About half a mile further down the road on the ridge to the left you will see a narrow strip of woodland called Icehouse Copse in which there is the remains of an old icehouse which would have been used by Shapwick Manor and probably Shapwick House/Monastery a long while ago before the advent of refrigerators. As you come over the Nidon Ridge you pass Moorgate Farm buildings on the left and ahead of you are the flat wetlands of the Somerset Levels.

These were once covered by brackish waters constantly being flooded by either the sea or the river Brue. In winter they would be almost impassable and in summer the sedge grass, which now forms the basis of the 6 to 10 foot deposit of peat would grow tall. Below the peat and on the clay floor are prehistoric trackways running from Shapwick to the clay islands of Westhay and Meare on which the farms and dwelling places were built.

The most famous of these 'roads' runs to the right parallel to the road you are now walking and is called the Sweet Track, after the man who discovered it and is the oldest 'road' in Europe dating back to 5000BC. Unless you are very fortunate you will not be able to see this wooden trackway because it lies 6-10 feet below the peat surface preserved by the wet conditions, and is only occasionally excavated by Exeter and Cambridge Universities for archaeological purposes. Further down the road at the Garden Centre you will be able to see photographs and reconstructions of this and other trackways in the small Levels Museum.

Pass the redundant small peat works on the right and carry on further towards Shapwick Heath Nature Reserve just ahead of you. This is one of the protected wetland areas and contains typical woodland insectivorous plants and a wide range of unusual animal and insect life. When you reach the track on the left, marked by a footpath sign, turn along it towards Canada Farm. This track goes through part of the Shapwick Nature Reserve. Here you enter a different world of ferns and alder trees. Continue past Canada Farm for a distance about equivalent to that which you have already walked from the road and until you reach a left hand bend in the mown green trackway which you are following.

Turn left and head straight on. You may be able to see the ruins of Brickyard Farm in about half a mile on the right if the luxuriant growth is not too dense. Continue along the mown green trackway through the gate and carry on ignoring any cross roads. Beware of falling down rabbit holes and twisting your ankle! Look out for leather scrap which has been used to give some substance to an otherwise unstable peat surface.

Continue into the open on the track and look left across the very flat levels at Glastonbury Tor. Carry on straight ahead across the concrete bridge over a typical Somerset rhyne (drainage ditch) heading on towards the Nidon Ridge. Notice the Hawk & Owl Trust Nature Reserve on your left before you rise up over the Nidon Ridge. As you come over the ridge you can see Kent Farm ahead of you. Pass Kent Farm barns on your left and continue up until you meet a T junction with another track.

Turn left and head back on Kent Lane to Shapwick village noticing Shapwick House (now a hotel) built on the site of an old monastery. At the junction of Timber Yard and Bridewell Lane go straight on down Bridewell Lane (the site of the old spa well) keeping the thatched cottage on your right (this was the old vicarage). Look at the old manor house and dovecot to the left and the rear of St Mary's Church to the right as you proceed further along the lane. Turn right at the junction with Station Road to return to the cross roads.