Quantock Hills

Quantock Hills National Landscape

The Quantocks are one of England’s great undiscovered landscapes – or rather, discovered only by those who know to look. They were England’s first designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, in 1956, and the designation feels earned every time you climb above the tree line and catch the view.

The hills cover 48 square miles, running between Taunton and Bridgwater and reaching all the way to the Somerset coastline, with steeply wooded combes, open heathland where wild ponies and red deer graze, and winding country lanes that lead to villages lined with centuries-old cottages.

Today the hills are home to over 800 red deer – the largest wild mammal in Britain – alongside Quantock ponies descended from Exmoor stock, which are a common sight on the open common land. If you’re up early enough, you stand a real chance of seeing them in the woodland above Aley.

Coleridge, Wordsworth & the Romantic movement

The Quantock Hills were once the playground and muse of some of Britain’s most celebrated Romantic poets – Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Dorothy Wordsworth all walked these hills in the late 18th century, finding in the valleys, heathland and hilltops the inspiration for some of their most enduring works. The Quantocks are now recognised as the birthplace of the English Romantic movement in literature.

For walkers, the Coleridge Way starts in Nether Stowey and winds 82km through the Quantocks toward Porlock on the Exmoor coast – but you don’t need to go far from the front door to find something worth the effort.