Head for the hills
Park in the pay and display public car park on the left as you turn into Dunster from the A39. Expect to have to pay more than £4. Dunster lies just off the A39, south-east of Minehead, Somerset.
The picturesque village and castle of Dunster, in Exmoor National Park, begin this eight-mile circle taking in the hills nearby and a prehistoric hillfort.
You enjoy spectacular views and, in autumn, the changing colours and the marvellous heather.
It is quite an energetic walk with several hills. En route is a pub in the village of Timberscombe, but it tends to close quite early after lunch. Wear good walking shoes or boots, as some paths are stony and you need a good grip. It's a great walk for the dog.
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START
Turn left from the car park and pass the information centre. Cross the road and go up The Ball between the 20mph signs. Shortly, at a bend, go straight ahead up a Tarmac drive/footpath.
Over on your right see Conygar Tower rising out of the trees on Conygar Hill. The tower is a folly built in 1775 as a decorative feature to improve the view of the Luttrell family from their home at Dunster and was used as a landmark for shipping.
At the end of the drive go straight ahead through a kissing gate and across the field. A gate on the far side brings you down to Butter Cross.
1. BUTTER CROSS
The Cross in Dunster, dating from the late 14th century, was used as a meeting place for people who brought and sold their own butter.
Go out on to a lane and turn left. Soon go right on a bridleway to Grabbist Hill. Now begins a climb. On the way up on the left see a padlocked wooden door to St Leonard's Well. Water from the well passed along a conduit in medieval times for monks at the priory.
Reach a gate after about five minutes of climbing. Go through and turn left, continuing to climb in the woodland. Eventually reach the open and continue straight on at a marker post, getting the first of the good views over the Severn estuary, Minehead and up the coast – about another eight or nine minutes.
Maintain direction and continue on over a junction.
2. GRABBIST HILL
Pass the National Trust's Grabbist Hill sign. This steeply wooded oak hillside is notable for its magnificent views and rare lichens and mosses.
This is a beautiful flat track now between heather and bilberries and mixed woodland with tremendous views on each side. Ignore all side- paths. Just maintain direction. Go over another junction and continue on in the Selworthy direction.
3. JUNCTION
Reach another junction with a well- sited picnic table and here leave the track and turn left down through woodland signposted towards Timberscombe.
Go over a crossing track and continue to descend. A track joins from the left. Carry on down. At the foot, reach a lane.
4. LANE
Turn right. Pass the picturesque cricket ground of Timberscombe and reach the main A396. Turn right, walking with care along the road. Go round a bend and then cross and take the pavement. Shortly bear left along Brook Street, a residential road parallel with the main road. At the end, turn up left into the village.
5. TIMBERSCOMBE
Come to a junction with the Lion Inn opposite. It serves a good range of snacks but in the week may tend to close very promptly at about 2pm (telephone if a group is planning to come). Note that it closes on Mondays.
Go up Great House Street at the side of the Lion, with a stream alongside. Bend round and climb up and continue straight on up on the bridleway to Luxborough and Dunster.
Reach ranch fencing and barns on the right. Go right through the large metal gate signed with a blue arrow and at the barns reach a signpost.
Bear left to Dunster. Continue on following the blue markers, walking along the side of the hill looking across to Knowle and Grabbist hills where you were earlier.
At another signpost continue on, and now start to get views ahead across the estuary again. At a third signpost continue on towards Dunster and woodland ahead.
6. WOODS
Drop down into the woodland and go straight ahead through a gate with a blue marker. Stay on the main track.
Go right through the hedge line and reach a Dunster sign. Go ahead on a broad track. Ignore a track going left.
7. WOODLAND LANE
Cross a lane and continue on in the direction of Withycombe Common. Go straight over a broad crossing track, picking up a yellow arrow and one of the Crown Estate's circular footpaths, No 1.
Drop downhill, still in woodland. Ignore the Estate's No 1 path which goes left, just keep straight on. Cross two plank bridges and continue on in the edge of woodland with open land on the left. Join another track and continue on.
Pass a farmhouse over on the left and reach a junction with a wide track. Go straight on for a few paces and then turn right, following the sign to Long Coombe.
8. BROADWOOD FARM
Follow a Tarmac track and reach Broadwood Farm. Here, follow the track straight on. It soon becomes concrete and then stony.
As the stony track ends, go right over a stile by a gate and straight on through another gate. Turn left in the field with the fence on your left.
Pass a Crown Estate route No 2 marker and keep on through a couple of gates into another field and proceed, as before, with the fence on your left.
Go down through a gate in the corner and drop down to the woodland. Bend left and reach a stream (there was a fallen tree to negotiate here when I came). On the other side, make sure you pick up the main track which brings you up to a signpost.
9. RED ROUTE
Turn left towards Dunster following a red route, No 3. Follow a stream on the left for a while and at the next junction go uphill, following the red and also the blue route arrows on a stony track.
Turn right and then left, still on red and blue, and still more climbing. Turn right through a gate and follow the red and blue straight on through the pinewoods, still ascending, but more gently. Reach open land and go left following the red and blue routes along one side of the hillfort.
Continue on to the top, at 690ft, and a sign about Bat's Castle, an Iron Age hillfort.
10. BAT'S CASTLE
The views are spectacular from here and include Dunster Castle and Conygar Tower. Go straight on through a barrier and across and down the hill to a hollow.
11. HOLLOW
Here leave the red and blue route and turn right down the grassy track. Shortly at a fork, bear left and continue on down the valley. Ignore a path which joins from the right.
Bend left and carry on down under trees. Watch your footing after rain on the stones and boulders. Start to get glimpses of the castle turrets.
Go through a gate ahead and reach a marker post. Go left and shortly go through a kissing gate by a large gate.
Turn right towards Dunster, passing very pretty cottages and reaching the ancient packhorse bridge.
12. BRIDGE
Known as Gallox Bridge, it was used to help pack animals cross the River Avill. It is unusual in being a long two-span bridge with a raised causeway approaching from the village.
You can go straight over and ahead into Dunster and then turn down right through the village to the car park but there is a quiet alternative country route which I took, and which is just as direct.
So for this, just before the bridge, turn right on the path signed to the car park. Up on your left are the castle grounds and the castle can be seen rising up out of the trees.
The path after a few minutes crosses a bridge over the river at an entrance to the castle grounds. Turn right, still signed to the car park.
Reach the castle's main car park on the left. Turn right on the entrance drive and then follow the signs left and continue across the parkland on and up, going through a gate into your car park.
The Lion Inn, Timberscombe TA24 7TP. Tel: 01643 841243.
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