Ramblers Route in depth Laud of the Ring WORDS: Hanna Lindon PHOTOGRAPHY: Steve Morgan

A decade in the making by local Ramblers, the Mendip Ring encompasses the area’s nest natural wonders and remnants of its colourful past. We walked the highest section of this new long-distance trail, where an extraordinary World War II decoy still lurks in the hill-top grass

cattered across the heather- part of the Mendips to draw fi re away wreathed slopes of Black Down, from the South West’s largest city. the highest point in the Mendip The turfed-over remains of the Black Hills, is a series of grassy Down bombing decoy are just a small hummocks. At fi rst glance, you part of the colourful past of ’s Smight easily mistake these mysterious Mendip area. It was with the ambition of bulges for ancient barrows or signs of showcasing these heritage highlights that walk it! the Roman lead workings that once the Mendip Ramblers created the Mendip TIME/DISTANCE: The full Mendip Ring is decorated Somerset’s history-rich uplands. Ring – a 188km/117-mile long-distance 188km/117 miles long and takes between But Black Down’s man-made mounds path that traces the boundaries of the area, nine and 15 days to complete, depending are really a much more recent addition from Cheddar and Tor in the on your fi tness level. It begins at Ashcott to the landscape. west to and Bruton in the east. Corner, and recommended breakdowns Had you been in a German bomber “Most of Mendip is a microcosm of the are detailed on the Mendip Ring website circling over the Bristol Channel during the rest of the country,” says Margaret Nuth, (see below). The walk in this feature last bitter years of World War II, you would who was the historical and archaeological covers leg 8a, between have seen what looked like a city on the researcher for the route. “As you walk the and , which is 13½km/8½ edge of the . There were Mendip Ring, you’re going backwards and miles and takes approximately 4 hours streets and railways picked out in fl ickering forwards in history all the time. Every few to complete. lights, and dim red pinpricks that might DISTANCE: OS Explorer 141; have been the stoking of steam Landranger 182. locomotives. On a dark night, this FURTHER INFO: www.mendipring.org.uk Clockwise from above: enjoying the view from luminous map would have looked very the trig point at Beacon Batch, the summit of much like an aerial view of Bristol. In Black Down and the highest point of the Mendip ROUTE reality, though, it was a sophisticated decoy Hills; stunning scenery to admire on the way up Ramblers Routes to Beacon Batch; walking up to Beacon Batch; Britain’s best walks from the experts 09 town operated from underground bunkers a Mendip Ring marker added to a public and strategically positioned in this lonely footpath waymark

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yards your footfall is going from Tudor to the Industrial Revolution and Legend has it Augustus Montague Toplady was back again to the time of the Normans.” inspired to write the 18th-century hymn Rock of Ages But the Mendip Ring isn’t just a walk through time – it’s a colourful compilation while sheltering under a rock in Burrington Combe of the West Country’s scenic high points. The route takes in the ethereal landscape of the Levels and moors, the green folds of Mendip Ring marker. Legend has it that “It was Bob Berry [MBE], the leader of Glastonbury Tor, and a line of golden-bricked the fabulously monikered Augustus our work party, who first came up with the Somerset villages in nine spectacular Montague Toplady was inspired to write idea of a ring round the boundaries of sections. With only a day to spare for the popular 18th-century hymn Rock of Mendip,” Mike told me. “So we started exploring this new long-distance walk, Ages while sheltering under a rock in off with a map, drew a circle around though, I made a beeline for the lushest Burrington Combe – and it certainly feels Mendip and tried to find footpaths that and most dramatically contoured leg of like a place that could ‘save from wrath matched the border as closely as possible. the Mendip Ring, beginning at a lay-by and make me pure’. I dawdled briefly Our working party convenes most Tuesday overlooking the steep limestone sides of above the gorge, admiring the divine view, mornings, and when we didn’t have other Burrington Combe. before following the marker (blue-arrowed work to do, we went out and mapped and stickers added to the regular public signposted the Ring.” Luminescent limestone country footpath waymarkers) north towards the Mike described the section I was walking Whenever you see grass so green that it’s brooding bulk of Black Down. that day as one of his favourite parts of almost luminescent, you can be pretty Talking earlier to Mike Plaskitt, one the Ring, partly because of the knockout sure you’re in limestone country. of the leading forces behind the creation views from Beacon Batch atop Black Burrington Combe glowed psychedelically of the Mendip Ring, I’d learnt that all of Down. On a clear day, you can stand on in the mid-morning sunlight as I left the car these markers were placed by volunteers the summit of the Mendips’ highest point, and searched among the foliage, frothing from the Mendip Ramblers working party and sweep your eye round from Bristol over the top of the gorge, for the first after several years of concerted planning. and the sluggish curves of the Severn

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Monmouth uprising (an attempt to There are signs of the major events in our history: overthrow James II in 1685), but it does offer the most glorious bird’s-eye views the indigenous people, the Roman and Norman down onto the Somerset Levels – an area invasions, Black Death, Reformation, industrialisation... that would have been swimming in several feet of water last winter, but now basks serenely in the golden summer sunshine. Estuary to Weston-super-Mare glittering in just dating them that’s the problem. The walk sticks to summits and ridgelines the distance and the shadowy hills of “If you walk the whole Ring, you’ll find for most of its duration, dipping down only beyond. signs of most of the major events in the to follow the floor of another deep combe With its waving purple moor grasses and history of our country,” says Margaret. into the centre of . scattering of spiky gorse bushes, Beacon “You’ve got the early indigenous people, I stopped here to wolf down my Batch has more in common with Exmoor the Roman and Norman invasions, sandwich and admire the wild goats than it does with the green cleft of the Black Death, the Reformation, grazing the steep sides of the gorge with Burrington Combe or the lush hills that industrialisation and the two wars. There gravity-defying ease. A group of white- roll south towards Cheddar. The smell of are three things that are unique to this faced cavers passed us, probably off to crushed heather and peaty soil warmed by area, though: one is the Levels and explore the river-forged tunnels, where the sun followed me as I turned reluctantly Moors; the second is a man-made feature, Britain’s oldest complete human skeleton, away from the trig point and began the Glastonbury Abbey, which seems to hang gentle descent to the road at Charterhouse. in the public psyche; and the third is the En route, I passed a line of intriguing Monmouth Rebellion, which affected Clockwise from top left: a view en route from Burrington Combe to Beacon Batch; trig point mounds that might equally have been a lot of people in Somerset.” at Beacon Batch; walking down from Beacon relics of the decoy town or part of Black Batch; out of Long Wood and through a high Down’s Bronze Age round barrow Golden gorges and cider pasture; in the National Trust land of Black Rock at the top of Cheddar Gorge; through cemetery. The ghosts of history are My route doesn’t visit Glastonbury Abbey a meadow with limestone dry-stone walls; everywhere you turn on this walk – it’s or touch on the areas affected by the crossing a stile in Long Wood

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Cheddar Man, was discovered back in 1903. Tourists in walking boots pootled Rodney Stoke is a ‘Thankful Village’ – one happily up and down the path, a reminder that this was the first time that day I’d met of the few communities in Britain that lost none other walkers. Still, as I shook off that of their inhabitants in the First World War soporific post-lunch feeling with a bracing climb up Cheddar Cliffs, the tourists were quickly left behind. Soon it was just me jelly-mould shape of Glastonbury Tor, a Mendip Ring: about the Levels beneath breathing in the sun-soaked views – give site as wreathed in pagan spirituality as it Glastonbury, with its magical or take a few curious cows. usually is in mist. caves, the glorious cathedral at Wells, the I continued my way down a ruler- peeked out from behind the sweeping hills pretty streets of Frome – and everything straight drovers’ road – one of many that to the west, and beneath me the villages of in between. are common in the Mendips, and relics of Rodney Stoke and Draycott were Mike and Margaret believe that the the days when Somerset farmers had to snoozing in the afternoon sunshine. existence of a new long-distance route herd their sheep and cattle through the Rodney Stoke is a ‘Thankful Village’ will encourage more walkers to come to hills to market. Mine took me to the edge – one of the few communities in Britain Somerset and see the county’s attractions of the uplands and left me staring that lost none of their inhabitants in the – both the famous landmarks and the starry-eyed over a broad ridge, where the First World War. I was feeling thankful for unsung scenic spots that few non-locals ground fell away down to the glistening a different and entirely selfish reason, ever bother to explore. And when they Levels. From here I could see the though, as I followed an elegant avenue come, which I’m sure they will, those of trees off the edge of the Mendip walkers will find that it’s not just Somerset ridgeline and down through woodland cider that’s pure gold. Clockwise from top left: a well-deserved refreshment towards the village church. break at Cheddar Gorge; walking through Black All good Somerset walks should end Rock; a couple of curious cows; on the southern with cider. Sipping a half-pint of pure escarpment of the Mendips with the jelly-mould shape of Glastonbury Tor in the distance; walking gold at the Rodney Stoke Inn, I found walk lowdown overleaf to the southern side of the myself dreaming about the rest of the

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BLERS LOCAL VIEW Magazine of the Ramblers lowdown... Somerset Nowhere does quintessential English countryside quite like Somerset, with its cow-grazed pasturelands, rambling green hills and postcard-perfect villages. Here’s how to make the most of your visit… High points The Glastonbury Tor, rising above the At 519m/1,704 , Dunkery Somerset Levels, is the Beacon (below) on view that I cherish. It is Exmoor is o cially the especially evocative on roof of Somerset. Black a misty morning. Only Down (325m/1,066 ) the tower remains of in the Mendips and the the chapel of St Michael Quantocks’ Wills Neck on the summit. It has (384m/1,261 ) are also been a vital landmark stellar vantage points. for travellers from the earliest times till today. Top ve long-distance walks Margaret Nuth, local historian 1. The : A spectacular 80km/50-mile route from Weston-super-Mare to Frome. Join a walk… 2. Coleridge Way: Discover the landscape that inspired Coleridge on Severnside Ramblers is organising this 82km/51-mile trail through the sleepy (above). a 13km/8-mile walk around 3. West Somerset Coast Path: It’s only 40km/25 miles long, but if Glastonbury on Sunday 31 you’re looking for a weekend walk with knockout coastal views, this August. Meet at Aldi in Bradley seaside trail from Steart to Minehead is the perfect choice. Stoke at 9am to join in. 4. Liberty Trail: Follow in the footsteps of the rebels who marched to Lyme Regis to join the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, with a 45km/ LOCAL RAMBLERS GROUP 28-mile walk from Ham Hill in south Somerset to the coast. Somerset Ramblers (www. 5. River Parrett Trail: Explore the peaceful wetlands, apple orchards somersetramblers.co.uk). and woods around the River Parrett on this 80km/50-mile hike. BEST LOCAL GUIDEBOOK Pathfi nder Guides: Somerset, the Mendips & Wiltshire Parks and Food and drink (£11.99, Crimson Publishing, nature reserves Mention Somerset to a gourmand and the  rst word you’ll hear ISBN 978 1854585295). Exmoor National is ‘cider’. The county is famous for producing the gold stu , and FURTHER INFO Park: This became www.visitsomerset.co.uk Europe’s fi rst Dark there are plenty of places around where you can taste and buy Sky Reserve in 2011. local varieties. Other specialities to pack in your lunchbox include Wildlife highlights Mendip Hills: Home Cheddar cheese and brioche-style buns known as Sally Lunns. Polecat: to Cheddar Gorge Returning and Glastonbury Tor. Quantock Hills: to Somerset Top visitor attractions in 2005, these England’s fi rst Cheddar Gorge (left): Discover an ferrety creatures offi cial Area of eerie world of stalactites, stalagmites have been spotted Outstanding and underground lakes. in the area around Collard Hill. Natural Beauty. Glastonbury Abbey: Once the : oldest and richest abbey in England, Otter: The streams and wetlands This mosaic of this elegant building retains its of the Somerset Levels are ridges, river valleys majesty, even as a ruin. The 36 acres a haven for otters. Aim for a and chocolate-box of parkland surrounding the site lend ramble at dawn or dusk for farmsteads certainly themselves to relaxed rambling. the best chance of seeing one. lives up to its AONB Bath: With its Roman baths, exquisite Stoat: Look for them in open, designation. Regency crescents and famous abbey, grassy fi elds bordered by woods. Westhay Moor Bath is one of the UK’s most visited You can tell a stoat from a National Nature cities. Longleat, Stonehenge and the weasel by its black tail tips. Reserve: This caves of are all nearby. Osprey: These large birds of wetland reserve Dunster Castle: This castle is well prey haunt streams, rivers and is famous for its worth incorporating into a coastal lakes. They’ve been seen around birdwatching ramble around the Minehead area. the caves at Cheddar and on the opportunities.

GETTY FLPA, ALAMY, PHOTOGRAPHY: Somerset Levels.

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