Cycling stops in Bristol

36 places · United Kingdom

Bristol is a city you leave by climbing. The ground rises the moment you cross the Avon, and within half an hour the roads are running over the Mendips toward Cheddar and the Somerset Levels, or north onto the Cotswold edge above the Severn.

In between sit the Chew Valley lakes, which is where most of the city's riding happens: quiet lanes, a reservoir on either side and a café at the far end.

Cafés

Salt & MaltCaféSalt & Malt sits on the shore of Chew Valley Lake, serving breakfast, lunch and a fish and chip menu from a dining room with a nautical theme.The PelicanCaféThe Pelican is a pub in the centre of Chew Magna, established in 1615 and reopened in 2024 under The Pony Group's Josh and Holly Eggleton.Warmley Waiting Room CaféCaféWarmley Waiting Room occupies the original waiting room of the former Warmley railway station, on the Bristol to Bath Railway Path.

Climbs, views & nature

Brandon HillPeak · 76 mBrandon Hill is Bristol's oldest public park, granted to the city in 1174 and opened to the public in 1625.Dundry HillPeak · 233 mDundry Hill is an oolite ridge nearly four miles long, topped by the tower of St Michael's church, built around 1482 and still used as a landmark across the …Leigh WoodsNature reserveLeigh Woods covers about two square kilometres of ancient woodland on the south-west side of the Avon Gorge, opposite Clifton Suspension Bridge, the largest …Mendip Hills National LandscapeProtected areaThe Mendip Hills National Landscape, formerly an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, covers 198 square kilometres of Carboniferous limestone rising sharply f…Swildon's Hole CavernCaveSwildon's Hole is the longest cave on the Mendip Hills, running over 9,000 metres through crawlways, chambers and active streamways.The Clifton ObservatoryObservation tower · BristolClifton Observatory started as a windmill in 1766, later ground snuff, then burned out after a gale set its sails alight in 1777.

History & landmarks

Aerospace BristolMuseum · BristolAerospace museum with the final Concorde ever built.Ashton Court Mansion HouseManor · BristolAshton Court's manor house dates back to the 11th century and appears in the Domesday Book; the current building took shape in the 1630s, when Thomas Smyth a…Blaise HamletMuseumBlaise Hamlet is a group of nine thatched cottages John Nash designed in 1810-11 for retired staff of the Blaise Castle Estate.Blaise Museum - Kingsweston Roman VillaArchaeological siteThis late-third-century Roman villa was uncovered in 1947 when workers building the Lawrence Weston estate cut through its walls, and excavation ran until 1950.Bristol CastleArchaeological siteBristol Castle stood here from the 11th century, first a motte-and-bailey castle recorded in 1088, then rebuilt in stone with a keep and new walls in the 12t…Bristol CathedralCathedral · BristolBristol Cathedral began as an Augustinian abbey founded around 1140 by Robert Fitzharding, consecrated in 1148.Bristol Zoo ProjectZoo · BristolBristol Zoo Project, at Cribbs Causeway, is the successor to Bristol Zoo Gardens, whose Clifton site closed in 2022 after 185 years.Cadbury CampArchaeological siteCadbury Camp is an Iron Age hill fort in Somerset, England, near the village of Tickenham.Cheddar Gorge & CavesAttraction · CheddarEngland's largest gorge, over 130 metres deep and three miles long, cuts through the Mendip Hills here.Church of St JamesChurchSt James' Church at Cameley dates from the late 12th century, with a 15th-century tower and a porch added in 1620.Clevedon CourtManorManor house with 14th-century great hall and chapel block on Court Hill in Clevedon.Clifton Suspension BridgeAttractionClifton Suspension Bridge spans the Avon Gorge over 300 feet above the river, designed by a 24-year-old Isambard Kingdom Brunel after he won an 1831 competit…Cox's Cave and The Crystal QuestAttractionCox's Cave was found by mill owner George Cox in 1837 while quarrying limestone, and opened as a show cave the following year.Gough's CaveAttractionGough's Cave has been dissolving out of Cheddar Gorge's limestone for half a million years.Kings Weston HouseManor · BristolKings Weston House is an English Baroque manor built between 1712 and 1719 by Sir John Vanbrugh, architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, on the site …Leigh CourtManorLeigh Court is a Greek Revival mansion Thomas Hopper built in 1814 for Bristol merchant Philip John Miles, on the site of an Elizabethan house whose owner sh…Maes KnollArchaeological siteIron Age hill fort with a prominent earthwork rampart on Dundry Down ridge.Priddy CirclesArchaeological sitePriddy Circles are four Neolithic earthwork enclosures set in a line across the Mendip plateau, each nearly 200 metres across and spread over about 1.2 kilom…Royal York CrescentAttractionRoyal York Crescent is a Georgian terrace above Clifton, built between 1791 and 1820 after money troubles from the war with France stalled the work for years.Saint Mary-le-Port ChurchRuinsSaint Mary-le-Port's origins trace to the late Saxon or early Norman era, near Bristol's original quayside on the Avon before the harbour moved to the Frome.Site of Nailsea GlassworksMonumentSt Peter's ChurchRuinsSt Peter's Church dates to 1106, one of Bristol's oldest churches, with a Norman tower base and a 15th-century nave.St Thomas a Beckets ChurchPlace of worshipSt Thomas à Becket Church in Pensford dates from the 14th century, with only its tower surviving from a building recorded active in 1341; the rest was rebuil…St. Mary the VirginChurch · BristolSt Mary the Virgin's site may have held a church since a Christian grant to the Bishop of Worcester around AD 691.Stanton Drew Circles And CoveArchaeological siteStanton Drew holds England's third-largest complex of prehistoric standing stones, far less visited than Stonehenge or Avebury.Sutton CourtManor · BristolSutton Court began in 1310 as a fortified manor house, its peel-like tower and castellated wall dating from that build.Tyntesfield HouseManorCountry house with Victorian Gothic Revival architecture and a 19th-century chapel.
HISTORY
Blaise Hamlet
Andy Dingley, CC BY-SA 3.0
Blaise Hamlet
Myself (Adrian Pingstone)., Public domain· Wikimedia Commons
Blaise Hamlet
Andy Dingley, CC BY-SA 3.0
Blaise Hamlet
Myself (Adrian Pingstone)., Public domain· Wikimedia Commons
Blaise Hamlet
C P Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0· Wikimedia Commons
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Blaise Hamlet

Bristol

Blaise Hamlet is a group of nine thatched cottages John Nash designed in 1810-11 for retired staff of the Blaise Castle Estate. No two cottages are alike; they circle a green centred on a combined sundial and water pump, and some carry dovecotes in their gables. The National Trust has owned the hamlet since 1943, and because people still live there, only the exteriors can be viewed.

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From riders

nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/bath-bristol/blaise-hamlet

From Wikipedia

Blaise Hamlet is a group of nine small cottages around a green in Henbury, now a district in the north of Bristol, England. All the cottages, and the sundial on the green, are Grade I listed buildings. Along with Blaise Castle, the hamlet is listed, Grade II*, on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England. Nikolaus Pevsner described Blaise Hamlet as "the ne plus ultra of picturesque layout and design". Blaise Hamlet was built around 1811 for retired employees of Quaker banker and philanthropist John Scandrett Harford, who owned Blaise Castle House. The hamlet was designed by John Nash, master of the Picturesque style, who had worked for Harford on other buildings. The hamlet is the first fully realised exemplar of the garden suburb and laid a pattern for virtually all garden suburbs that followed. The cottages are each unique and have brick chimneys and dormer windows, with some having thatched roofs. They are examples of the Picturesque style, an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin. An oval path links the cottages and encircles the village green, where there is a sundial. The cottage gardens are planted...

Checked 13 August 2026

Story draws on Wikipedia material, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited per image · Coordinates © OpenStreetMap contributors · Wikidata · Spot a mistake? The open-data way to fix it: edit OpenStreetMap.

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Photo: Andy Dingley, CC BY-SA 3.0 · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Sources: OpenStreetMap