When you hike the English countryside, history is never far beneath your feet.
Walking in England is like stepping back through time. Historic (and prehistoric) monuments are dotted throughout the landscape – what may just look like a lump in the ground, could be a Bronze Age long barrow. Or a hill dominating the landscape could hold the remains of an Iron Age hillfort.
In a tucked-away corner of Somerset, one such hill towers over the Somerset Levels. In addition to being the site of a hillfort occupied from the Bronze Age to Medieval Times, this particular hill is also shrouded in Arthurian legend. According to local legend, the hill was the site of King Arthur’s Camelot – a tradition that was first recorded in the 1500s during the reign of Henry VIII. In fact, local tradition holds that Arthur and his knights still lie sleeping in a hollow beneath the hill and that on every Midsummer’s eve they ride out through a hole in the hill to drink the water from a spring in a nearby village.
While tales of Arthur and Camelot are firmly shrouded in myth and legend, archeologists have found concrete evidence of Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, Saxon and Medieval occupation. The ramparts still visible today tell their own story of power struggles through the ages.
Historic monuments like this are dotted throughout the landscape of South West England. Wherever you walk, it feels like you are stepping through history – past ancient longbarrows, Roman villas, Saxon hilltop towns, Norman churches and villages dating back to the Domesday Book.
While we can’t guarantee that you’ll run into King Arthur and his knights on one of our trails, we can be sure that you’ll experience peaceful trails and beautiful countryside, far from the well-trodden tourist trails.
This trail is part of our King Arthur’s Trail trip through the wonderfully rural landscape of Somerset. To find out more, visit our trip page or send us an email. We’d love to hear from you.
