Blagdon

Blagdon is a village on the northern edge of the Mendip Hills, overlooking Blagdon Lake. The western end of the Mendip Hills has been an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty since 1972, renamed the Mendip Hills National Landscape in November 2023. The village is 12 miles south west of Bristol, and at the 2021 census it had a population of 1,184. St Andrew’s Church has a 116-foot tower with pinnacles.

The lake is the reason many people come. Blagdon Lake covers 440 acres and lies in a valley at the northern edge of the Mendip Hills. Bristol Water built it, with construction starting in 1898 and finishing in 1905. It opened as a trout fishery in 1904, and it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest of 212.7 hectares, designated in 1971. It is only 42 feet deep at its deepest point near the dam at the west end.

The surrounding hills give a different kind of day out. Beacon Batch on Black Down is the highest point of the Mendips at 325 metres, and the range as a whole is about 30 km long and 10 km wide, so there is more walking here than a weekend covers. The Congresbury Yeo, which feeds the lake, rises at Compton Martin and flows past the village of Ubley. The North Somerset Show moves to a new site at Kingdown, near Redhill, for the early May bank holiday, provisionally Monday 3 May 2027, with livestock, horses, rural crafts and food.

Blagdon Lake is run as a trout fishery, so check access and fishing arrangements with the operator before you plan a visit.