Butcombe Trail Ultramarathon

The official Butcombe Trail is a 47-mile route around six pubs in the Mendip Hills, a designated area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB). The route is mostly off-road and takes in beautiful running country and fantastic views as it criss-crosses the Mendips. It was devised as a hiking trail by local walker and writer Sue Gearing in 2007, in collaboration with Butcombe Brewery, and was first run as a single-day ultramarathon in 2016, organised by Bristol’s Town & Country Harriers trail-running club. The race has been run in a few variants over the years, including 50 mile and 56 mile races recently. Brand new in 2025 we offer a 50 km race in place of the 56 mile to hoping to provide opportunities for more people to enjoy the beautiful Mendips, and keep the 50 mile race but running anticlockwise to create a different perspective for returning runners. Both races will start from our new Race HQ at Mendip Activity Center. Both races will be qualifying events for the UTMB® and sister races : the 50 miles being a 100 km ‘index race’ and the 50 km being a 50 km ‘index race’.