Coombe Bissett Down Nature Reserve – W16

Distance: 2.8 miles (1.5 km) Terrain: Grass and Tracks

Details

It is worth a visit at any time of year for its sweeping views, swooping curves, and steep slopes patterned by medieval terraces. These features, called strip lynchets, were deliberately cut into the slopes to create arable fields for farming.

Walk the slopes in the summer months and you will see they are ablaze with flowers and butterflies – from the cowslips in April, through to September when they are a purple haze of devil’s-bit scabious. The peak of flower power is late May and early June.