Nunney and its Village, Castle and Combe

Visiting a stone-built village with a moated castle, once besieged in the Civil War, on this wander through woodland and pasture.

Distance 3 miles (4.8km)

Minimum time 1hr 15min

Ascent/gradient 100ft (30m)

Level of difficulty Easy

Paths Broad, riverside path, pasture, then leafy track, 8 stiles

Landscape Deeply wooded stream valley, breaking out into open pasture with wide views

Suggested map aqua3 OS Explorer 142 Shepton Mallet

Start/finish ST 736456

Dog friendliness Well-behaved dogs can run free in Nunney Combe and on final track

Parking Short-stay parking at Nunney Market Square; small lay-by at end of a public footpath 150yds (137m) up Castle Hill

Public toilets None on route

Write a review of this walk

Directions
Background
Information

1 From Nunney's Market Square cross the brook and at once turn right to Nunney Castle (entry is free). Having inspected the castle, return and pass to the right, across a footbridge, to the church. Some 80yds (73m) further on, where the street starts uphill, turn left into Donkey Lane.

2 Follow the lane past a high wall on the left, to a gate with a signpost. Keep ahead, leaving the track after 150yds (137m) for a small gate ahead into woods. A wide path leads downstream with the Nunney Brook on its left. After about ¾ mile (1.2km) a track runs across the valley.

3 Turn left, as a signpost suggests, to cross the brook; immediately turn right over a broken stile. Continue along the stream on a nettly, often muddy path. After 350yds (320m) the path climbs away from the stream to join a track above. Turn right on this, to cross the stream on a high-arched bridge. The track bends right, through a gate: before the next gate look out for an old grey gate on the left with a waymarking arrow.

4 Go up the right-hand side of a narrow field to a field gate (no stile). Continue uphill on the left-hand edge for just 50yds (46m), to a stile in the hedge. This stile, like those that follow, has a waymarker giving the direction across the next field. Turn half-right as the arrow indicates, to slant up to a hedge and follow it along the top of the field to a stile at the corner. As this is the crest of a broad ridge, there are now views ahead to the hills in the west.

5 Turn left around the field to a stile in the next corner. Once over this, turn half-right and go straight across the field to a visble stile at its furthest corner - this turns out to be a double stile. Once across, follow the left-hand edge of the long field ahead. At its corner cross a stile between two gateways and turn right. After 400yds (366m), and before the end of the field, watch out for a stile on the right.

6 This leads into a narrow track between over-arching hedges. It bends to the left and then the right, then descends to become a street leading into Nunney. This runs down to join Donkey Lane on the outward route, with the church just 300yds (274m) ahead.

The castle at Nunney is awkward to spot, huddled down among the houses, but once found it will not be forgotten. Built in 1373 by Sir John de la Mare, it's a superb structure with large corner towers and a proper moat all the way round. Sir John had fought with the Black Prince in France, and his gatehouse here included some of the very latest French fashions in construction. Through its ruined walls we catch glimpses of the swans and ducks in the moat and the rose-hung cottages of the village.

The nearby village church, which is attractive in its own right, has interesting effigies of the De la Mere family over two centuries. Such effigies are of particular interest to costume designers, who otherwise would have no idea of what Elizabethan outfits looked like from the back. This is important when you're making a film such as Shakespeare in Love - Gwyneth Paltrow can't always be facing the camera! Also worth a look is the font cover from 1684, which is an ornate cone of carved wood.

Although particular towns had particular loyalties during the Civil War (Wells for Royalist, Taunton for Parliamentarian), Somerset as a whole was not carried away into warfare. Indeed, a local, low-technology force of 'Clubmen' (the first bouncers?) was formed to discourage either side from entering the county. Armies brought inconvenience: 'such uncivil drinkers and thirsty souls that a barrel of good beer trembles at the sight of them, and the whole house nothing but a rendezvous of tobacco and spitting' wrote a Tolland farmer obliged to play host to the Parliamentarians in 1647. Still, Britain's civil wars must be considered civilised when compared with the Thirty Years' War which ravaged Germany around the same time, where the resulting famine and plague reduced the population of the countryside by a third.

Taunton was besieged twice, and Bridgwater once. Somerset saw one battle, at Langport. Part of the Royalist army under Lord Goring had arrived too late to get defeated at the Battle of Naseby: Fairfax and the New Model Army caught up with them at the fords of the Wagg Rhyne and defeated them there instead. After the battle, Colonel Prater, its owner, took refuge in Nunney Castle with eight Irishmen. The villagers must have been alarmed at the prospect of a siege taking place right among their houses. In the event the castle fell without much of a fight, although one cannonball lodged in the wall of the nearby church. Afterwards the Roundheads deliberately ruined the castle to prevent its being reoccupied. Somerset's sufferings were to come 40 years later, in the Monmouth Rebellion.

What to look for

Less than a century after the Civil War, Nunney had shrugged off its thrilling military history to become a prosperous village of clothiers and weavers. Look out for weavers' cottages with large windows to light the looms. Opposite the church is a riverside ramp: in the 18th century woollen cloth was washed and stretched here.

Where to eat and drink

The fairly smart George Hotel at Nunney has a restaurant and a beer garden (and also a poltergeist). It welcomes children but not dogs. The restaurant menu includes fresh fish from Padstow daily. The garden is believed to have been used for judicial executions and a ghostly woman has been heard wailing.

While you're there

Somerset has the stony soils of the best French wine-growing areas - but not, alas, the French sunshine. Whatley Vineyard and Herb Garden is near Nunney and on the route of Walk 34. You can wander round the vineyard and the walled herb garden. Wine-tastings are offered for large groups only.