(S/E) From Mount Pleasant Farm entrance, turn left along the road towards Stone Allerton. Just opposite Rectory Hill, take a narrow fenced footpath between two houses on the right, which leads to a stile into a narrow field.
Walk down to a gate in the far left-hand corner, and continue along the left-hand edge of the next field into a farm track.
(1) Just before the farm, turn left to a gateway into a lane. Turn right and follow the lane as it winds left and right past Alston Farm to a junction. Turn left and follow the lane downhill and then bend left to pass Ashlyn Farm on your right.
(2) Just beyond Marina House (left), turn right through a hand-gate onto a footpath that runs diagonally through a vineyard. Go through a gate on the left in the bottom corner, and bear right to a metal hand-gate in the far right-hand corner of the next field. After another hand-gate, a wooden stile leads into boggy woodland alongside a small stream, which you follow out to a road.
(3) Turn right then, when the road bends right, walk down the drive of the farmhouse in front of you, turning left past a waymarked post onto the Somerset Levels. Turn right and walk down to a stile in a fence. Beyond it, pick up a drain ahead with occasional trees.
(4) Follow the drain until you reach the River Axe, which you cross via a footbridge (Cradle Bridge). Follow another drain beyond to a footbridge over the Cheddar Yeo, and again follow the drain ahead. Ignoring a concrete bridge with metal handrails, bear left instead to a stile by a field gate, which leads to a grassy track heading off to the right.
Follow this track, alongside its drain, to Matbriran House, beyond which the lane is surfaced. Pass the entrances to Mill Stream Close (right) and Walnut Close (left) to reach a T-junction in Axbridge.
(5) Turn right then follow the road round to the left and right, passing a car park on your left. At Moorland Street, turn left to the square in the centre of Axbridge.
(6) Depart right down Moorland Street, which passes a school on the right and then the former police station (renamed Peelers Court). Pass the entrance to Bailiffs Close then turn left by Moorland Farm.
Pass Walnut Farm on your right then, when the track bends right, go through the gate straight ahead, heading towards the embankment of Cheddar Reservoir.
(7) Go through a gate on the left, crossing a drain, and head half-right across the field. A gate leads into woodland, then through a kissing gate into a reservoir access road.
Turn right and walk up the road to overlook the reservoir.
(8) Turn left and follow the reservoir perimeter, passing the yacht club, until you reach the intake tower. Leave the reservoir here, following the access road past a car park. After a set of metal gates, turn hard right into a narrow hedged lane that bends left past business premises, then curves right to run parallel to the reservoir embankment.
(9) The tarmac ends at a parking area, where you turn left, four circular walks from away from the reservoir, onto a rough track (Stubbington Drove). After a straight half-mile the track reaches the Cheddar Yeo, which you cross over a farm bridge.
(10) Follow a reedy ditch ahead to a gate at the end of a farm track, which you follow to a pumping station by the River Axe. Cross the river and follow the track through a farm out to a lane. Turn right past a couple of houses, then turn left at the entrance to Moorview Farmhouse.
(11) Keep right of the driveway into a field and climb half-left up to a stile by a gate in the top corner. A grassy track leads past a bench with views over the Levels, to a field gate. Turn right after the gate and descend into a shallow valley, passing through a couple of field gates.
(12) Cross a stile at the bottom then climb the field edge to the road above Ashlyn Farm. From this point on you are retracing your steps from the outward route. Follow the road ahead, climbing to a road junction.
(13) Turn right past Alston Farm, then at a corner turn left through a gate into a farm track, where you turn right. At the end of the track, go through a gate and follow the right-hand field edge to a metal gate. Keep on along the right-hand side of the next field to a stile in the corner. Emerge between gardens onto the road near the Wheatsheaf Inn. Turn left to return to Mount Pleasant Farm. (S/E)
