Sue Gearing follows in the footsteps of some of the West Country's greatest myths and legends with a walk taking in Glastonbury Tor, the mythical Isle of Avalon.

The walk is about 6.5 miles, 3-3.5 hours walking, and allow some time at the tor and the Rural Life Museum. Use the map OS Explorer 141, Cheddar Gorge and Mendip Hills West, ref: 503 384.

Park in the car park at the Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury which is well signed. Make sure you return before the gates close. When it is closed, park outside on the road.

G lastonbury Tor and its tower look down on us enigmatically at all stages of this beautiful circle from the island once thought to be the land of Avalon.

It's fitting that the walk starts by climbing up the tor itself to enjoy the views and feel the magic of this special place. There is just the one steep tor ascent and then it is downhill and flat as we continue along an old lane and across the quiet open "summerlands", or Levels, on paths that are little walked and also along the River Brue.

Expect to enjoy plenty of birdlife and the wide open spaces and dramatic skies. It's a circle starting from the fascinating Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury. Make time to enjoy the (free) museum and the refreshments at the excellent cafe. There is no pub en route.

Some of the stiles will present problems for dogs which are not able to jump over or be lifted. Expect the ground to be wet after the rain we have had.

START

From the car park, staying in the museum grounds, go in front of the museum and follow the Tarmac path past the museum's orchard to the main A361 road. Note the mulberry tree alongside the path growing in the orchard. Cross with care on to the raised pavement opposite and turn right.

1. CHALICE WELL

Pass the Chalice Well. This is supposedly the place where Joseph of Arimathea buried the Holy Grail. The water, it is said, still stains the ground red with the blood of Christ. It has a beautiful, peaceful garden and attracts many visitors.

Turn left in Well House Lane and immediately take the marked footpath on the right to the tor.

However, before turning off you could continue up the lane for a very short way to two places where the spring water emerges and can be sampled (for free). This lane, shady, deep and fringed with vegetation and containing the mineral springs, used to be a popular beauty spot.

The tor looks down on you as you make the steep climb up, and will remain visible throughout the walk. The access route to the tor has sadly had to be surfaced to prevent erosion. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful ascent giving glorious views over the Levels where the walk soon goes.

2. THE TOR

Reach the tower at the top. This is St Michael's Tower, the only part of the old church still remaining. The tor has been a place of pilgrimage going back to megalithic and Druidic times.

Glastonbury lies in a triangle with Stonehenge and Avebury – thought to form a world energy point. One legend says the tor was the location of King Arthur's stronghold, another that it was the home of the Faery King and that the top of the tor was a place of fairy visions and magic.

Glastonbury is also believed to be the place known in Authurian lore as the Isle of Avalon. According to the legend, Arthur, after being mortally wounded by Mordred, was taken by sacred boat to Avalon. And it is in Avalon that Arthur awaits the day when Britain requires his services as the "once and future king".

Before the land around was properly drained, this hill would have been one of the few dry places where crops could be grown. It doesn't do to dwell on the fact that this was also the place where Richard Whiting, the Abbot of Glastonbury and two of his monks, were dragged by horses and hung, drawn and quartered on the orders of Oliver Cromwell shortly after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Also from the top of the tor you can look across to another high hill, Weary All Hill, said to be the place where Joseph of Arimathea landed and plunged his stave into the ground, and there the holy thorn of Glastonbury grew. Go through the arch of the tower and turn right to take the surfaced, stepped path down the other side. Go through a gate and follow the path all the way to a gate on to a lane.

3. LANE

Turn right. Continue on and then fork left down the no-through lane, a beautiful quiet thoroughfare which soon starts to gradually drop down on to the Levels. Ignore all side-paths and continue to a farm and a road – a total distance of about three- quarters of a mile.

4. FARM

Turn left and after a few yards go right through a kissing gate into a field and down the right fence, bending round to the corner. Cross a stile and turn left on the concrete track passing old farm buildings on the right. Go through a metal gate and immediately turn right over a stile. Bear down the field.

The stiles on this next section were not well maintained when I came here but hopefully may have been improved by Mendip Rights of Way in time for you.

Cross a stile, broken when I came here, and maintain direction heading for the far right corner, where it may be muddy. Go through and take the stile a short way down on the right. Cross the field to a stile in the far corner.

5. CONCRETE TRACK

Once over, come on to a concrete track. You are in a large field and your goal is a stile hidden down in the far hedge – a short way to the left of the far corner. Depending on the state of the field at the time you can either go across the middle, or round the left edge. When you get there, cross the double stile and plank bridge.

In the next field, go across to the far corner by a house. Cross a stile and another small bridge and take the path up to the main A361 road.

6. MAIN ROAD

Turn left and then right on the lane to Baltonsborough. Reach a footpath on the left and a stony farm drive on the right. Turn right down this. It is also a right of way but the sign is completely hidden in the hedge.

Pass the almost derelict farm buildings and as the drive bends right to the farmhouse, go straight ahead through a large metal gate into a field. Follow the right hedge which bends.

Cross a plank bridge and stile in the corner and continue as before; cross another bridge and on again with the tor on your right.

In the next corner, ignore a gate in the corner, but go straight ahead over a rather hidden and not well used plank bridge over a rhyne by a concrete water trough.

7. CONCRETE BRIDGE

Bear a little more right than before and cross a concrete and metal footbridge. Continue straight on with a rhyne on your right. Now simply follow this rhyne through several fields and gates meandering across the Levels. Note on the left, a great example of medieval ridge and furrow farming – the ridges are still visible.

8. TRACK

Eventually you go through a gate and join a track. The rhyne curves away at this point.

9. DROVE

Continue on to Kennard Moor Drove, a quiet thoroughfare. Turn right on this. After several minutes it comes alongside the River Brue. Just continue on. Go round a right-hand bend, now walking directly towards the tor.

10. STILE

Before you reach a junction, turn left over a stile on the marked footpath to Butleigh Road. Walk parallel with the right hedge and head towards housing on the edge of Glastonbury.

11. HOUSING

Don't enter the estate but stay in the field with the fence on your right. Continue along to a stile on the right. Cross the road, turn right after a few yards and then left by a metal railing and go up a concrete footpath between houses. Cross a residential road and continue on up all the way to the Rural Life Museum.

Until March 31, the Rural Life Museum is open Tuesday-Sataturday and Bank Holidays from 10am-5pm. It is closed on Sundays and Mondays, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Tel: 01458 831197.