We're back in Banwell, Somerset

We stayed at Cottage Farm, a pretty Caravan Club CL in

Limestone Link sign 

Banwell, Somerset, for one night last year and have returned here now for several nights as it is a lovely spot in its own right, but also handy for popping up to Bristol. It's possible that we might not be able to stay here again in the future though. Due to retirement, the Stimsons are selling up and moving on. So if any readers are interested in buying a CL campsite with house, workshops and a seven acre smallholding in North Somerset, the details are on estate agent's David James' website!

We didn't get much chance to explore locally last year so have already rectified that with a nine mile walk on Friday. Dave plotted the route by tracing footpaths on our Ordnance Survey map and printed out the relevant section. Isn't technology wonderful! We parked up in a small layby just past Banwell Garden Centre on the A371 which was handy for a footpath heading across fields towards Winscombe and Sandford cemetery. There seemed to be more little signs indicating the Butcombe Brewery Mendip Pub Trail than any other route, but we never actually saw a pub!

After strolling through Sandford, we kept heading East on a

Wild garlic carpet 

woodlandy footpath towards the ski centre and beyond towards Dinghurst. Much of the walk was through woodland of one kind or another. It varied from being cool against the mugginess of the day to be very close and stuffy, and did mean that we didn't get much in the way of long views. We did love seeing and smelling wild garlic flowers everywhere. Torbay area might be distinguished by blue bells at this time of year. North Somerset is carpeted with wild garlic. Our walk was a sort-of figure of eight with the second loop being on part of the Limestone Link route around Dolebury Warren. This 36 mile route joins the limestone of the Cotswolds to that of the Mendip Hills. We followed it for about forty minutes below Dolebury Warren before turning almost back on ourselves and climbing to return back above Dolebury. This ancient site is looked after by the National Trust and Avon Wildlife Trust and one of the highlights for us was walling across the hill and ditch remains of an Iron Age fort. It was apparently built about 500BC and, although it is not as extensive or well delineated as Maiden Castle, it still felt pretty amazing to be there.

After a complete loop of Dolebury Warren, our return

Lime kilns at Sandford Award Land 

footpath took us to Sandford Batch around the other side of Lyncombe Hill to our outward journey. It turns out that Sandford has quite a history too. In 1799, an Act of Parliament awarded land with a quarry to the Ecclesiastical Parish of Winscombe which provided stone to build and repair public roads and properties. The quarry area is now preserved as Sandford Award Land and includes these late eighteenth century Lime Kilns (like the one at Dornafield), remains of an 1860s forge furnace and the old railway track route. We were both pretty exhausted by the time we reached this point so didn't spend as much time exploring as we could have done. The area boasts a great network of footpaths though so we could easily make it a starting location for future walks. Instead, this time, we headed back to the layby and our car, pausing only in the middle of a field to unfurl our waterproofs as a sudden heavy shower tried to drench us!

We visit the largest Iron Age hill fort in Britain and see a crop circle

Puddletown is our base for the next ten days and we are now pitched up

on the Caravan Club CL campsite of South Admiston, having arrived on Monday afternoon. It's a working cattle farm which was originally built in 1845 as part of the estate of Athelhampton. The small grass field is somewhat the worse for wear due to the rain and we did turn up during a shower. Actually we had rain pretty much all the way from Huntisbeare and even fog for part of the journey. Drivers were still zooming past with no lights on even with visibility down to practically nothing. South Admiston has just electric hook-up, water and waste, and is £12 a night or £14 if we decide to put our awning up. We have been issued with a huge folder of leaflets and booklets advertising Dorset attractions so have our fingers crossed for nice weather to see as much as we can at its best.

After a late lunch of slow-baked wholemeal bread, jam and cheese (have

Path through earthworks to the western entrance 

you all tried out the bread recipe yet?!), we decided to make the most of a break in the weather. Our first choice of the Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum turned out to be closed on Mondays so we set out for the largest Iron Age hill fort in Britain instead. Maiden Castle is believed to have been first laid out around 600BC and was built over an existing Neolithic settlement that was in use some 6000 years ago. English Heritage maintain Maiden Castle so there are several helpful information plaques about although one had been 'vandalised' and we spotted the culprits in the process of damaging another - the signs' lower corners are just the right height for sheep to scratch their backs under! The site and its car park are free to enter and we spotted a couple of sturdy bicycle hoops too which is great as National Cycle Network routes run close by.

Apparently the size of fifty football pitches, Maiden Castle has an awe-

Roman temple remains 

inspiring series of ditches and ramparts surrounding its central plateau. Some ditches are over six metres deep. The defences were added to over several centuries with the western entrance in particular becoming positively baffling! Pathways are mown to show where Iron Age inhabitants would have walked and the aforementioned sheep are responsible for grass cutting on the rest of the site. We found the remains of a small Roman temple which is believed to have been dedicated to the goddess Minerva. Romans took over Maiden Castle during their great invasion in AD43 (my recent read Skin by Ilka Tampke describes life in Celtic Britain immediately before this period) but we were told that the temple wasn't built until some two hundred years later. This was long after the hill fort had been abandoned which I found very bizarre.

Ditches and ramparts at Maiden Castle 

There are long views in all directions from Maiden Castle so it was easy to imagine why the site was chosen. Archaeological excavations in the past uncovered thousands of slingshot pebbles transported there from Chesil Beach, and the discovery of a mass grave led to speculation about the circumstances of the burials. We were intrigued by small steel circles inset into the earth over wooden bases. Dave wondered whether they were some form of erosion markers? We also spotted a kestrel hovering and diving, although it didn't seem to catch its prey, and I was delighted to see a crop circle - or where one used to be anyway. Are they still called crop circles when the crop has been harvested?

Crop circle below Maiden Castle