Our verdict
Gordano's quiet upper storey. The valley's traffic hum fades as you climb, the flowers take over, and the fourteenth-century Black Horse — one of the best untouched pubs in the county — is waiting at the bottom. Small wood, complete outing.
Broadleaf woodland on the limestone slopes above Clapton-in-Gordano, part of the green rim that walls the Gordano valley — old hedgerows, spring flowers and glimpses across the moor-floored valley to the M5 far below.
Woodland Trust wood on the Gordano ridge, open at all times. Footpath access from the village.