Sue Gearing guides you through the hills, hollows and beauty of the green and undulating countryside in South Somerset, between Castle Cary and Bruton

THIS energetic day-long walk celebrates the hills, hollows and beauty of the green and undulating countryside in South Somerset, between Castle Cary and Bruton. There are several steep but short hills.

Vistas change all the time and the circle uses quiet lanes and footpaths and a small section of the Leland Trail. It takes in an old country church at Pitcombe and then reaches Bruton with its historic dovecote.

We follow the Brue for a while, go up through a large cider orchard and then back to Castle Cary to enjoy some of the old parts of the large village, including the round stone jail.

There are refreshment options in both villages. On Sunday afternoons in season you can have tea at Gants Mill.

START

Walk out of Millbrook Gardens and turn right. Shortly, reach the parish church. Cross the road and go left up the no-through lane by the primary school. Immediately, turn left down the far side of the school on a footpath to Cary Hill.

Go through a kissing gate and on and then up into a field. Continue straight on, bearing very slightly left and over and down to a kissing gate on to a concrete track. Go straight across and through a gate. Now comes a very steep climb up the green valley to the hill, which was the site of the old castle from which the town takes its name. Reach two seats at the top.

1. HILL

With the wooden seat and Castle Cary at your back, head straight on across to the fence and cross a marked stile. Head straight on towards a small wood. Come out over a stile on to the road. Turn left and after a few paces cross the road and take the byway on the right. Follow this on between high hedges and then start to drop downhill. At the foot, ignore the first metal gate tucked back on the left and soon reach another metal gate on the left.

2. GATE

Cross the marked stile by the gate. Go ahead along the foot of Farm Hill; then through a large metal gate ahead and maintain direction with the garden wall on your left. Go over a stile and continue on across to a gate leading on to a lane at Higher Hadspen – an idyllic spot deep in the Somerset countryside.

3. HIGHER HADSPEN

Turn left along this very quiet lane for more than half a mile to a junction by Hadspen's new village hall. Continue on and pass a small cottage on the right and then turn right on a small Tarmac lane/drive going by the side of the village hall. This is your second hill to climb – Nettlecombe Hill. So continue up on the Tarmac and then on a cobbled and rougher track to the top. Eventually reach a T-junction with another track.

4. JUNCTION

Ideally you want to go ahead into the field and follow the footpath across the field, bearing slightly right which leads you to another track. If the crops make this impossible, turn right at the junction, continue to another junction and then turn left and you come to the other end of the path. Turn left on the track. Shortly, reach a footpath on the right to Pitcombe. Turn left in the field, staying up. And soon at a fold of the hill bear down right into the valley. In the foot, go across to a stile by a gate in the hedge and cross over on to a track. Turn left and carry on into the tiny hamlet of Pitcombe.

5. PITCOMBE

Here nestles a picturesque church, built in the 19th century in the Gothic style. Continue on to a junction with a road. Cross the stile opposite. Go ahead, passing a house on the left and over a second stile, then a track, and another stile. Climb straight up the field and out on to the main road at Stratters Hill – hill three!

6. MAIN ROAD

Cross a stile opposite. Go ahead bearing slightly left all the way across this large field to the far lower corner. Here find a stile by a metal gate. Once over, go over the farm track and over another stile. Go straight up hill four, Cliff Hill, to a wooden post at the fence corner marked with yellow arrows. Go straight on (not the right arrow) to a stile on the far side. Maintain direction across the top and soon see the imposing Godminster Farmhouse ahead. Half way across the park-like field, turn left down into a dip and then on to the far corner and out over a marked stile. A kissing gate then brings you on to a track.

7. TRACK

Turn left. Stay on this for well over three-quarters of a mile until you reach a signpost at a road junction on the edge of Bruton. On the way you will see the old stone dovecote ahead up on a grassy hill.

8. SIGNPOST

Go straight across up a narrow lane. Soon see the 15th-century dovecote more clearly up on your right. To go up to the dovecote, pass a play area and turn right through the car park. Go ahead across the recreation field and over a stile and climb the hill. Return to the lane.

Continue on to a junction in Bruton. Go straight over on the footpath down steps on the Leland Trail to an information board about Bruton. Turn right and cross a footbridge over the river Brue. Carry on to a crossing lane, Mill Lane below the main street in Bruton.

9. BRUTON

To see the main street, museum or have refreshments, turn right on the lane and shortly take a Tarmac footpath up left between walls to the High Street. Turn right for the Sun Inn, the museum and the Olive Tree cafe. Then turn back the other way along the High Street to the end where it bends around left, away from Bruton.

If you want to miss out the centre of Bruton, turn left and follow Mill Lane around to reach the end of the High Street and continue to the end. At the end of the High Street, bend around left and cross over on the pedestrian crossing.

Turn up the small lane signed to the Mill on the Brue, an outdoor activity centre. Just before the actual centre building, follow the footpath sign left. Then turn right below the centre with the Brue down on your left. Follow the fence on your right. Maintain direction when it ends and pick up another fence on your right. Carry on. The path shortly goes between the fence and a low building. Then before long you find you are walking close to the Brue, keeping it on your left. Carry on, through a gate and on until you come to a gate ahead of you at Gants Mill.

10. GANTS MILL

Take the footpath right which goes above the mill. Go up through a gate to a track. Go across and take the footpath which climbs up and continues along the side of the hill.

Eventually look for a yellow arrow on a tree directing you left down into the valley. Continue on across the valley and through a metal gate and under the railway arch. Then follow the Brue on your left. When you draw near a stone farmhouse ahead on the right, bear over towards it and leave the field over a stile in front. Turn left on the lane. Cross the Brue and reach a junction in the tiny hamlet of Cole.

11. LELAND TRAIL

Here you rejoin the Leland Trail for a while.

Turn left and after a few yards at another junction, turn right. Continue for several minutes and shortly after passing attractive Cole Farm on your right, turn off right down to a stile and into a field. Go diagonally down the centre of the field and in the far corner cross a stile. Go on a few yards and then turn right, crossing the stream and entering a large cider orchard.

12. ORCHARD

Go straight up through the orchard to the top and turn left. When you get to the next corner, leave the Leland Trail, which goes ahead. Stay in the orchard and bend down left. Then bend round right still in the orchard with the hedge on your right. In the next corner, look carefully for a gap in the hedge ahead. It may be a bit overgrown as you go through. Come into a field. Continue ahead, dropping gently down. Cross a stile and just continue on in the same direction below the hill. Eventually reach a signpost. Cross the stile and turn right and go through a dark wood. Go on and a hunting gate leads into a field in Knap Hollow.

13. KNAP HOLLOW

Continue along the bottom edge. Go through a gate and on. The path now begins to rise. At the top go along the side of a fenced paddock and out of a gate on to a lane. Turn left. Shortly, turn right on a bridleway to Higher Ansford. Follow this all the way to the main road, ignoring a track going right.

14. HIGHER ANSFORD

Turn right on the main road and at the junction, go left down towards Castle Cary. Turn right in Catherine's Close. Along here, turn right on the footpath along the edge of the playing fields. At the end turn left on a Tarmac path which takes you down to the old centre of the village with the 18th-century round house, used as a jail for a while.

15. CASTLE CARY

Turn left past the handsome post office and then right down the side of the Museum of Country and Domestic Life. Turn right down Fore Street. Cross on to the other side and stay on this side past the Horse Pond junction, passing the war memorial and the Return Pond. Cross over and turn right down Millbrook Gardens to the car park.

The Sun Inn, Bruton: 01749 813493. Gants Mill, between Bruton and Cole: 01749 812393.