Walks from the door — Ham Hill and the Liberty Trail

Crewkerne sits in a dip with hills on most sides and footpaths leading out in every direction. These are the walks guests come back and tell us about.

The Liberty Trail

The Liberty Trail is a waymarked route of about 28 miles running between Ham Hill in Somerset and Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast. It follows the way taken in 1685 by men from the villages along it, who walked south to join the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion. It is normally broken into six stages of four to six miles.

The useful thing for anyone staying here is that the trail comes through Misterton, just below the town, about a mile and a half from our front door. You can join it on foot, walk a stage, and get a taxi back rather than committing to the whole thing. The section south towards Wayford is roughly four miles and gives you a fair idea of the country. People who walk the full trail generally give it three days.

Ham Hill

Ham Hill is around a quarter of an hour’s drive north of us. It is a country park looked after by Somerset Council, laid over one of the largest Iron Age hillforts in Britain: about 210 acres of ramparts, wildflower meadow, scrub and old quarry faces, with views out over the Somerset Levels towards the Mendips and Exmoor.

The quarries are worth understanding before you go. The honey-coloured stone that built Montacute House, St Bartholomew’s church here in Crewkerne and most of the older walls in this town came off that hill, and the pits and spoil heaps are still obvious underfoot. There is a visitor centre with a café and a ranger’s office, a surfaced accessible path as well as plenty of rough ground, and the Prince of Wales sits right up on the hill if you want a pint at the end of it. Dogs are welcome across the park, with the usual asks about livestock and nesting birds.

Hinton St George

Under four miles from here, and a good one if you have had enough of hills. Hinton St George is a single long street of hamstone cottages, and the Lord Poulett Arms at the end of it is thatched, dates from around 1680 and has a boules piste in the garden. Walk out, eat there, taxi back.

Coming back

We are a pub before we are anything else, so muddy boots and a dog in the bar are normal here. Sunday lunch runs from midday, which is a sensible way to finish a morning on the hill, and if you have taken a room you do not have to drive anywhere afterwards.