A New Year's Resolution

HAPPY 2011!!!

Brent Knoll

New Year's Resolution? Proposed by DD#3's boyfriend - that we walk a hill every Sunday afternoon during 2011 and accepted by all of us! You read it here, so you will be able to see if we kept to this!


Yesterday we went for a walk that we have been promising ourselves we would do for more than 5 years! Not far from the motorway, is a hill called Brent Knoll. It appears to stick up in the middle of nowhere. It is 449ft high. It was known by the Romans as the Mount of Frogs. Knoll means 'a smooth mound'. The top of the hill has an indentation and I remember asking Steve, if he thought it could have been some sort of fort at some time. Having read up on the history, it seems that both Bronze Age and people of the Iron Age used it for its advantage of hight. There is a ridge around the edge of the summit and slight mounds towards the centre. Roman coins were found there, in an urn, in 1610.


The light changed as we were there mid afternoon. As the sun lowered the views became dimmer. I would like to go again as spring comes along, as I am sure the views in sunlight must be stunning! You can see across the Bristol Channel to Wales, Exmoor, the Mendips, the Poldens and the Quantock Hills.






Brent Knoll was used for Queen Victoria's Jubliees and all other jubilees since

Glatonbury Tor, about 20 miles from the Knoll

The motorway, with traffic nose to tail. A constant humming sound, from the summit of the Knoll, about the only sound to break the silence!

Crook Peak from Brent Knoll

The distant light houses at Burnham. The nearest one is built on the side of a house and is several yards from the water. It is now surrounded by other buildings and the sea is not visible when viewed from inland. Burnham has a total of three lighthouses, the two in the picture and a light on the church tower.

Crook Peak

Today, because it was New Year Bank Holiday Monday, we took another trip to the hills, this time in snow! This is the hill we saw yesterday. It was a very steep climb at the start, but worth it when we reached the top! We left the car at the bottom in slight drizzle, but as we reached the top it became obvious that it had been snowing for a while at the higher altitude and was still doing so. 

Crook Peak dusted with snow

Looking towards Cheddar

Crook Peak is a limestone mound and is 628ft high.

 Coming down, we found an easier, less slippery path to follow. We came across a cave, on further investigation online, I discovered that this cave was not found until 1994. There are numerous (although we didn't see any!) ochre pits nearby, as ochre was mined here as late as the 1920's.

Watch this space and see where we end up next weekend!