Over the Edge to Sedgemoor

1 Head back from the car park to turn right into the main street. Just after the post office a green arrow marks a high-walled path on the right. At its end turn left, in front of a trimmed yew hedge. Follow the right-hand edge of the field beyond, and cross a driveway to a stile under beech trees. The tall Pynsent Monument comes into sight ahead: a 140ft (42m) waymark for the next part of your walk. It was designed by 'Capability' Brown and commemorates an act of 18th-century political sleaze. Sir William Pynsent lobbied the Prime Minister, Pitt the Elder, on behalf of the cider industry. Pitt refrained from raising the duty on cider and in gratitude Pynsent left to Pitt in his will the Burton Pynsent estate. At the time this was a perfectly respectable proceeding, and Pitt raised the column to celebrate it.

2 Follow a fence on the left to a stile. Ignore another stile on the left, but keep ahead towards the monument. A final stile leads on to a lane. Turn right for 170yds (155m) to a gateway with stone pillars. Turn left into a field, and follow its edge round to the right to a stile and the Pynsent Monument with its sudden view ahead over West Sedgemoor.

3 Pass the monument into a dip, to find a stile at the right-hand end of a row of fir trees. A path leads down through a gloomy wood. At the bottom turn left, just inside the wood, for 275yds (251m) to a stile on the right. Cross open parkland, just to the left of a pond, to a distant gate. This leads back into Burton Wood.

4 Turn left, on a tarmac track that climbs out of the woods. Some 100yds (91m) later comes a stile on the right; bear left across the field corner, to a stile in the hedge on to the A378. Cross into Moortown Lane. This jinks right then left to pass an orchard. It then repeats the manoeuvre, jinking right then left to pass a second orchard. Here you may notice mistletoe in the apple branches. This parasitic plant feeds on the sap of other trees.

5 Straight after this orchard turn left through a gate. Cross the top edges of two fields, with a wide, flat view away to your right. A gate leads you on to a green track. Here grows a plant with the divided leaves of the elder, the berries of the elder, but clearly not the elder as it's herbaceous, dying back in winter, unlike a tree. It's the fairly uncommon Danewort. The track emerges on to Holden's Way. Turn left, uphill, ignoring a side road on the right. In another 220yds (201m) take a stile on the right, signed 'Williton'. Follow a field edge to a grey house with pink edges. Pass to its left, to a gap in a tall Cupressus hedge. An enclosed track leads out to the B3168.

6 Turn left along the pavement, then take the first left into Stony Lane. Opposite the turn-off is Old Father Time on a high wall above a letter box. After 200yds (183m) take a street on the right with an ivy-covered wall - it leads back to Curry Rivel's main street.