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Route Kilve - the Quantocks - Kilve County Somerset Difficulty Moderate/Hard Distance 13.5 km (8½ miles)Typical time 4 hours OS grid reference: ST148429, Explorer 140 Starting point Kilve village car park

Blister rating: 3/5 View rating: 1/5

Why I love this walk

There is something deeply satisfying about pounding the contours of the Quantocks. Perhaps it’s the versatility of this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty: crossed by footpaths and bridleways, it invites you into permutations of perambulations.

You can stay inland or head, chisel in hand, to the deserted, fossil-laden foreshore at East Quantoxhead; the walks suffer little in inclement weather.

Indeed, the prospect of fallen rocks — opened like books, the slate pages decorated with tiny ammonite curls — means that children can be easily persuaded to don their wellies and embark on a march to the sea.

Or perhaps it’s because the lineage of my own little fossil-hunters is entwined with the gorse and bracken that crunch underfoot.

Jack Pike, my children’s great-grandfather, came here as a boy to gather whortleberries (wild bilberries) that would be put on a train to London. In summer, we still forage them.

As you admire the views to the horizon, you can hear the whistle, and see the steam puffs, of the West Somerset Railway, for which Jack worked as a signalman.

Another of my children’s ancestors was born in a pub on the Quantocks, so entering a tavern after a ramble is an act of remembrance. Nostalgia, nature and pies — is there anything more to life?

The route

1 From Kilve village car park, right along A39; in 30m, left by post office down Sea Lane for 1.3km, past Kilve church and Chantry ruin to beach car park. Ahead to beach.

2 Left (west) along cliffs. In half a mile, path turns inland. At T-junction of paths, right to road at pond. Cross into East Quantoxhead car park; follow path at far right corner, with Court House on your right. Opposite church, through gate in left corner of field; cross next field diagonally, arriving right of Court Farm, to gate into lane. Cross lane (yellow arrow); same direction over next field to stile into lane. Left to cross A39.

3 Blue arrow, “Beacon Hill/Bicknoller Post” sign. Up track, over fields to Smith’s Combe. Cross stream; up combe, crossing stream several times. In 750m, follow stream to right, skirting forestry. Steep track across moor to post, 200m below triangulation pillar.

4 Left on broad track for 750m; 200m short of Bicknoller Post (meeting of seven tracks), left on The Great Road (stony track) for 1.3km to New Ground. Down Gut Combe among trees to tarmac road; right past Alfoxton Park. In 750m, road enters trees; in 100m, on right bend, left (yellow arrow), over stile. Cross combe on footbridge to road.

5 Right; first left past Holford church to A39 and Plough PH. Left up lane behind Plough; in 100m, right through gate (blue arrow); through trees, then along field edge. Through trees again to gate (blue arrow); ahead across field to gate (two blue arrows) to sunken lane. Right to A39.

6 Right (take care!) for 200m to right bend; left along Hilltop Lane. In 1km, pass Wyndham’s Farm; in 100m, left (bridleway, “Kilve”) to Kilve.

Things to see: Kilve Chantry, fossils on Kilve Beach, views from Quantocks, Alfoxton Park, which was once William and Dorothy Wordsworth's home

Pub rating: 3/5

Pub The Hood Arms at Kilve is a characterful old coaching and smuggling inn. Bar food, good local beer, open fire, beer garden

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