet-shaped mosses. A robin perched on a post, puffing out his red breast and trilling a silvery call, quite unafraid as we passed within touching distance.

A brook came rustling down over neat little log spillways, its soft rich chuckle accompanying us all the way up through the oak and holly groves to the moor above. A contrast as abrupt as a knife cut, abandoning the shelter of the woods for the open moor where a biting wind ruffled the seas of heather and gorse running away to the horizon.

The National Trust and Holnicote Estate take great care and trouble over these 12,000 acres of upland, moor and combes. The woods are sensitively managed, the farms well run, and the hundreds of miles of footpath properly signposted.

We followed a broad bridleway through the gorse to the cairn on Selworthy Beacon. From here the view was mighty, over the rolling Exmoor hills, east and west along the curved cliffs of the Somerset coast, and out north across a Bristol Channel as pale as ice to the misty shores of South Wales under a long triple bar of cloud.

Above us only sky, as blue as delicate porcelain. We skirted a harras of Exmoor ponies, long tails billowing in the wind, and struck east along the South West Coast Path with the sea at our left elbow. A long cattle train of belted Galloway heifers went gadding and lurching along the skyline at a clumsy canter, delighted to be out in the open air.

The coast path led between sheep pastures through wind-stunted gorse bushes as stout as trees. A solitary bee buzzed among the gold gorse flowers, first raider of the year.

We turned inland and dropped down to Wydon Farm, hidden in a cleft so steep that, like Lucy in ‘The Tale of Mrs Tiggy Winkle,’ it looked ‘as though we could have dropped a pebble down the chimney.’

The homeward path lay along high-banked farm lanes. Tiny lambs bleated in quavering voices for their mothers, and a little egret stepped fastidiously along a streamlet, searching with gimlet eyes for any morsel to assuage its winter hunger.

How hard is it? 5½ miles; moderate hill walk, very well waymarked

Start: All Saints Church car park (£1 donation), Selworthy, Minehead, Somerset TA24 8TR (OS ref SS 920468)

Getting there: Selworthy is signed off A39 (Minehead to Porlock)

Walk (OS Explorer OL9): Left along road; right by church and follow ‘Selworthy Beacon’ fingerposts for 1 mile to Selworthy Beacon (919480). At cairn/trig pillar, left for 100m; right down to South West Coast Path (917481). Right along SWCP; in 1½ miles, right (938476, ‘Wydon ½’ fingerpost). In ½ mile at Wydon Farm, right (938470) on road. In 400m fork right (939466, ‘Hindon’). At Hindon Farm, left (933466) up track to road (931464). Ahead; in 300m, right (932461, ‘Selworthy Beacon’). At East Lynch Farm fork right (929462, ‘bridleway’). In 100m fork right again; in 50m, left (927463, stile, ‘public footpath’). Along fence to stile (935464); half right to road (923466); left into Selworthy.

Lunch/accommodation: Ship Inn, Porlock TA24 8QD (01643-862507, shipinnporlock.co.uk)

Info: nationaltrust.org/selworthy

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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We set out under a cold grey sky on one of those dank winter days when you are glad of the company of two pelting dogs to cheer you up and urge you into motion. There is nothing more ridiculous than a dog frisking about like a mad thing, and nothing better at barking the midwinter blues away.

Priston lies sunk in a fold of ground just south of Bath in that debatable land where Cotswold and Mendip hills blur together. Beyond the stone-built cottages we passed the church of St Luke & St Andrew with its curious central tower and outsize weathercock.

The path led south-west down a narrow valley where a slim and nameless stream slid round its bends under a coat of leaf-green weed. On the far side of the park-like wooden fences, ewes heavy with lambs stared and turned tail. Hazel twigs wriggled with catkins, snowdrops hung their white heads among the damp black leaves of last summer, and the bare hedges were netted with ragged powder puffs of old man’s beard.

The dogs played follow-my-leader, sheepdog Megan with a stick across her jaws. Cockapoo Philip zigzagged from one ditch to another like an earthbound snipe. By the time we reached the farm lane at the foot of the valley, he was sporting a thick and clotted pair of mud trousers, and had turned colour from pale cream to chocolate brown.

Turning north up the hill, we passed an old sheep-dip in the break of a field, beautifully shaped and stone-walled. Alas, no water in it for cleaning filthy Philip. From beyond the hillock of Priest Barrow came the pop-pop of shotguns and a faint cawing of rooks disturbed from the roost.

The path sloped down to Stanton Prior and the little grey church of St Lawrence. From here we turned south across the slopes of Pendown Hill to drop into the Priston valley, spread in greens and greys below. At Priston Mill the pool lay as dark as smoked glass. Beyond, the cottages and farm of Inglesbatch stood along their ridge.

The dogs, garbed from muzzle to tail in mud, led the way home beside a brook overhung with pussy willow buds as soft as kittens’ paws. In the sodden fields buzzards sat and waited, hungry enough in this back end of winter to be grateful for every unwary worm they could seize and swallow.

How hard is it? 7 miles; easy; field paths, muddy in places; 2 streams to ford)

Start & finish: Ring o’ Bells PH, Priston BA2 9EE (OS ref ST 694605)

Getting there: Priston is signed from Marksbury on A39 Bath-Wells road

Walk (OS Explorers 155, 142): Leaving Ring o’ Bells, turn left along side of pub. Take left fork to pass church; bridleway continues (692604, ‘Bridleway’); over stile and on (yellow arrows/YA). In 250m, fork left (YA) to valley bottom, and follow path for 1 mile to road (677595). Right uphill. In 200m, left through kissing gate/KG (677597); right along hedge, following YAs north for ¾ mile past Priest Barrow to road (675610).

Forward for 50m; forward off road (fingerpost, KG). North along hedge; across footbridge; through KG, up to top of hill. At road (675618), dogleg right/left; on up green lane, crossing road (675620) and on for half a mile to Stanton Prior (676627). Right along road past church; in 150m, on left bend, right along byway (679628) for ⅓ mile to cross road (682623). On south (‘Bridleway’) for ⅔ mile to road at Pottern (685614). Left; fork left for ⅔ mile to pass Priston Mill (695615).

In another 100m, fork right (‘Byway’) across ford and on for 350m to gate (699613). Left along green lane; cross ford; up slope, right at top (701614). In 100m, pass barn; right through small gate; through KG. Down slope to next KG; down to cross footbridge (700611). Follow field edge, YAs south to road (697606); right into Priston.

Info: priston.org.uk; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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A perfect Somerset winter’s day of sharp blue sky. Sunlight gilded the roofs of Rowberrow, nowadays a quiet little village, but in times past a rough mining centre where men dug calamine for the brass-making industry. Martha More, visiting in 1790, judged the locals ‘savage and depraved, brutal and ferocious.’

The long shape of Blackdown, highest point of Mendip, looms on the southern skyline. Today its slopes were trickling with water. With a hollow gushing a stream tumbled into the chilly depths of Read’s Cavern, one of dozens of water-burrowed caves in Mendip’s limestone massif. When Read’s was excavated in the 1920s, a set of Iron Age slave manacles was unearthed, their story untold but ripe for imagining.

A broad track rises up the flank of Blackdown. We climbed through fox-brown bracken where cattle grazed and thirty-five semi-wild ponies snorted and cantered away in a bunch. From the ridge the view was enormous, from the Quantock Hills and Exmoor down in the southwest to the steely grey Bristol Channel with its twin islands, pudding-shaped Steep Holm and sleeping-dog Flat Holm.

Along the foot of Blackdown the muddy Limestone Link footpath took us sliding and squelching past Burrington Combe. Wild goats were grazing the grey striped cliffs of the gorge, their white coats contrasting with the scarlet berries of cotoneaster.

On the slopes opposite the combe the Reverend Dr Thomas Sedgwick Whalley, rich through a ‘good marriage’ in mid-Georgian times, developed a humble cottage into the Italianate extravaganza of Mendip Lodge, a massive country house with a state bedroom, mile-long terraces and a verandah nearly a hundred feet wide.

Mendip Lodge, like the good doctor’s wealth, eventually fell into decline. All we found of the grand design was a huddle of ruins behind an archway in Mendip Lodge Woods, beside the winding path that was once a fine carriage drive.

High above on the limestone upland of Dolebury Warren the sloping ramparts of a massive Iron Age hill fort encircle the western end of the ridge. Here we sat to catch our breath and gaze across the channel to the far-off hills of Wales.
Start: Swan Inn, Rowberrow, Winscombe, Somerset BS25 1QL (OS ref ST451583)
Parking: please ask, and give pub your custom.

Getting there: Rowberrow is signed off A38 between Churchill and Winscombe

Walk (8 miles, easy, OS Explorer 141): Left down School Lane. Just after right bend, left down track (453583); in 300m at T-junction, right (454586). In ¾ mile, right (465586, ‘Bridleway, Ride’, waymark post); in 100m, left on path through bracken. In 250m detour left to Read’s Cavern (468584). Resume bracken path, uphill to ‘Rowberrow Warren’ sign (469581); left through gate; right uphill. In 200m fork left (469579), upwards for ¾ mile to track on Blackdown ridge (477573); left to Beacon Batch trig pillar (485573). Left downhill to foot of slope; left (490577, waymark post, Limestone Link /LL) for 1¼ miles. On open ground 350m after crossing West Twin Brook, at crossing of broad grassy tracks, right downhill (473583). In 700m, near Link hamlet, left (475590, fingerpost) on path through Mendip Lodge Wood. In ⅔ mile pass Mendip Lodge ruin (466591); in 150m, left up bridleway. Pass gate/’Dolebury Warren’ sign on right; in 100m right (gate, blue arrow, ‘National Trust’) across Dolebury Warren (LL) for 1¼ miles, down to T-junction by Walnut House (446591). Left (LL) for ¾ mile; right (454586) to Rowberrow.

Conditions: Can be very muddy.

Lunch: Swan Inn, Rowberrow (01934-852371, butcombe.com)

Accommodation: Woodborough Inn, Winscombe BS25 HD (01934-844167, woodborough-inn.co.uk)

Info: mendiphillsaonb.org.uk; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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A glorious day of sun and wind, with cotton-wool clouds chasing each other across the deep blue sky over Corton Denham. Aubretia glowed in purple and pink along the garden walls of the South Somerset village, sprawled along its lanes at the foot of the long green down of Corton Hill.

Out in the fields skylarks sprang up singing from the chocolate-brown plough furrows, where chunks of pale limestone lay scattered. We headed north along the Monarch’s Way with an enormous prospect spread on our left hand, a wooded vale leading to Glastonbury Tor, the summit tower a tiny pimple at the apex of its steadily rising, beast-like back. The long line of the Mendip Hills closed the view, running off westward to the green wedge of Brent Knoll 25 miles away.

On the slopes under Parrock Hill a flock of sheep ran frantically bleating after the farmer as she puttered by on her quad to refill the feeder. One of the ewes came cautiously up to sniff my fingers. Her lamb peeped out shyly from the shelter of its mother’s flank, the sun shining shell-pink through its outsize propeller-shaped ears.

From the mellow stone houses of Sutton Montis the old greenway of Folly Lane brought us across the medieval ridge-and-furrow to South Cadbury, tucked in the lee of Cadbury Castle’s great ramparted hill fort. A look round the excellent archaeological display in the Camelot Inn, a glance at the 700-year-old figure of Thomas à Becket painted on a window arch in the village church, and we were climbing a stony cart track through the Iron Age ramparts to the wide, sloping summit of the hill.

Did King Arthur, the ‘once-and-future King’, ever feast here with his warriors and his treacherous queen? Undoubtedly not as Tennyson and Hollywood depict him, all in shining armour in many-towered Camelot. But a major excavation in 1966-70 brought to light the foundations of a great aisled feasting hall, built in the early Dark Ages at the crown of Cadbury Castle. And spectral riders still sally forth from the fort at midnight, local stories say, their horses shod with silver that flashes in the starlight.

Start: Queen’s Arms, Corton Denham, Somerset DT9 4LR (OS ref ST 635225)

Getting there: Corton Denham is signposted from South Cadbury (A303 between Wincanton and Sparkford)

Walk (7½ miles, lanes and field paths, OS Explorer 129): From Queen’s Arms, left. Opposite church, left along Middle Ridge Lane. Round left bend; in 30m, right (633224, ‘Woodhouse’) up lane. At top, over stile; west across 3 fields, then cross 2 stiles and turn right (625224, ‘Monarch’s Way’/MW). MW north for 1 mile; descend from Parrock Hill to road (629241).

Up road opposite (‘South Cadbury’); in 150m, left up stony lane to road (626246). Left to T-junction; right (‘Little Weston’) out of Sutton Montis. In ½ mile on left bend, right on footpath (620252, ‘Leland Trail’/LT, ‘South Cadbury’). In 100m (626256), left over stile (LT); right along hedge. Stiles, LT for 600m to Folly Lane; left to South Cadbury. At Camelot pub, right (632256); 100m past church, right up lane (632254, ‘Cadbury Camelot’) to Cadbury Castle hill fort.

Make circuit of ramparts; return to road. Right; in 500m pass Crang’s Lane on left. In 100m, left (633249, fingerpost, yellow arrow/YA), down across field, across brook (YA) and on ahead across field and past barn. At entrance to green lane (633246), right over stile; left along hedge, then line of trees, then bank on left. In ½ mile, right (637240, YA) down fenced path, then lane past Whitcombe Farm and on to road junction (631237). Left; pass road on left; in 100m, left up steps and over stile (‘Corton Denham’). Follow path up through hedges, on with hedge/fence on right for ⅔ mile. Through gate (635229); down green lane to road; left to Queen’s Arms.

Lunch: The Camelot, South Cadbury (01963-441685, camelotpub.co.uk) – features Cadbury Castle exhibition

Accommodation: Queen’s Arms, Corton Denham (01963-220317, thequeensarms.com) – stylish, comfortable village inn.

Info: Yeovil TIC (01935-462781)

Walk The Wight: Sponsored charity walk across the Isle of Wight, Sunday 14 May –
iwhospice.org/page/walk-the-wight.html

visitengland.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk