Fact file...

Distance – 5½ miles. Time – At least 3 hours walking. Start – Hinton Charterhouse Post Office (GR 772582, postcode BA2 7SN). Map – OS Explorer 142 Mendip Hills East. Terrain – Some ascents. Contact - vilewalks on Facebook or email nigelvile@gmail.com Getting there: Hinton Charterhouse lies on the B3110 between Bath and Woolverton. Park at the southern end of the village near the Post Office and the Rose & Crown pub. With your back to the Post Office, follow the B3110 to the left through Hinton Charterhouse. Having passed the Stag Inn, turn left into Wellow Lane and, in a few paces, turn right down a cul de sac lane signposted as a bridlepath. In 350 yards, pass between a pair of properties to reach a gate. Follow the right edges of 3 fields before continuing along a woodland path, a stream on the left. In 150 yards by a ‘private fishing’ sign turn left and cross a bridge over the Wellow Brook into a field. Turn right and follow the right edge of this field to a gate before following a track uphill into Lower Twinhoe. Continue along a lane for 250 yards to a junction, turn left and, in 600 yards, at a junction with a ‘National Cyclepath 24’ sign, turn left. In 350 yards, on a right-hand bend, pass through a gate to enter a field, ignoring a slightly earlier footpath on the left. Follow the left edge of the field ahead and, in 250 yards, where the hedgerow bears left, keep ahead across the field in a direction pointed out by a marker post, all the time walking in the direction of Wellow. On the far side of the field, pass through a gateway and follow a path downhill through unimproved limestone grassland to a gate at the bottom of a bank. Keep ahead across the next field, on a course slightly to the right of Wellow Church, before passing through an area of scrub at the bottom of the field to a gate. Continue along a winding enclosed path to a gate, cross the paddock ahead before passing through a gateway on the left to follow a path alongside Wellow Church to reach the High Street. Turn right and follow the High Street along to the Fox & Badger pub. Immediately past the pub, turn left down a back lane to the course of the old Somerset & Dorset Railway marked by a signal box. Cross the former railway and follow the path to a packhorse bridge. Cross the Wellow Brook and in 150 yards keep left at a junction. In 100 yards, at the next junction, keep left. Follow a lane known as Norton Lane for 1½ miles to a handgate and a footpath. Follow this path up into Cleaves Wood and, at an early junction, turn left and continue uphill to a clearing. Turn right by this clearing and follow a track uphill to a gate. Follow the track – it reverts from green lane to farm track to footpath to road – back to the B3110 in Hinton Charterhouse with Post Office on left.