[1] Leave the car park on the path passing the information board. Cross the road and pick up the Cheddar Valley Railway path opposite. Follow this to the busy A38, cross with care, then continue on the route of the old railway, passing through Shute Shelve tunnel to eventually reach the old Winscombe station.
(A) Notice the timeline along the edge of the platform and the section of Brunel’s broad-gauge rail track, unearthed during restoration work. This railway path runs from Yatton to Cheddar. The line originally extended to Wells and opened in 1870. A variety of goods were carried, but it became so heavily used by the strawberry growers of the Cheddar area that the line became known as the ‘Strawberry Line’. The line finally closed, after years of decline, in 1963.
Continue past the enigmatic ‘Strawberry Special’ sculpture to where the path veers away from the trackbed, local residents having claimed the land as their own. A short distance further the path forks – take the higher path to the left adjacent to allotments, which comes out onto a lane with cemetery on the left.
[2] Turn right along the lane, go over the bridge and walk to the road. Cross to Shipham Lane and follow this for a half-mile as it winds around passing Uplands on the left, and shortly you will come to a stone stile and a way-marked footpath on the right. Climb the stone stile into pasture, then walk, keeping to the left boundary, to a stile on the left near the field corner. Climb this, go right and climb another by a gate, then follow the hedge on the left for the length of the field. At the far end, go over another stile and follow a narrow path, passing a house on the right, to a driveway that leads to a road (A38).
[3] Cross the road with care and walk ahead up the drive, soon becoming a track, then a driveway again as you reach a small group of dwellings with Winterhead House on the left. At the junction turn left and walk to a metal gate, then continue until you are on a narrow path. Now, look for a path forking up to the right and take this, going through a kissing gate. Follow the path to the far side of the field where you go through a wooden kissing gate, then on to a metal one that gives access to a residential road. Follow this to the main road, turn right and in a few yards, you reach the village green at Shipham. This makes a good mid-point break. Pass the Miners Arms on the right, and the Penscot Inn, a traditional coaching inn dating back from 1450, a little further along the road before the church.
[4] Your route from here lies along the main road, passing the church on the right. Keep to the pavement on the left until you pass beyond the raised section, then drop down to the road, cross with great care and double back to reach a stile with a ‘West Mendip Way’ marker on the left. Climb this and walk down the grass, boundary right, to a further stile.
[5] Beyond here, the path descends to the valley bottom where you cross a footbridge, and then climb steeply with the aid of steps, to regain the height you have just lost. At the top of the steps, carry straight on with the hedge on your right, to the field corner where you cross a stone stile. In the next field, walk straight across to another stile with farm track beyond. Go left here and follow the track to a junction.
[6] Turn right at the junction and walk to a metal gate and stile on the left, just past an electricity pole. Climb over and walk up the field keeping to the right boundary. Continue, passing a field gate, until you reach open ground at the top of the hill with a gate immediately ahead. Look for a stone stile a little to the right, climb this to reach an old drove-road.
[7] Once over the stile, turn left and walk along the drove until you route is barred by a series of gates. Negotiate these, then turn right and cross the stile, then walk along the track with the quarry on your left. The track becomes a surfaced driveway, and as it swings left you will find a way-mark sign on the left-hand fence, drop down to a path on the right, initially between a fence left and a wall on the right. Keep on this vague, downhill path, with wall right, until you come across a stone stile on the right.
[8] Cross the stile, and look for a path straight ahead, contouring the hillside(do not go downhill on crossing the stile). Follow the path through the coppice, eventually emerging to an open area where you have fine views over the Somerset Levels. Keep on the grassy, downhill path, ignoring a path joining from the left, beyond which, you reach a metal gate with a stile on the right. Climb the stile and turn left down the track beyond.
[9] Now go downhill, passing a gate, your route eventually levelling out and bearing right.
(B) The old Axbridge station can be seen from here, beyond the road, The 'down' platform and trackbed now forming the route of the Axbridge by-pass.
At a T-junction with the bypass beyond, go right uphill passing houses on the right to the end of the tarmac, where you cross a small parking area and go through a field gate into allotments. Walk straight ahead to a path on the right between allotments, and turn up this until you reach a gate at the top with a stile alongside. Cross, and walk left. The track ends at a gateway giving access to the road. Turn left and walk with care along the verge for a few yards, before crossing to the car park and your starting point.