Axbbla two

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I walked this Blagdon to Axbridge. It is an enjoyable over-the-hill hike, basically one long up followed by one long down, with a reasonably pleasant mile around the edge of Cheddar village and a fun stroll along the concrete ramparts of Axbridge’s circular reservoir lake at the end. Plenty of views along the way, including down into Cheddar Gorge. Good boots recommended and a walking pole if you use one. It’s soggy on the top of Blackdown in all but the driest conditions and there is a plenty of steep and uneven ground.

From Blagdon it is a steady climb up through grassy fields with a good view back over the Chew Valley before arriving at a B-road via a short farm track. Across it lies the popular walking area of Blackdown, the highest and most moorlandish part of the Mendip plateau. The geology here is sandstone, unlike the rest of these predominantly limey hills, and it has damp, heathy vegetation and peaty ground on the top.

The ascent is gentle to moderate, first via a rocky, semi-enclosed trackway and then on the bridleway which contours around the western perimeter of the hill. The path is good for most of the way but becomes indistinct approaching the south-eastern corner of the hill, where a blanket of the peaty wet heath lies across the hilltop, and walkers are often obliged to traverse back and forth to pick the easiest way through the wet bits. Just keep going towards the scrub-lined southern boundary ahead of you in the direction of the route plot and a drier path picks up again after a couple of hundred yards.

The Slow Way then exits the open hill via a gate next to a grass-covered mound and makes a steady descent through some pastures and a nature reserve to a minor road. A few yards along that and route turns south along a farm access track and takes a path through fields to cross the rest of the Mendip plateau.

Eventually you start descending again and reach the open-access area around Cheddar Gorge on the southern Mendip Scarp where the Slow Way takes a bit of a sideways loop east along the clifftop gorge walk to make the most of the view into the gorge. At one point you can go through a little gate in the wall to sit on the edge and peer right in if you wish. It works equally well to take the more direct path down through the scrub, but you won’t see so much that way.

From here there is a steep descent through woodland down into the edge of Cheddar village where you can easily divert into the village proper for all the tourist facilities around the bottom of the gorge: eateries, shops, pubs etc. The Slow Way itself jinks west and continues along the northern edge of the town along quiet roads, passing the Gardener’s Arms pub along the way before crossing a main road and picking up a track and cycle path to Axbridge reservoir. A quick climb up its ramparts leads to the concrete walkway around this very engaging circular lake, and from there it is an easy hop into the historic Axbridge village centre.

Access includes the usual range of kissing gates and stiles and there will almost certainly be livestock along the way. There is a lot of uneven ground and no food or drink between Blagdon and Cheddar, although you might get lucky with an ice-cream van in the car park at the top of Burrington Combe on a sunny summer weekend.

At the time of writing bus services to Blagdon are few and forget Sunday. A more bespoke bookable flexible bus service from main transport hubs was due to start in North Somerset in April 2023. Don’t know if this will prove useful for walkers in the area. Axbridge is well connected by the Plymouth Falcon bus that runs all week to Bristol and the Southwest, but you have to walk a mile west out of the main village for to the bus stops on the A38 to get it. During the week there is also a bus from the village via Cheddar to Wells.

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