I have booked a place in Nether Stowey over Easter. According to the map it looks like there is a Bridleway to get onto the hills just up the road. Is it just a case of following your nose, i thought maybe a loop to Holford to hunt for cake and a back again might be good – any pointers – any particular bog fests to avoid? Is it drying out a bit yet?

bump

should be drying rapidly. anything with combe in the name tends to be good. A single ridgeline runs the length of the hills, drop into a combe, winch back out, ride along a bit repeat.

stert combe & weacombe are good, smiths combe gets raved about but its not my favorite.

Love the Quamttocks. Got a mate lives there so ridden several times now. As above, follow the ridge, drop down a coombe, ride up again, repeat. Recommended by me? Up Ashley Combe, down Ladys & Holford Combe, up Sheppards Combe, down Weacombe, up Bicknoller, back south along the ridge and then take your pick of drops from Triscombe down to your start point.

brilliant, thanks chaps.

Just got back from my afternoon ride the trails have dried out nicely since last week and are just about perfect, a few more days like this and they’ll start getting dusty.
I’d just follow the road from Stowey up to the top (Dead Womans Ditch) the road climb will be bad enough, any bridleway climb from Stowey is sure to be most unpleasant.
From Dead Womans Ditch car park the stuff to the North (towards the sea) tends to be more flowing/longer, and the stuff to the South over at Triscombe is more shortish/sharp/steep.

Try and find Somerton Combe, on of my favorites, and as Jambo says Smiths is good but it dumps you in the middle of nowhere with the choice of one of two brutal climbs or a few miles on the A39 to get back to some decent riding.

But what about the cake???

Unfortunately there’s no longer a teashop in Holford, so you’d have to make do with an expensive Afternoon Tea at Combe House Hotel or a Cream Tea at The Plough Inn.

So best try elsewhere for proper cake 🙁

So we did a ride. It’s ace. Found bin combe which I thought was sublime. Got up to Bicknoller post. Found the dead women’s ditch. Got over to Holford. Ignored the expensive looking fancy pants hotel as we filled up the packs with cake from a shop in Stowey. Need to come back soon and ride some more. You really are lucky to have so much quality riding stuffed into a smallish area.

😉 shhhh don’t tell everyone or they’ll all want to come and play 😉