England's first protected landscape, a heather ridge above deep wooded combes, with red deer and the sea close by
Somerset’s Quantocks were the first place in England to be given this kind of protection, back in 1957, and it’s easy to see why. A ridge of heather and whortleberry runs the length of them, cut by steep wooded valleys the locals call combes, with red deer moving through and buzzards overhead. Wills Neck is the highest point, an easy enough plod with a long view, and the range covers just 99 square kilometres so nothing is far from anything else.
Coleridge and the Wordsworths walked here, and you can still wander down through Shervage Wood or out along Beacon and Bicknoller Hills. The northern end drops towards the sea at the Blue Anchor to Lilstock Coast. Good boots and a map are all you really need; the ground is straightforward, but the tracks braid and it’s easy to lose your bearings in low cloud.
