Mendip Disc Golf Course, near Cheddar, North Somerset, England

We made our plan for July 2020 to do a circuit of 3 disc golf courses using our motorhome(RV) as our base, and booked onto 3 campsites. In this segment I will talk about each course under a different blog heading, along with details of the campsite we used.

Mendip Disc Golf Course can be found within a 250 acre site owned by the Mendip Activity Centre, which affords activities such as skiing, snowboarding and tobogganing to name a few. This is a pay to play course, designed by Matt Cutler. At the time of writing the cost is £5 for one person £8 for two. Play for up to 2 hours, but they didn't seem to enforce that. You can also rent discs here.

There is ample parking, toilets (restrooms), showers, baby change facilities, lockers and a cafe where you can buy food and drinks.

We didn't see a welcome sign for the Disc Golf Course but you can get a score card at the Activity Centre Reception which has a map of the course on it. You could use UDisc as well as the course is mapped on there. This is one of the courses that is home to the Yeti Disc Golf Club. 

There is an 18 holes (Green) beginners course (Par 54, 2272ft) which is a short fun course for families and groups, a 10 Holes (Blue) Intermediate course (Par 30, 2075ft) and a 10 Holes (Red) Advanced course (Par 31, 3308ft). The Tee boxes are signed and are made of either, gravel, dirt or grass. 

The course winds through a beautiful woodland and over an open field on top of the Mendip Hills with stunning views. It's a very hilly course and the open holes can be extremely challenging on windy days. I would say you need to be relatively fit to tackle this course with its undulating elevations. It takes about 5mins or so to walk from reception to the 1st tee along a woodland trail. 

To get to Mendip DG Course was a 4.5hrs drive for us. As part of our planning I had been in touch with a member of the Yeti DG Club regarding one or two practicalities regarding the parking of our motorhome, and he had very kindly arranged to meet us on our first evening to show us the course and play. We met up and he had invited 2 others to join us as well. This was wonderful. Although we had to abide by social distancing guidelines, we still had a really fun time and as we were in a group we decided to score. Apart from doing some scoring at Manchester, as a measure to see if we were improving with my partner Catriona, Sister and Brother in Law, this was the first time we had been seen playing and scored with anyone else. They were all very encouraging and we had a blast playing off the Blue Tees. Thanks to Fran, Crissie and Del for a great evening. I was really pleased with my score of +5 (CF Disc Golfer 59).

We had planned to play at Mendip 3 times, so headed down there the next day from the campsite. We stayed at the Cheddar Heights Camping and Caravan Club site near the village of Priddy, about 30mins drive away from the course. Campsites had been allowed to open but could only have their toilet/shower facilities available for use if they could comply with strict government covid guidelines. Many sites were open but not their facilities. We were self sufficient, having a small bathroom in our motorhome. All we needed was fresh water and a place to dispose of our toilet contents and grey water, which all sites were still providing.

We played on our own the following day and really enjoyed what Mendip had to offer as a course. Technical shots in the woodland and then open space to let your discs fly. There was more wind than the previous evening so that also added to the challenge. I improved by one shot despite the wind and those up hill holes which are tricky to master, as you have to throw higher to compensate for the elevation and yet expose your disc to that wind!

Basket on the hill

Following our posts on Facebook to the Yeti Club page, we had contact from another player to come and join us to play on our 3rd and last day at Mendip. Thanks to Ash for joining us and putting up with some bad language. Yes, Mendip is renowned for some really steep slopes, especially by one of the baskets in the woods. Still learning the game you begin to understand the term "death putt" when you attempt to make a putt into the basket, miss and then your disc goes rolling down the hill!! Guess what, I did it twice which did impact on my score that day.

We had a fantastic time and would love to return to Mendip again. A lovely course and we've made some new friends.

Basket in the distance, tip of my finger

We now drive for a couple of hours to our next destination on our July trip, and that's on to the famous Quarry Park Disc Golf Course.