Weston Super Mare - February 2026
| Weston Super Mare - February 2026 | |
| We had visited Weston Super Mare a few times already, but mainly to enjoy family dinners at Martin and Jacky's. Today we decided to go for a proper hike and explore Worlebury Hill. The steep climb onto the hill rewards you with views over Weston Super Mare. Well, there would have been views normally, but not so much on this hazy February day. | |
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| We parked Percy at the convenient Melrose Car Park. Handy to pay using the MiPermit parking application. Our walk took us past Marine Lake and Knightstone Island where we - believe it or not - were thinking of buying an apartment. Pros included newly renovated, exciting location, and proximity to Marine Lake for year-round swimming. Cons included Grade II listed flat and neighbours who probably wouldn't have liked to have Percy parked out front (he looks like a plumber's van, after all). | |
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| Next, we walked around the headland to Birnbeck Pier. Rob found some stairs to climb, as usual. | |
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| Birnbeck Pier was opened in 1867. First of its kind, and now an endless topic of conversation. The derelict structure will hopefully be renovated soon. On-again and off-again plans have been written about in the newspapers since we've moved here, so we are not hopeful. Notice how the Heritage Fund logo is a hand crossing its fingers. Very appropriate in this case. Seems like we all need some luck for this project to go ahead - finally. | |
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We took the route up through the Prince Consort Gardens. Information placards
emphasized the geology of the area with lots of limestone with fossils and then
interesting inserts of volcanic ash and lava. Admittedly we did not linger
to learn more. Onwards and upwards.
Upwards on the north side of Worlebury hill, a couple of zig-zags on the muddy paths and we found ourselves standing in the Hillfort dating back to the Iron Ages. Archeologists have found defensive ramparts, bits of pottery, storage pits, and human remains. |
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| What we could see where some earth mounds and piles of rocks... | |
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| What we wanted was a place to enjoy our picnic. In the end we landed on a tree stump. We had to fight our way through muddy paths and pull away bits of brambles to find a place to sit on our tarpaulin/picnic blanket. We made tea on our Trangia stove and ate our sandwiches. Later on, we found picnic tables at the Water Tower, but how boring is that? | |
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After lunch we found less muddy paths along the right of the hill.
Quite a few other people were out enjoying a walk in the area. We
found Worlebury Water Tower which was safely locked away between stone
walls and metal fences. Clearly the local youth can still get in there
as revealed by the selection of graffiti on the structures.
A plaque commemorated that Eisenhower camped here while preparing for D-Day in 1944. Apparently, they liked the proximity to the coast and the camouflage provided by the woodland. The officers could also stay nearby in hotels in the town. To boost morale, Eisenhower decided to stay in a caravan next to the water tower rather than in a comfortable hotel. |
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| We decided to head back to town down one of the many paths on the hill. The view could have been more exciting on a less hazy day, but we could still see Weston and also our favourite hiking spot at Brean Down in the distance. | |
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| We sent this selfie to the family asking if they could guess where we were. Jacky took the grand total of 4 minutes to give us the correct answer! | |
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| On our return to Percy at the car park, we walked past the Royal Crescent apartment building. At one point we were thinking about buying a flat here too. Pros included newly renovated, exciting location, and proximity to Marine Lake for year-round swimming. Cons included Grade II listed flat and neighbours who probably wouldn't have liked to have Percy parked out front (he looks like a plumber's van, after all). Sounds familiar.... :-) | |
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Feb 2026