(S/E) From the Old Manor House entrance, turn right and right again along the A38 in the Bristol direction, along the right-hand pavement. After a quarter of a mile, cross the entrance to Wavering Down Rise.
(1) Just beyond a bus stop, turn right onto the Strawberry Line and follow it for a quarter of a mile, with views over the Levels, until you meet another road. Cross into the car park opposite and walk to the end where, beyond some boulders, a narrow path drops into the trees on your right descending past a shallow rock shelter to the road.
(2) Turn left and walk down to a junction. Turn left to a crossing point at the end of a railing, cross over both roads to a bus stop, then turn left. Follow West Street past Compton House and then between pastel-painted cottages and past Axbridge Methodist Church to the dramatic King John’s Hunting Lodge and the Square in the centre of Axbridge.
(3) Having explored the town and visited the church, leave via Moorland Street, passing the Almshouse Tea Shop. Pass a school on the right and then the former police station (renamed Peelers Court). Beyond the entrance to Bailiffs Close, turn left by Moorland Farm.
Pass Walnut Farm on your right then, when the track bends right, go through the gate straight ahead, heading initially towards the embankment of Cheddar Reservoir.
(4) Shortly, go through a gate on the left, crossing a drain, and head half-right across the field, close to the right-hand edge. A metal gate leads into a strip of woodland, then through a kissing gate into a reservoir access road. Turn right and walk up the road to overlook the reservoir.
(5) 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 on your right. After a set of metal gates, turn hard right into a narrow hedged lane that bends left past the entrance to business premises, then curves right to run parallel to and below the reservoir embankment.
(6) The tarmac ends at a parking area, where you turn left, 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.
(7) Turn right and follow the drain to a gate, continuing beyond it past a pipeline bridge. After a double gate, cross the Yeo via a footbridge and turn left, now with the drain on your left. Beyond a derelict brick building, turn left over a concrete bridge to return to the left-hand bank of the Yeo.
Turn right through a metal kissing gate and follow the river to another kissing gate into a farm drive, where you cross the river again. Bear left and walk out to the road past Yeo Bridge Farm and its mobile homes.
(8) Cross the main road carefully and follow the track opposite, still alongside the Yeo. At Bow Bridge, turn right and walk along the road into Cross.
(9) Turn right at the T-junction along the Old Coach Road and walk back through the village, passing the White Hart and New Inn en route back to the Old Manor House. (S/E)
