[1] From the car park, go down the road towards St Michael's Church and at the road junction, turn left and walk down the hill, forking right by the letterbox into Hill Road.
Already, you have dramatic views north across the city and beyond.
[2] Where the tarmac ends, continue beyond two sets of metal barriers to reach a gate. Go the through gate and walk ahead with a hedge to your right. As you approach a road ahead, go through gate and climb over the bank onto the road. Cross the road and then follow the lane ahead to reach Broad Oak Hill where you go straight ahead along Middleway Lane.
[3] Pass through some metal gates and over a stile into a field, then go ahead to climb another. Now walk in the same direction with the hedge on the left, soon passing an Ordnance Survey trig point in the undergrowth. In the far corner of the field, descend left to climb a stile, then cross to another in the far hedge. In the next field, go ahead to corner of hedge, then walk ahead with the hedge on your right to reach a stile on the right.
[4] Climb over, and walk with the high hedge to your left almost to the top corner of the field, where you climb a stile on the left into a field. Continue with the hedge again on the left to reach a style giving access to a track.
[5] Cross the track and climb a stile on to Woodland Trust site (Mannings Wood), follow path ahead as it curves to the right. In a few yards arrive at a spring issuing forth from the hillside.
Here is the source of the Malago Brook. Stop awhile and read the inscriptions in the stonework (if not silted over).
(A) The Malago is a tributary of the Bristol Avon. The river's course has been much altered in the past and much of it has been culverted and diverted into storm drains as it flows beneath Bedminster into Bristol Docks.
Continue across the stream, climb the hill and walk with a plantation of young trees to your right and then a hedge. Keep on this path to a gate and stile where you turn right and follow the track, climbing 2 gates to reach a metal barrier by the lane.
[6] Turn left and follow the lane for a mile.
The monotony of the tarmac is relieved by fine views to the north and south, where Chew Valley Lake dominates.
You have been climbing gently along this lane and now, when you begin the descent, look right for a waymarked gate as the road bends right (just beyond a field entrance on the right).
[7] Go through and follow the path contouring the top edge of the field to another gate in the far top corner. Beyond, walk left with the woodland to the left, then bear right between the fields following the ramparts, soon veering left again and now following the right side of Maes Knoll, an Iron Age hill fort, from where you get a fine, if windswept, view.
(B) Maes Knoll covers over 20 acres and is thought to have been built around 250 BC by a local branch of the Celtic Dobbuni tribe, who were spread out over a wide area of north Somerset, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and the western parts of Oxfordshire. It was built for defensive purposes and consists of a fairly large flat open area, roughly triangular in shape, that has been fortified by ramparts and shaping of the steep sided hilltop around the northern, eastern and southwestern sides of the hill.
You will enter at the western end of the fort, made across a narrow neck of the ridge of high land, and consisting of a massive ditch and bank, known as ‘The Tump’, around 15 metres high from the ditch to the top. To the east from this fort can be made out sections of the western end of Wansdyke, which is usually thought to start, or terminate here at this fort. The views from here on a clear day are remarkable, north to Bristol, east to Bath and the Cotswold Hills, and south over Chew Lake and the Mendips.
[8] Walk the length of the fort, following the ridge to a gate. Go through and then as the ground ahead drops away, cross the field to a gate in the hedge on the left. Go through and follow path downhill to a wooden seat (which makes a good picnic spot with fine views over the valley). Go through the gate below the seat and follow path downhill with the field boundary on right to reach the road, where you cross over, go left, then immediately right to Norton Malreward.
[9] Continue through the village staying on the right side of the road. Pass Chalk Farm Close, then go through a kissing gate on the right, just before a sharp left bend, where there is a waymark for the Forest of Avon Community Forest Path. Walk to another kissing gate on the left by a path diversion, pass through and continue, following the waymarks beneath trees, to go through another gate.
[10] Keep on the waymarked path, keeping the fence to the right, around the field and through a field gate to enter Park Farm. Go straight ahead through another gate and into the farmyard. Waymarks direct you half-left, between the barns to reach a kissing gate. At the lane beyond, go left then immediately right. Follow lane and the take rough track left, then cross the road and go through a kissing gate.
[11] Follow waymarks and go through another kissing gate, after which go right following a well-defined path with a fence to the right. Cross a footbridge and continue onwards, to cross another bridge near the right corner of the field. Now go through a kissing gate and walk with the stream on the right to cross another short bridge with two gates.
[12] Look now for a footbridge on the right, go over, then in the meadow beyond follow a well-defined path half-left to a further gate and onward, through another to reach a lane. Walk left, keeping to the road as it bears right, and continue to Yewtree Farm on the right.
[13] Footpaths beyond the farm are cropped in summer and deeply ploughed in winter, and an absence of waymarks make for hard going, so continue the laborious climb up the road, eventually reaching a sharp right bend. A short distance further, pass through a kissing gate on the left, then cross to the gate opposite.
[14] Now continue to a stile ahead, and keep on this course, over a further stile to reach a road. Walk right for a short distance then cross to a stile up to the left, beyond which, walk with the hedge on your right to the top corner of the field to a gate.
[15] Now walk towards the telecom tower and climb the stile on the left of the compound. The following short path can get very overgrown, but soldier on between wire fences to a driveway. Cross the stile ahead to a meadow then walk left with hedge on the left, through an old wooden gate and further meadow. Continue on to a metal gate (maybe locked, climb over), then onward with hedge on your right.
[16] When you reach the field corner take the track between houses to a road, Winford Lane. Turn right, then left into Downs Road, which will lead you back to your starting point.