Brassknocker Hill and Kennet and Avon Canal
Walk 1 - by Monkton Combe W.I.
print version of instructions
print version of map
Distance: 3½ miles
Time: about 1½ hours
Start: By the Wheelwrights Arms in Monkton Combe
Parking: In village car park opposite the church (GR
773620)
Maps: OS Explorer 155 Landranger 172
From the Wheelwrights Arms, turn east and follow the main
road with school buildings on the right. Turn left up Shaft
Road with playing fields below you on your right, but as the
road turns sharp left, go straight ahead up the driveway to
reach stile into a large field. Take the path running
diagonally uphill, through a gate in a fence and up to a
kissing-gate in the top left-hand corner of the second field.
(the wood to your left belongs to the Combe Grove Hotel and
Country Club).
Cross a small stream and walk up to the main road
(Brassknocker Hill) and turn left uphill past the houses to
the public footpath on the right. Cross the road carefully,
and follow this path behind the houses to a stile into a
field. Turn left downhill with the fence on your left, to
another stile and steeply down to a kissing-gate leading on to
the A36. From this last field you get good aerial views of the
Dundas Aqueduct.
Cross the main road with extreme care and bear right to
public footpath at the end of the lay-by. Follow this stepped
path down to the Kennet and Avon Canal. The towpath to the
left goes to Bathampton and Bath, but you go straight ahead
over the lifting bridge crossing the entrance to the Somerset
Coal Canal. (Part of this canal now serves as boat moorings
and you can read its history on the display boards). Walk on
over the Dundas Aqueduct (built by John Rennie - foundation
stone laid in 1797) and along the towpath for about ¾ mile
with hanging woods of oak and beech on your left (fine colours
in the Autumn reflected in the water) and the River Avon below
you on your right. Ducks, moorhens and the occasional
kingfisher can be seen on the canal. Beware of cyclists
approaching silently behind you!
At the first road bridge, leave the canal and turn right
down the road, cross the river bridge, under the railway and
turn left into Lower Limpley Stoke. At the Hop Pole Inn turn
right up a steep lane, keeping right at the fork ("No Entry
for Vehicles": the left-hand fork is slightly longer and less
steep). Right at the T-junction takes you back to the A36 by
the Rose and Crown pub, cross carefully to the public footpath
opposite. Follow this path behind a house and above the road
for about half a mile. The path enters a wood and bears
downhill to the right - it is quite steep and slippery,
towards the end a stick might be helpful. A stile brings you
out into a field from where you can see Monkton Combe and
Brassknocker Hill across the valley.
Cross the field downhill to a stile and take the lower lane
to your left past Waterhouse and the path between some houses
and the Midford Brook to a wooden bridge. Cross the bridge,
follow the path between two fields (often overgrown) and cross
the mill leat by the Morris Minor Centre (this has now closed)
which occupies part of the Old Mill. turn left up the hill and
follow Mill Lane, passing the village
Lock-up
on your right, and back to the Wheelwrights Arms. |
