Biskey one

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Biskey here.

This is a generally decent route through the rolling farmland and woodland of the eastern Chew Valley and riverside fields along the course of the River Chew. There a wide views across to Dundry Hill in places. There is more walking on roads than on some routes in this area, but all of it is along quiet lanes.

I have to note that the plotting of this Slow Way is rather slapdash, though not quite bad enough to merit flagging the route for inaccuracy in my opinion. Others may disagree. I found it easy enough to see which footpaths on the OS map to take, but the mapped distance is actually nearly half a mile longer than that indicated by the sometimes overly direct course of the GPX. And a separate issue for me is that the overall routing misses the opportunity of visiting the old mining village of Pensford and its splendid railway viaduct on the way, which is a shame. I will post an alternative route to allow that choice.

I walked the route from Bishop Sutton to Keynsham. It is possible to walk safely along the A368 on a pavement and a road verge on the south side of the road if you want to save time and miss out the little loop south at the beginning. A little further on, the short section of enclosed pathway going downhill and north out of Stowey Bottom was still very wet at the end of March after a couple of dry weeks so I assume it is a swamp when wet and it might be better to detour round the loop of road to the east instead in winter to avoid it.

There is not much to see for the next mile or so on the lanes but once out into the open fields, it is much better walking through pastures and on quiet roads with views out. There is a pub at Stanton Wick which was busy on the fine weekend that I passed by, and the route heads on from there to dive into a little woody valley and up the other side just before crossing the busy A37 at a safe point with decent sight lines. Another stretch of lane walking beyond leads to a track through the open treescape of Lord’s Wood, before heading down into Compton Dando. There is another popular pub in this village.

From here on the route takes the pretty Two Rivers Way path for a couple of miles along the tree-lined course of the River Chew to the edge of Keynsham.

Paths in this area are well-walked, well-maintained and well-signed, and access is mostly through kissing gates. There are a few steps, some short sections of steep path and the odd stile along the way.

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