{"id":1923,"date":"2020-01-18T03:00:45","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T02:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=1923"},"modified":"2020-01-13T16:38:15","modified_gmt":"2020-01-13T15:38:15","slug":"blackdown-dolebury-warren-somerset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=1923","title":{"rendered":"Blackdown &#038; Dolebury Warren, Somerset"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">function popwalk(walk) {var url = \"\/Walks\/amap.php?f=\"+walk; varwalkwindow=window.open(url,\"walkwin\",\"height=740,width=1230,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes\"); if (window.focus) {walkwindow.focus()}}<\/script><br \/>\nFirst published in: The Times <a href=\"javascript:popwalk('Blackdown.jpg');\" rel=\"nozoom\" title=\"Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window\">Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49095744828_482055c2e0_z.jpg\" title= \"49095744828 Looking from the side of Blackdown over coppery bracken to Burrington Combe\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49095744828_482055c2e0_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49096450557_06e8bf05da_z.jpg\" title= \"49096450557 Looking from Dolebury Warren towards a sunlit Wrington\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49096450557_06e8bf05da_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49096450637_efbebf4692_z.jpg\" title= \"49096450637 peaty path across Blackdown towards Beacon Batch trig pillar\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49096450637_efbebf4692_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49096259551_b349a379ba_z.jpg\" title= \"49096259551 striations of Burrington Combe\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49096259551_b349a379ba_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49096451337_1a78601621_z.jpg\" title= \"49096451337 Looking from the side of Blackdown over coppery bracken to Burrington Combe 2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49096451337_1a78601621_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49096260056_510601a067_z.jpg\" title= \"49096260056 view from Limestone Link towards the Severn Estuary\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49096260056_510601a067_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49096260176_1ae35d305b_z.jpg\" title= \"49096260176 Beacon Batch trig pillar, Blackdown\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49096260176_1ae35d305b_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49100121188_1a9b4eda19_z.jpg\" title= \"49100121188 lumps, bumps and ramparts of Dolebury Warren hill fort\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49100121188_1a9b4eda19_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49100121843_ced4bc2bd2_z.jpg\" title= \"49100121843 path over Dolebury Warren\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49100121843_ced4bc2bd2_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49100122578_998435baff_z.jpg\" title= \"49100122578 entering the ruin of Mendip Lodge\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49100122578_998435baff_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49100124218_9cf098564d_z.jpg\" title= \"49100124218 old carriage drive through Mendip Lodge Wood\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49100124218_9cf098564d_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49133526263_734c364fe6_z.jpg\" title= \"49133526263 copper bracken, blue sky at the rim of Burrington Combe\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/49133526263_734c364fe6_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nFacebook Link: <script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=1923\" layout=\"button_count\" show_faces=\"true\" width=\"200\" colorscheme=\"dark\"><\/fb:like><br \/>\n<a href=\"javascript:pwindow=window.open('\/Walks\/prn.php?f=1923','pwin','height=700,width=1000,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes');\" title=\"Click for printable version\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/Walks\/print.gif\" align=\"right\"><\/a><br \/>\nA perfect Somerset winter\u2019s 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 \u2018savage and depraved, brutal and ferocious.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s Cavern, one of dozens of water-burrowed caves in Mendip\u2019s limestone massif. When Read\u2019s was excavated in the 1920s, a set of Iron Age slave manacles was unearthed, their story untold but ripe for imagining.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>On the slopes opposite the combe the Reverend Dr Thomas Sedgwick Whalley, rich through a \u2018good marriage\u2019 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.<\/p>\n<p>Mendip Lodge, like the good doctor\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n<p>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.<br \/>\nStart: Swan Inn, Rowberrow, Winscombe, Somerset BS25 1QL (OS ref ST451583)<br \/>\nParking: please ask, and give pub your custom.<\/p>\n<p>Getting there: Rowberrow is signed off A38 between Churchill and Winscombe<\/p>\n<p>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 \u00be mile, right (465586, \u2018Bridleway, Ride\u2019, waymark post); in 100m, left on path through bracken. In 250m detour left to Read\u2019s Cavern (468584). Resume bracken path, uphill to \u2018Rowberrow Warren\u2019 sign (469581); left through gate; right uphill. In 200m fork left (469579), upwards for \u00be 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 1\u00bc 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 \u2154 mile pass Mendip Lodge ruin (466591); in 150m, left up bridleway. Pass gate\/\u2019Dolebury Warren\u2019 sign on right; in 100m right (gate, blue arrow, \u2018National Trust\u2019) across Dolebury Warren (LL) for 1\u00bc miles, down to T-junction by Walnut House (446591). Left (LL) for \u00be mile; right (454586) to Rowberrow.<\/p>\n<p>Conditions: Can be very muddy.<\/p>\n<p>Lunch: Swan Inn, Rowberrow (01934-852371, <a href=\"http:\/\/butcombe.com\">butcombe.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Accommodation: Woodborough Inn, Winscombe BS25 HD (01934-844167, <a href=\"http:\/\/woodborough-inn.co.uk\">woodborough-inn.co.uk<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Info: <a href=\"http:\/\/mendiphillsaonb.org.uk\">mendiphillsaonb.org.uk<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/satmap.com\">satmap.com<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/ramblers.org.uk\">ramblers.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A perfect Somerset winter\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-walks","category-3-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}