Our verdict
One of the prettiest half-hours in north Somerset, and everybody knows it — the tiny car park fills by mid-morning on a sunny weekend. Come early, do the woodland loop above the pool, and it still feels like a secret.
A dark, tree-ringed pool built by the monks of St Augustine's Abbey, now a nature reserve wrapped in beech and oak woodland just outside Abbots Leigh. Paths climb from the water through the woods to a viewpoint over the Avon.
Local nature reserve around a medieval monastic fishpond. Dogs on leads near the water — it's a wildlife pond, not a swimming pool, however it looks in summer.