I moved to Somerset in 2009 from my home in Wales, between Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) and the Black Mountains. Although this change brought me closer to London and freed me from agonizingly long train journeys, I really missed the landscape, and more specifically walking around it. Most of what I knew about my new home county centered around two tourist attractions: Glastonbury Festival and Cheddar Gorge. Cheddar Gorge attracts thousands of tourists to its caves, deep terrain cracks, expensive cheeses, and shops and cafes that give it a very Cheddar Gorge feel. A mid-range English coastal resort with no sea access. There didn’t seem to be much of a substitute.
What I didn’t know was the remaining 70 square miles of the Mendip Hills, all craggy outcrops, dry stone walls, waterfalls, and dazzling scenery. After we moved, I eventually started going for weekly walks with my two kids and ended up in this part of Somerset many times. And it still is, especially during the winter months. Of course, the landscape is not as spectacular as the one I left behind, but it is full of charms of its own, with lakes, faint echoes of the Yorkshire Dales, and perfect walks in the colder months. Here you can make a proper outing without making it too difficult. As long as the weather isn’t too harsh, a day outdoors can be a nice comfort. The landscape is not difficult, friendly and pleasant.
Start and Finish Cross, Somerset
distance 5 miles
Time 3 to 3 and a half hours
Total climbing distance 286 meters
medium difficulty
OS map with route GPX tracks
My son James, now 18, has autism. In common with many neurodivergent people, he has a deep connection to the outdoors and seems to have an insatiable love for walking. I think part of it has to do with hills and mountains and the sensory high they bring. When he was young, he greeted any downhill section of a walk with a euphoric high-speed sprint. Feeling like flying. Now he is an avid and determined hiker.
Together with his sister Rosa, we have seen almost every corner of the Mendips family. We regularly visit the village of Pridhi, with its vast greenery, troupe of cavers and Bronze Age tombs. Ever Gorge is another amazing canyon located in the hills. In this case, it is not soiled by the road. The gorge is part of a route that starts and ends in the small cathedral town of Wells. A walk near Cheddar may start among crowds of tourists, but you’ll soon find yourself among the paths winding around fields, woodland and cliff tops.
I remember eating a sandwich in a biting crosswind and sunny skies that could see all the way to Wales.
But our favorite spots are the highlands of Wavering Down and Crook Peak, a 5-mile up-and-down loop that begins and ends in Cross Village, about 3 miles from Cheddar. , less than an hour’s drive from the center of Bristol. Looking back, this was the first half-hearted serious hill walk for the three of us, and it replaced the week-long trails we’ve been on for the past three years (Hadrian’s Wall was the last) and regular This paved the way for 10 amazing hikes. More than a mile.
John, Rosa and James take shelter from the wind on the west side of Crook Peak.
The first time we visited was when James was 8 years old and Rosa had just turned 6. My father, a former mountaineer and lifelong lover of walking despite his age, last accompanied us when he was 81 years old. The date line on the photo I took with my cell phone was December 28, 2017. It looked like a sunny, blue-sky day. It was also my 48th birthday. I remember eating my sandwich crouched behind a wall in a strong crosswind. The weather was very clear and we could see all the way to Wales. As always, it took less than three and a half hours, but it felt like a day well spent.
All the ascents are at the beginning, most of them 30-minute climbs that begin below large cliffs of quarried rock and climb through forest with tunnels. As you slowly walk up the slope towards the trig point, you will see a wonderful view for the first time. To the south are the Somerset Levels, with the perfectly circular Cheddar Reservoir on the hillside, and in the middle distance the extraordinary Brent Hills. To the north is Weston-super-Mare, and further up there are clear views out to the Bristol Channel and beyond, even on cloudy days.
St. Andrew’s Church, Bishop Compton.
The ridge forms a waving green ribbon that quickly turns into a long descent. It’s the kind of downhill that James was often happy to run down. But before that, we usually admire and sit on one of the area’s signature attractions: a giant stone bench that looks like it’s made to resemble a small boulder. In memory of a local man named Herbert Peart, this was created by Barry Cooper, an artist and sculptor who lived in the same town as me – Frome, 40 miles away. Cooper used a tractor and trailer to transport the required slabs and supporting stones, but it was worth it. The bench is an enduring symbol of the simple joy it brings, captured in the chiseled line by mountaineer and poet Jeffrey Winthrop Young: “It’s just a hill, but to me it’s all life.” Established in the landscape.
As winter dusk sets in, the Mendips landscape looks even more dramatic
A further 20 minutes and even higher, Crook Peak has a rocky summit resembling one of Dartmoor’s more modest passes. From a distance, its profile suggests a rather gigantic reclining figure. A perfect place for a picnic lunch. From here you can see both the sea and the winding section of the M5, surrounded by green fields and bisected by a footbridge in the distance (James always said it resembled Kraftwerk’s Autobahn cover art). It’s an album he’s been obsessed with since he was little). I’ve read articles about people groaning at the distant roar of the highway when they walk here, but I actually like it because it heightens the feeling of being far beyond the everyday world.
View from the top of Wavering Down.
At the end, it’s a gradual and sometimes muddy descent to Compton Bishop, a small village with an 800-year-old church. This is a great place to stop and think. The last time James and I went, we took the opportunity to enjoy 15 minutes of quiet silence. The route back to the starting point passes directly below the ridge we climbed and returns to the cross within 30 minutes.
I recently learned that this village has been the home of British comedian genius Frankie Howard since 1969, where he lived until his death in 1992. If you don’t want to soak up the good vibes he left behind, you might want to visit one of the two pubs. Alternatively, you can visit nearby Uxbridge. It is Somerset’s smallest town, and its beautiful medieval square gives it a French or German countryside feel.
At this point, anyone who came here for the magic of the Mendips family should have felt it. As winter dusk sets in, the landscape looks even more dramatic. When I get into the car, there is an unspoken determination to always return to this place. It’s just a hill, but there’s more to it than that.
