Tog Hill: Gateway to the Bristol Basin

Tog Hill marks one of the great viewpoint moments on the Cotswold Way. As the path crests the escarpment here, the land falls sharply away to reveal the Bristol and Bath basin — a wide, densely settled vale framed by the distant Mendip Hills to the south and the Forest of Dean to the north. On a clear day, the Clifton Suspension Bridge is visible to the west, and the towers of Bath Abbey can sometimes be identified to the south-east. The picnic site has been a stopping point for travellers since the era of the turnpike roads, when the old coaching route from London to Bristol passed close by along the A420.