The main road is not very pleasant, but the pavement path is easy and safe. Once over the river the post-festival vibe was clear with people in tents and sleeping in campervans. Definitely go on to climb the Tor, the view is truly splendid - and enables you to enjoy artistic new age decorations in unexpected places (such as on barbed wire fences proclaiming LOVE and JOY!)...

Andrew Davies

Some of the fields and paths were a bit overgrown, but the earlier detailed review has pointed out most of the pitfalls (read that before setting out!)....

Andrew Davies

I agree with everything the previous reviewers said - this is an absolutely fabulous walk, across beautiful and varied countryside and gives a really great feel for the Levels....

panifex

Once past the church, it briefly joins a main road (pavement along the north side) before turning up a track just beyond a pub which leads to a pleasant enclosed wooded path, often frothing with cow parsley today, which goes all the way up to the B3153, crossing the mainline railway over the track on the way. This little piece of road is on a rather busier local through-route and cars come round the bends from both directions without much sight of you. You just go through a gap in the hedge (no sign that I could see) and the way out onto the lane at the end of it is somewhat to the right of the right of way shown on the OS map (the Slow Way plot is correct). There is a metal footpath gate towards the north-east corner of the field that goes through a little enclosure with an electric horse-walking barn in it. If you miss this, there is another stile at the top of the hill just before the road, again on a little path heading right. Once on the open access ground of Walton Hill, follow the steep path up and then around the old windmill building and on along the ridge (lovely big views from up here) until you are about opposite the lane on the far side of the busy adjacent road which will take the Slow Way northwards down towards Street. There is a little path through the grass down to a stile and the visibility for the road crossing is good. A few cars use this little lane as a short cut to Walton, so keep an ear out, but it is fine for walking along and soon reaches a path across some cow and sheep pastures. the path eventually winds up in a new housing estate via a little piece of woodland, and from there it is a reasonably quiet, easy walk into the centre of Street through suburban housing....

Mockymock

I am flagging this route for safety because it uses several hundred metres of road at Walton Hill near the old windmill (w3w ember.valuables.emeralds to dizziness.scrub.ended) which has fast, frequent traffic including heavy vehicles, no verges and poor sight lines. There is even a notice at the end of the footpath approaching the road from the south advising people not to walk along it. Luckily the area of open access land right next to it can be used instead....

Mockymock

During the week this Slow Way is surprisingly well connected by a little bus that plies its way between Bridgwater and Street a few times a day, stopping at most of the villages along the route, making it practicable to to explore it in two halves. The route heads out of Bridgwater along the main Langport Road for about a mile. It then uses a more minor road on the edge of town which is getting increasingly busy and blighted by construction traffic. Planning signs on the inward gate indicate that the little strip of fields between town and motorway is likely to be built on soonish, and his may well cause disruption to this route when it happens. Once over the M5, the path heads around the edges of some arable fields and along a track past Fishers Farm, where it meets a minor road and continues along that for a couple of miles through Chedzoy and on to Sutton Mallet. A path across a couple of arable fields cuts off a corner of road at one point. From here on to Street, the route is through fields in a shallow moors-y valley and then on uphill and via some playing fields around the back of Walton. This route is perfectly OK and has some nice views, but at the edge of Street it dumps you unceremoniously at an out of town shopping centre, using some sad footpath remnants between the access roads and the car parks, and takes you for a boring mile of unprepossessing trafficky road into the centre of town....

Mockymock

I walked from Street to Glastonbury and enjoyed this route, although the walk next to the A39 is a bit dull and noisy, but safe, and can't be avoided. After that the route goes up to Wearyall Hill where there are fantastic views and plenty of information boards to tell you what you are looking at and some of the local myths and legends. After descending there is a short walk along side roads to the town centre....

Helen Gough

After leaving Beckery Old Road the route is the same as StrGla1, just a walk along the path next to the A39, eventually joining Street High St....

Helen Gough

The route follows a public footpath across a road, then leaves the footpath to head east before joining Pages Hill Lane. Instead, once at Ivy Thorn Hill don't cross the road, but follow a path through the woodland heading east parallel to the road....

Helen Gough

It's mostly urban and part of it is along the path by the busy main road but it pops delightfully over the hill on the way, with big views all around. And being close to Glastonbury you might come across folk doing some yoga, and usually there is decorated vegetation. Today it was ribbons tied around the thistles....

Mockymock

Between Mudgley House Farm and the levels proper, there is a short stretch across the fields where the footpath is badly signed and the access across the hedgeline at adapt.poetry.stems is a scramble over a pair of gates pushed together which are partially covered in brambles. Once across the little fields south of Mere there is a kilometre of walking south along one of the typically lumpy levels roads before the Slow Way turns into another nature reserve at Ham Wall (popularly famous for its starling murmurations in winter and much loved by birders at all times) and follows a gravel cycle path through it. At the end of the reserve, the route heads south again for a bit along a very quiet minor road set about by an area of active peat cutting, which still provides a living for some, despite years of campaigning to stop it. It then takes a path around some flooded recent peat cuttings and follows the path through fields alongside one of the area’s many big drainage ditches until it meets the A39 and heads into Street using a cycle path....

Mockymock

The mechanical extraction of peat over many decades from the Somerset levels is an ecological crime which is perhaps being slowly paid for in the shape of the the national nature reserves that have been established there. This slow way takes you from Wedmore, a town well endowed with top notch snacks, descending off a ridge deep into the stunning wetland of Westhay moor, where we saw Marsh harriers hunting, great crested grebe chicks and heard the first cuckoo....

Steve_Roser

This is an easy picturesque route that is easy to follow, and involves no main roads once you’re out of Street...

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A mainly traffic-free route on level ground that enters Glastonbury on the roads leading through an old industrial site, not very scenic but quiet and accessible...

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This slightly revised route is a good walk from Street to Somerton, on foot only due to a number of styles & a flight of steps. It’s mostly off road with a nice section over the levels then through Compton Dundon and beyond through fields to Somerton....

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A good alternative route to Strgla one avoiding stiles & steps. It’s mainly on small back roads with an interesting section behind the old Morland site....

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This route is different to Strsom1 because a section of that was un-walkable (no path plus brambles) but the new route is nearby and easy to find. It is a pleasant walk following easy paths out of street, over Ivythorn Hill and then level walking across fields to Somerton. Some stiles and a set of steps...

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Have given this route 1* because there is a very difficult to navigate section that is overgrown and unmarked....

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A good route from Street to Somerton however on foot only due to a number of styles & a flight of steps....

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A relatively easy and short route with lovely views from the top of Wearyall Hill. A couple of slopes (1 in 6) and some narrow footpaths and uneven terrain....

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The middle section up Wearyall Hill is very pleasant with good views of the tor and surrounding levels. Probably only suitable on foot because of 2 kissing gates & a flight of steps....

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