Daniel Start, author of the new Wild Guide South West, chooses his favourite places in the Quantocks Hills for a weekend of exploration.
WILD BEACHES
St Audrie’s Bay Waterfall
This super beach stretches below verdant cliffs with fossils galore. A waterfall crashes down at one end but is best after rain. From A39, turn for Doniford/Holiday Park and then follow signs R into the Home Farm Holiday Park. Park in signed ‘day visitor car park’ £1, Mill House (Postcode TA4 1EP). Take lane down signed to the beach.
East Quantoxhead Beach
Descend on a metal staircase to the huge, grey wave-cut platforms with fossils galore. You can easily swim here at high tide but it’s also fun to explore the rock pools at low tide. Kilve is ½ mile along the coast east and has a brick chimney oil retort, the remains of a 1922 scheme to extract shale oil, but is busier and doesn’t have the beautiful duck pond. Signed off the A39 down little Frog Lane, ½ mile west of Kilve. The community car park is on left at end, only £1.50, and often has apple juice from an honesty box. For beach, follow the lane behind and to right of the pond opposite. About 10 min walk
Lilstock church & ruined harbour
Tiny St Andrew’s church sits in a pretty paddock and a lane leads down to this remote foreshore of cobbles and cliff. There was once an 18th century pier, harbour and warehouse here. Hinkley Point nuclear power station is visible on the horizon. From A39, ½ mile east of Kilve, turn left at corner and follow signs for Kilton and Lilstock. The church is easily missed, up a grass track on right. After church continue ½ mile and take bumpy gravel track to free car park. About 5 mins walk.
SEPTEMBER SUNSET HILLTOPS
Staple Plain & Beacon Hill
This simple spot is a wonderful place to park up and listen out for red deer, tawny owls and the churring of the nightjar in the woods below. It’s best at dusk on still summer evenings, or visit in autumn when the beech and sweet chestnut turn golden. The path leads up to Beacon Hill - In late summer, the northern Quantocks are ablaze with heather and gorse. As evening draws in you can watch the sunset and enjoy the stars. Signed from West Quantoxhead, TA4 4EB.
Thorncombe Barrow & Ring
An ancient beech-lined trackway leads up Long Combe to burial barrows on one of the Quantocks’ most impressive high points. Return via Short Combe to see the mounds of Trendle Ring or via Bicknoller Combe for woods and a stream. 200m S of Bicknoller, A358, turn left down Chilcombe Lane and after ½ mile park on verge before the farm, TA4 4ER. Follow the footpath which bears right up Long Combe.
Cothelstone Hill & Seven Sisters
There are superb sunsets and views from the hilltop. Exmoor ponies graze among the iconic beech trees, the ‘Seven Sisters’. There are burial mounds and a fallen Georgian lookout tower. Bluebells in May. Car park on east side of the hill (postcode: TA5 1AY) just west of NT Fyne Court. Or ascend on the west side from St Agnes’ holy well. 20 mins walk
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Triscombe Stone & ridgeway
A tiny lane leads up to the Quantocks ridge and this little Bronze Age stone. It marks a meeting place on the old drovers’ way, part of King Alfred’s Way, which runs along the top of the ridge. Walk on south through gnarled, shallow-rooted beech trees on the route up to Wills Neck viewpoint. You can peer down into Triscombe quarry, an amazing blue lagoon backed by steep red-stone cliffs. Turn right in the direction of Triscombe Stone 2 miles south of Nether Stowey and drive 2 miles right to the top. 5 mins walk.
St Agnes’ Holy Well, Cothelstone
A beautiful stone-housed wishing well hidden in the corner of a field. Young women came to learn the name of their future love. The parkland beyond has ancient oaks to picnic under and a secret lake. Park on the lane near the grand stone archway of Cothelstone Manor (postcode: TA4 3DS) and walk 100m up the lane. There’s a sign to the well on the left and a small iron gate. Cross a stream and turn right to see the well. Continue up the road to the corner for the footpath up to Cothelstone Hill. Or, for the footpath to the parkland, go back to the archway, and find path by the postbox in the wall. Continue 500m, beyond the house.
Crowcombe Church Benches
The 15th century Church of the Holy Ghost sports outstanding medieval carved bench-ends. As well as foliage, fruit and heraldic motifs, they include fantastical mermaids, Green Man heads, and two naked men slaying a local two-headed dragon. Park beyond the bend near postcode TA4 4AA.
Holford Beeches, Hodder’s Combe
Ancient beech trees line The Great Road byway south of Alfoxton Park, where Wordsworth once lived. From Holford follow the signs through narrow lanes down to the car park by the bowling green, (postcode: TA5 1SA). Bear right of the green and continue another 200m. Take bridleway on left by the old dog pound. Continue about ¾ mile to find the beech avenue descending on the right. Return over Longstone Hill and back by beautiful Hodder’s Combe with oaks and stream. 20 mins walk.
Bicknoller Yew & Stocks
St George’s churchyard is dominated by a 1,000-year-old hollow yew supported on great crutches. The medieval village stocks are set beneath. Park carefully on Church Lane near postcode TA4 4EL. 51.1472, -3.2725
Dowsborough Hillfort & Ditch
Dark, twisted, impenetrable oak forest greets you high on Dowsborough. This would surely be a spooky place at night or in the mist. There’s a parking area at Dead Woman’s Ditch, a linear earthwork associated with a murder in 1789; the guilty husband’s body hung in a gibbet here for a year. From the parking (postcode: TA5 1HJ) walk north ¾ mile to find the hillfort. There are various paths through the woods or you can follow the lane. 5 mins walk.
ABOUT THE NEW BOOK
Wild Guide South West: Devon, Cornwall Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire by Tania Pascoe and Daniel Start is published by Wild Things Publishing
Readers can receive 25% off and free P&P with code Somerset25
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