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MENDIP TIMES
Enjoy autumn colours around Stourhead
A BEAUTIFUL autumn or winter walk from King Alfred’s Tower down to Stourhead to enjoy the changing colours in the woodland and estate. Go from the tower down through woodland to the waterfall, grotto, temples and the Bristol Cross at Stourton and then go by the main house, past the sun obelisk and down into the open green valley of Six Wells Bottom. It’s a moderate circle with no steep hills – just two or three modest climbs and only two stiles. Walking is mainly good underfoot. In Stourton there is a great little snack outlet and the pub. You could also go up to the main cafe at the NT visitor centre (membership not needed). It’s not the first walk I have
With Sue Gearing PAGE 58 • MENDIP TIMES • NOVEMBER 2021
done from here but this is a variation and well worth doing. Expect Stourton to be very busy on a sunny day at the weekend during the autumn! PARK: At the NT Trust car park for the tower on Kingsettle Hill, East of Bruton, or park somewhere at the roadside between there and the tower. There are two lay-bys right by the tower. Cross the road onto the wide grassy swathe and turn right to the magnificent tower.
1. TOWER King Alfred's Tower, a 160 ft (49m) brick folly was designed by Henry Flitcroft in 1772 for Henry Hoare II in 1772. It is believed to mark the site where King Alfred the Great rallied his troops in 878. The tower commemorates the accession of George III to the throne in 1760 and the end of the Seven Years War. The tower is usually open on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, but check before you go. Go on past the tower, to the left of it, and straight on nearly to the end of the grass, soon joining a path going into the woodland. This is a quite small, windy path and there may be some mud in places.
2. WOODLAND It may not always be a very clear path, particularly if buried under autumn leaves, but just keep along it. The path bends left. Reach a crossing track and go left. You are now walking along near the edge of Kingsettle Hill with some views down through the trees. Ignore side turns. Reach a junction with a broad crossing
track and here go right only a few yards and then take the first right downhill. It bends round. Ignore a track joining from the left.
3. TRACK CROSSROADS Near the bottom arrive at a crossroads of tracks and turn left. Along here you are soon on the edge of the woodland with fields on the right. It drops down and then levels out, gradually going a little deeper into the woodland. At the next T-junction, turn right on a track, stony at first. At a fork, follow the yellow arrow straight on with open ground on the left. 4. GATE Reach a five bar gate with a stile alongside which takes you along a path, next to a fence into the open – a pleasant contrast with the woodland. Follow this and reach a point where a track joins from the left through a gate, but you just keep straight on along the yellow arrowed path. Woodland is now on your left and grassland estate on the right. Pass a cottage over left in this parkland on the Stourhead estate. 5. LAKE Soon reach a pretty inlet on the Stourhead Estate’s Garden Lake. Follow the main track on through a gate by a cattle grid. Pass a poem by Virgil exalting the open countryside. A large bank on your left supports the main lake and a smaller area of lake is on your right. Soon ahead on the right is a waterfall right and an old water wheel. An information board here is helpful. Carry on past the 19th century
