Christopher Somerville

The Devil’s Beef Tub, Moffat, Scotland

Oct 142023

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

From the car park at the end of the bumpy farm road from Moffat, a group of young volunteers from the Borders Forest Trust were setting out with spades and crowbars to plant trees on the slopes above Corehead. Young rowans, alders and silver birch are already flourishing on these steep lumpy hills, part of a drive to regenerate the native forest that once flourished here. The blackface sheep have already been banned from the slopes, so the saplings can grow ungrazed.

It was a long, steady climb through bracken and heather, then among the young trees along the Tweedhope Burn. Rowan berries glowed a deep burnt orange, and the indigo berries on recently planted juniper bushes gave a spicy tang of gin when crushed and sniffed.

Near at the top we heard the chink-chink of a hammer and glimpsed the youngsters hard at work on a new plantation. At the watershed, soggy and boggy, a neat elliptical cairn stood at the turning point of the Annandale Way, a rollercoaster path along the backs of Chalk Rig Edge, Great Hill and Annanhead Hill. Here we perched on a handily placed bench, looking down into the plum-coloured shadows of the Devil’s Beef Tub, source of the River Annan.

A stranger to the area three hundred years ago would never have happened upon this remote, tight and formidably steep-sided hollow, some five hundred feet deep, nearly sheer from rim to bottom. Here the cattle-raiding Johnstone family would graze the beasts they had stolen, confident that no-one would ever find them.

The secluded hideaway was also a refuge for the 17th-century religious dissenters known as Covenanters. One of them, John Hunter, was chased up the slopes by dragoons in August 1686 and shot like a dog when caught. In 1745 a Jacobite prisoner managed to get free from his captors while crossing the rim of the Devil’s Beef Tub, and escaped by rolling like a barrel down the plunging braeside while wrapped in his plaid.

We descended from Annanhead Hill and crossed the rushy bump of Ericstane Hill. Following the homeward path in bright evening sunshine, we looked back toward the darkly shadowed Devil’s Beef Tub, picturing the tumbling Jacobite – and, a more contemporary story from 2002, the woman who swerved her van off the road and all the way down into the hollow to crash land at the bottom. She survived, with a broken arm; the van still lies where it fell, wheels in the air, landmark and legend in one.

How hard is it? 7½ miles; strenuous moorland walk, boggy in places.

Start: Car parking space (OS ref NT 073117) on farm road between Ericstane (077116) and Corehead (073124).

Getting there: North through Moffat on A701; fork right along Beechgrove, then follow Old Edinburgh Road (‘No Through Road’). In 3½ miles at Ericstane, left across river (073109). Rough farm road towards Corehead; in ⅔ mile, car parking space on right (072118) by Borders Forest Trust sign.

Walk (OS Explorer 330): Bear right along grassy track. Follow Annandale Way (AW waymarks) for 1⅔ miles, gaining height beside Tweedhope Burn to reach cairn at watershed (084138). AW turns left with fence; follow it over hills for 2 miles to descend to A701 (056127). Left; in 400m, right (059124, AW) across Ericstane Hill to cross A701 (061115). Follow field track; in ½ mile on right bend, left off AW through gateway (065110). Follow track down to Ericstane (072109); left to car.

Lunch: Hugo’s Restaurant, 4 Bath Place, Moffat DG10 9HJ (01683-221606, hugosmoffat.uk)

Accommodation: Annandale Arms Hotel, High Street, Moffat DG10 9HF (01683-220013, annandalearmshotel.co.uk)

Info: bordersforesttrust.org

Rievaulx Moor and Helmsley Moor, North York Moors

Walks No Responses »

Oct 072023

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

Who’d have guessed it? – another in a succession of beautiful sunny days over the North York Moors, a breeze to cool our brows, and the prospect of sensational views from the edge of the moors.

In Newgate Bank forest the larches drooped in the sunshine and the silver birch leaves shivered in their millions. Forget-me-nots and speedwell dotted the grassy verges of this track with blue. Clover and yellow rattle showed where old hay meadows had been before the conifer plantations gobbled them up.

A gate led onto open moorland, a wide spread of heather whose sombre brown was just beginning to blush with purple. The unbroken blue of the sky fitted over Rievaulx Moor like a lid, the moor itself rimmed by the dark green of dense plantations.

Grouse butts stood in orderly ranks in the heather. A red grouse sprang up under our feet and clattered off with a panicky shriek, while her chick, an impossibly sweet-looking ball of fluff, went scuttling away into the shelter of the tough old heather sprigs.

Patches of heather had been burned to black wires, but in among the muted hues of the moor and its dark brown peat soil, bright green patches of bilberry and the nodding white heads of bog cotton made a cheerful contrast.

We turned aside across a shallow ravine at the edge of Helmsley Moor, where water scouring had unearthed the burnt orange colour of the iron-rich sandstone underlying peat and heather. Black wood ants went scurrying across the stony track, intent on unfathomable projects in their inscrutable way.

Now the path ran through more forest, its sandy surface glinting with mica between the banks of bracken and bilberry. Wrens gave out their whirring songs and goldcrests squeaked in the pine tops. There was a seductive humming of flies among the trees, soporific and redolent of a warm summer afternoon. Figwort with dark green leaves and solid purple stems of square section grew beside the forest track.

A moor road led north into open country again, with brown cattle grazing the pasture. Broom in full flower flecked the roadside with gold. At the crest of the road the land suddenly dropped and a view opened northwards to humpy hills lining the far horizon.

The homeward path took us along the northern brow of the moor, with a wide vista over farms and green farmland far below. Hasty Bank, Cringle Moor and Cold Moor stood out on the northern horizon in long whalebacks.

A big bird of prey went sailing out across the valley, its wingtips uptilted. A hen harrier, rarest raptor of the moors, turning and flashing in the afternoon sunlight.

How hard is it? 6¼ miles; easy; moorland tracks

Start: Newgate Bank forest car park, near Helmsley YO62 5LZ (OS ref SE 565889)

Getting there: Newgate Bank is signed off B1257 (Helmsley–Stokesley)

Walk (OS Explorer OL26): From parking space turn back towards road. Near entrance, left past barrier (fingerpost) up forest track. In ½ mile, through gate (570892); in 50m right on moorland track. In ¾ mile, just before track enters trees at wooden gateposts, left (580887) on track across valley, through plantation, out across moor and on into forest (586889). Left on forest road just inside trees. In a little over a mile, left along road (597891). In ¾ mile at summit (594903, benches), left on track past trig pillar (589905) and around moor edge for 2 miles to gate (570892) where you rejoin outward route to car park.

Lunch/Accommodation: TBC – The Owl at Hawnby, near Helmsley YO62 5QS (01904-208000, theowlhawnby.co.uk) is the preferred option, but may still not have its new landlord in place. Re-opening contact: tom@mexboroughestates.co.uk.

Info: northyorkmoors.org.uk; yorkshire.com

Sidney Wood & the Wey & Arun Canal, Surrey

Walks No Responses »

Sep 302023

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

With a brilliant blue flash of side feathers the jay we’d disturbed went screeching off among the trees of Sidney Wood. Raucous birds, jays: the sweary sentinels of the woods.

Squirrels had already stripped the hazels of their nuts, leaving eviscerated shells and rejected kernels all over the path. The wood was damp and green this afternoon under the cloudy skies stretched over south Surrey, and the abandoned channel of the Wey & Arun Canal exhaled a fine miasma of mud and stewed vegetation when we found it half-hidden under overarching oaks and wych elms.

The last of the three-petalled white flowers of arrowhead drooped among spearblade leaves in the damp old waterway. Greenery had triumphed in the cool shade of the wood, overwhelming the canal with reeds and grasses. All that stirred there today were late-hatching pearl bordered fritillaries, their large orange wings streaked with black like a jaguar’s coat.

It was hard to credit that this weed-choked waterway, fringed with spearmint, willow leaves carpeting its surface, was planned as a major route for goods travelling between the English Channel and London when war with Napoleonic France meant danger to cargo on the sea routes. Alas for the Wey & Arun – by the time it was opened in 1816 the war was over, and twenty years later the railways sneaked up and stole its trade away.

We followed the wide ditch of the canal through Sidney Wood, past the hollows and humps where in times past ‘forest glass’ was made using the local sand, chalk and timber. Glassworks, brickmakers, charcoal burners and potteries of these Wealden woods, the trees have advanced to swallow them all.

Five minutes munching apples on a fallen beech trunk dotted with tiny brilliant pink fungi, then we walked on out of the trees to Sidney Wood Farm where gangs of hens roamed their compound and a horse followed close at our heels as we crossed his paddock.

Soon we found ourselves rejoining the Wey & Arun once more – what a convoluted course it took! A last stretch of the old canal and we were treading the black earth of Sachelhill Lane, heading for home after this quiet afternoon’s walk through the Surrey woods and fields.

How hard is it? 4¾ miles, easy, woodland paths (can be muddy)

Start: Sidney Wood car park, near Alfold GU6 8HU (OS ref TQ 027350)

Getting there: From A271 (Guildford-Horsham), at Alfold Crossways follow ‘Dunsfold’. In ½ mile pass turning on bend, signed ‘Three Compasses’. In another ⅔ mile, just after sharp right bend, left (028352, unmarked; ‘Cobdens Farm’ sign visible immediately after turning). Fork left to car park.

Walk (OS Explorer 134): Return along drive. 20m from approach road entrance, hairpin left past ‘Sedgehurst’ sign (‘Wey South Path’/WSP). Keep ahead along drive (blue arrows/BA). In 250m, right (025349, fingerpost/FP, WSP). In ⅓ mile, pass metal gate, cross disused canal; left along right bank (021349). In 1 mile at road, WSP turns left (017338); but go straight over and on. In ½ mile, just past pond, left up gravel road (017331); at Sidneywood Farm gate, right down drive (021330). At Maple Farm, ahead (024326, FP) past cottage on right; through 2 gates; bear left along hedge. Across lane and on (025327, stiles) to meet WSP (027328, BA). In 200m, right over footbridge (026330). Ahead across 2 fields. Left by gate (031334, FP). In 500m cross Rosemary Lane (030337) on woodland path back to car park.

Lunch: Three Compasses PH, Dunsfold GU6 8HY (01483-279749)

Accommodation: Mucky Duck, Tisman’s Common, Rudgwick RH12 3BW (01403-822300, muckyduckinn.co.uk)

Info: Guildford TIC (01483-444333)

River Gelt and Gelt Woods, Cumbria

Walks No Responses »

Sep 232023

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

If the River Gelt got its name from the old Irish geilt, meaning ‘madman’, that wouldn’t be surprising. When swollen with rain, the Gelt roars and dashes itself against the confining rocks of its sandstone gorge like a wild thing as it hurtles down to meet the River Irthing near Brampton. Today, in a spell of settled weather, it went bubbling and twisting under Low Gelt Bridge.

The path skirted the edge of an enormous quarry, screened away behind gorse and broom. The air was full of the rich scent of sun-warmed bracken and the snap of broom pods releasing their seeds. Suddenly the trees thinned and the view opened westward across the peachy-orange sand diggings to a line of far-off low hills along the Scottish border.

A lovely afternoon was unfolding as we climbed the flank of Watch Hill, with sunlight striking down through the beech leaves. More westward prospects shaped themselves in the distance – a gleaming finger of water that was the Solway Firth with the blue hump of Criffel mountain beyond, and then a crumple of high country, the north-easternmost fells of the Lake District.

Two labradoodles came bounding up, grimy and ecstatic after a plunge in the stickiest, blackest bog they could find. Beyond Tow Top we crossed a railway in a deep cutting; then, reaching Greenwell, we reunited with the Gelt and turned back to follow it home.

On the steep grassy river bank we paused to munch green apples and look for dippers on the stones that the Gelt had mounded up in vigorous floods. Alder, rowan with scarlet berries and huge old crack willows grew along the banks. Once more we crossed the river at Middle Gelt in the shadow of a tall railway viaduct, built as long ago as 1835, one of the first skew or slanted bridges ever constructed. The contractor, John McKay, assembled a model made out of pieces of turnip, which he whittled and reshaped until he was certain the design would actually stand up.

We walked homeward at the river’s brink under cliffs of sandstone where ancient quarry faces stood a hundred feet tall. Roman soldiers excavating stone in 207 AD for repairs to nearby Hadrian’s Wall had left graffiti in the rocks, we’d been told – cartoon faces, and the name of their overseers, Agricola and Mercatius. We failed to find these imprints from the past, but enjoyed marvelling at the patterned incisions made by the saws and chisels of two millennia of sandstone quarrying above the ‘mad river’.

How hard is it? 6 miles; moderate; riverside paths. NB some slippery steps and stumbly tree roots in Gelt Woods, muddy in parts.

Start: Low Gelt Bridge car park, near Brampton, Cumbria CA8 1SZ approx. (OS ref NY 520591)

Getting there:
Road: From A69/A689 roundabout just south of Brampton, head south on A69. In ½ mile cross River Gelt; in 100m sharp left to Low Gelt Bridge. Right across river; right into car park.

Walk (OS Explorer 315): Back across bridge; left; in 150m left (521589, fingerpost ‘Tow Top’). Follow path and ‘Tow Top’ signs for 1½ miles to road at Tow Top (528571). Left; in 100m, right (‘bridleway, Greenwell’) across railway (530570). At road junction, ahead (532569, ‘No Through Road’). In ½ mile at Greenwell, left (536565, step stile/gate) on riverside path. In ½ mile at road (533572), right; under viaduct. Right across river; left (533573) on path beside river (fingerpost ‘Gelt Woods’) for 1⅔ miles back to car park.

Lunch: Picnic

Accommodation: Howard Arms Hotel, Front Street, Brampton CA8 1NG (01697-742758, howardarms.co.uk)

Info: edenriverstrust.org.uk

Plumpton, East Chiltington & the Downs, East Sussex

Walks No Responses »

Sep 162023

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

The white rails of Plumpton Racecourse curved away, pointing southward like skeletal fingers towards the olive-coloured rampart of the South Downs. A brisk cold wind blew from those hills, with a hint of silver underbelly on the clouds beyond from the gleam of the invisible sea.

A long straight path led between pasture and crops, crossing rain-swollen brooks in tangled dells, drawing ever nearer to the downs. This is horse country. A white mare poked her nose over a fence to have it stroked by a couple of passing girls. Suddenly she took a sly nip, provoking shrieks and cascades of giggles.

Cheerful chatter and tempting cooking smells came wafting from the Half Moon Inn as I crossed the Ditchling road and started up the steep downland track called Plumpton Bostal – a name reminiscent of fictional correspondents to Private Eye. The rubbly old track curved and climbed to the ridgeway along the crest of the hills. Wonderful views opened out, northwards across the wooded Sussex Weald toward the loom of the far-off North Downs, south across deep chalk valleys to the snub-nosed Seven Sisters cliffs and the ice-blue sea.

A kestrel rode the wind, head down, eyes fixed, sideslipping along above the almost imperceptible hummocks of Bronze Age bowl barrows. Soon another old holloway, Warningore Bostal, left the ridge track and slalomed down the hillside. The steady push of the south wind, now blocked by the wall of downland at my back, vanished as though a fan had been clicked off. I skittered down the rain-glazed chalk that floored the bostal, and set out north across pasture and arable ground once more.

At Warningore Farm the farmer was digging silage out of the clamp for his cattle. I passed the shed where they stood patiently in an emanation of sweet breath and a gentle rustle of movement.

On across the fields where horses in heavy tarpaulin raincoats were cropping the grass. A pint of delicious dark Bluebell Best in the Jolly Sportsman at East Chiltington, and then the homeward stretch by the hamlet’s ancient flint church, beautiful in its simplicity, too obscure even to have a dedication to its name.

How hard is it? 7¾ miles starting at station, 6½ miles starting at Plumpton; moderate.

Start: Train – Plumpton Station (NB no parking)
Road: Half Moon PH, Ditchling Road, Plumpton BN7 3AF (364132). Please ask permission, and give pub your custom! In addition, parking for 6-7 cars in lane above car park.

Getting there: Bus: 166 (Lewes-Haywards Heath)
Road: Plumpton is on B2116

Walk (OS Explorer 122): From station, path south besides racecourse. At south end, right (362153); in 40m, left down lane. In 1¼ miles, pass Agricultural College; 150m past last buildings, left (360133, gates); half right over field into trees. At B2116, left past Half Moon PH (364132). (NB Directions starting from PH begin here). Cross B2116; Plumpton Bostal (‘Bridleway’), steeply up. At top (357126), left; in 1 mile, through gate (370125); left down holloway. In ½ mile at path crossing, left (376127, arrow post). Cross B2116 (374130); bridleway opposite. Keep right of Warningore Farm Cottages (376137); on (north) along bridleway. In ¾ mile, gate into green lane (381147); in 50m, left (fingerpost, yellow arrow/YA) across 2 fields to lane (378150). Left; cross road by postbox (375150, stile, YA). Fork right across field to lane (373152). Left past Jolly Sportsman. At church, right down stony bridleway (371151). Cross Plumpton Lane (364153); in 150m, at racecourse entrance, right (362153) to Plumpton station.

Lunch: Half Moon, Plumpton (01273-890253, thehalfmoonplumpton.co.uk)

Accommodation: Jolly Sportsman, East Chiltington BN7 3BA (01273-890400, thejollysportsman.com)

Info: visitsoutheastengland.com

Walking the Bones of Britain – a 3 Billion Year Journey by Christopher Somerville is published by Doubleday.

Lamaload Reservoir, Rainow & Gritstone Trail, Cheshire

Walks No Responses »

Sep 092023

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

At eight in the morning Lamaload Reservoir lay mirror-still, curled into the interstices of its surrounding hills. A faint vapour drifted across the water where fifty greylag geese drifted gently together. All looked as natural as could be in the early light, and it was hard to credit that the reservoir had been in existence for only 60 years.

A stony track shadowed the northern shore through thickets of foxgloves. I clambered over a wall by way of a stone step stile, the first of many, and dropped down a hillside where drowsy cattle were browsing the dewy grass. A fingerpost at Snipe House Farm beyond pointed helpfully to ‘This Way’, ‘That Way’ and ‘The Other Way’, but I only had to look down the slope to see the walled lane I was aiming for.

This hilly corner of northeast Cheshire is all tumbled sheep-farming country, its steep little valleys cutting deep into rounded gritstone hills. The farm lane to Rainow couldn’t be more typical of these old cart tracks if it tried – neatly walled, overspread with sycamores and carrying a Mohican crest of grass along its central strip.

Guarding the southern entrance to the former coalmining and textile milling village of Rainow stands a folly tower. Shaped like a clutch of chimneys arising from a fat square stack, it’s a thing not of beauty but of mystery, since no-one seems to know the why and wherefore of its existence.

No such intrigue about White Nancy on the ridge beyond. This plump bottle-shaped monument was put up in 1817 to celebrate Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeat at Waterloo. Whitewashed, Nancy shone tiny but clear against the clouds as I climbed the Gritstone Trail’s shallow track south past conifer plantations, thorn trees and stone-walled sheep pastures scattered with hanks of wool.

Above Valeroyal Farm a gap in a tumbled wall had been plugged with a superannuated piece of farm machinery, a ‘Progress Haymaker, by Bamfords of Uttoxeter’ according to the maker’s label. Half a century must have passed since its wooden arms last turned to fluff up the cut grass. Nowadays the thin spokes of its cast-iron wheels make handy scratching posts for sheep, and a picnic seat today for this homeward-bound walker.

How hard is it? 5½ miles; moderate (several stone step stiles)

Start: Lamaload Reservoir car park, near Rainow SK10 5XJ (OS ref SJ 976753)

Getting there: Signed ‘Saltersford, Goyt Valley’ from A537 between Walker Barn and A54 junction. Reservoir car park 1 mile on left.

Walk (OS Explorer OL24): Pass metal gates; right along track (fingerpost/FP). In ¼ mile, 30m beyond right bend, left (972754, stone step stile/SSS) down field to bottom left. Through kissing gate/KG, then left up service road (967755). At Snipe House, right (960753, SSS, FP), down to walled lane past farm (957754, yellow arrows/YA). In ⅓ mile at top of rise, lower fork left (953754) to B5470 (950758). Right for Rainow and Robin Hood Inn; left to continue on pavement. In 200m, opposite Folly Tower, left (948758, ‘Gritstone Trail’/GT). Follow GT. In ¾ mile, where GT turns right (952747), fork half right (fenced path) to Hordern Farm. Through farmyard; past last building, ahead (953744) through gates on grassy track. In 300m at wall corner (955742), ahead along hillside. In 350m cross stream (957740), then drive; left (KG, YA) on above Valeroyal. In ⅔ mile cross Low Wickinford drive (966742), then footbridge (968743). In next field don’t fork left, but follow wall. Descend to track (973745); right to road (976742); left to car park.

Lunch/Accommodation: Robin Hood Inn, Rainow SK10 5AE (01625-574060, robinhoodrainow.com)

Info: visitcheshire.com; peakdistrict.gov.uk

Walking the Bones of Britain – a 3 Billion Year Journey by Christopher Somerville is published by Doubleday.

Abbeycwmhir & Esgair Hill, Radnorshire, Wales

Walks No Responses »

Aug 262023

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

I hadn’t been to Abbeycwmhir since 1979, the year I walked the newly opened Glyndŵr’s Way long-distance path with my Dad. The stages were long, the waymarking abysmal, the flies persistent. What a treat it was on that long-ago summer evening to trudge on sore feet up the long steep valley, past the abbey ruins and in at the door of the Happy Union Inn.

Nowadays Glyndŵr’s Way is a lot better waymarked. The Happy Union is open in the evenings only, and the tiny village tucked away in its forested cleft in the Radnorshire hills has a few new builds to add to its tally of old stone cottages. The Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust is very active, and has laid out a network of colour-coded walks based on the village. I chose the orange circuit, and set out under a windy sky that tossed grey and silver clouds about a field of china blue.

The Cistercian monks who built the abbey in the 1170s in this remote fastness picked a perfect site for the contemplative life – secluded, well wooded and watered, with beautiful hills on every hand. Today the valley road was edged with pink and white dog roses in hedges alive with noisy chaffinches.

I turned off the road onto a stony track that rose gradually to the crest of the hills – the Monks Way, an old highway from Abbeycwmhir to its sister abbey of Strata Florida away to the west. At the top I crossed a broad undulating upland of pastures where the sheep sprinted towards me in vain hopes of a hand-out.

Up in the spruce forest of Cefn-crin the air was hot, dark and heavy among the trees. The wind sighed among a million pine needles, and countless insects hummed their great discordant chorus. Coming out the other side of the trees I found myself on the crest of the hills with miles of rolling and tumbling green country ahead and behind.

Here I hooked up again with Glyndŵr’s Way and followed it back down to Abbeycwmhir, marvelling at the improvement in its waymarking and relishing the dip of the path among knee-high grasses and in among the trees again for a last cool mile into the village.

How hard is it? 7¼ miles; moderate; well waymarked paths

Start: Phillips Hall (village hall), Abbeycwmhir, Llandrindod Wells LD1 6PH (OS ref SO 054712)

Getting there: Abbeycwmhir is signed off A483 (Llandrindod Wells – Newtown) between Crossgates and Llandewi Ystradenni

Walk (OS Explorer 214; downloadable map/instructions at abbeycwmhir.org): From Phillips Hall, right along road. Left at fork (049708, orange arrow/OA, ‘Rhayader’). In ⅔ mile opposite red brick Cwmhir Cottages, fork right (039705, kissing gate/KG, fingerpost); follow track. By blue container keep ahead through gate (OA, yellow arrow/YA). At Upper Cwmhir house, track bears left, then through right-hand gate of two (031713, OA). In ½ mile at top of Monks Way lane, through gate (025716, OA), along fence; left-hand gate of two (OA); ahead over hill; stile into woodland (022717, OA). Path to forest road; dogleg right/left across (OA); path to road junction (018719). Fork right uphill for ½ mile (tarmac becoming gravel) into Cefn-crin forest (017728). At far edge of trees, on hairpin right bend, ahead (021734, gate, OA) on hillside track. 100m beyond next gate, right (025740, yellow topped post, ‘Glyndŵr’s Way’/GW) between tree clump (left) and fence (right). Follow well-marked GW for 3 miles back to Abbeycwmhir.

Lunch: Picnic

Accommodation: Ty Morgans, East Street, Rhayader LD6 5BH (01597-811666, croesogrwp.com)

Info: abbeycwmhir.org; visitwales.com

Walking the Bones of Britain – a 3 Billion Year Journey by Christopher Somerville is published by Doubleday.

Millers Dale & High Dale, Derbs

Walks No Responses »

Aug 192023

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

I don’t walk with my geologist godson Andy Harrison as often as I’d like, but when I do it’s like opening a window onto a hidden but wonderful world. On this hot summer’s day in the White Peak it was all about limestone, that pale rock that accrued infinitely slowly as sediment in the warm tropical sea that covered this region some 350 million years ago.

A lung-busting flight of steps lifted us through the trees and out of Millers Dale into an upland of cattle grazing and stone walls. ‘Look at that,’ Andy said, pointing to the wall of Lydgate farmhouse. The edges of fossil shells stood slightly proud of the stone like dark straggles of string. ‘That’s a productid, a creature with a hinged shell that lived buried in the seabed mud and let its feeding tendrils trail out to grab any food that passed.’ I ran my fingers across the shell and tried to imagine the immensities of time and circumstance between that form of life and my own.

We crossed the walled fields to walk between the grassy jaws of High Dale, a little narrow valley between high folds of ground. Hawkbit, lady’s bedstraw and kidney vetch grew in profusion, and a butterfly hatch of small blues made the most of the sunny afternoon. What formed this deep cleft, Andy? ‘A stream underground excavated a cave in the porous limestone, digging away till the roof collapsed into the bottom.’

There were fan-shaped corals and masses of curved productid shells in the field walls of High Dale. Up beyond among the old lead mine workings of Priestcliffe Lees we found a songthrush searching for snails in a rock garden of fragrant orchids exuding scents of pepper and cloves.

A steep path led down to the old railway path in the shadows of Millers Dale. On a cutting wall I put my hand on an enormous dark stain splashing the red and white limestone. Andy traced its outline. ‘That’s what happens when giant land masses collide and the seabed gets ripped apart. Superheated magma came gushing out into the cold water and cooled instantly into this tongue of volcanic rock. It happened maybe 350 million years ago, and it’s still here.’

What a remarkable thought to carry away from this really magical walk.

How hard is it? 5 miles; moderate, with one steep climb on steps; field paths, old railway path

Start: Millers Dale car park, Wormhill, Buxton SK17 8SN (OS ref SK 138732)

Getting there: Bus 65 from Tideswell
Road: Millers Dale car park is on B6049, signed from A6 (Buxton-Taddington). NB At weekends, get there early – very popular!

Walk (OS Explorer 149): From car park entrance, right under railway bridge. Right on B6049; in 50m, left up path (137731, fingerpost); in 100m, right up steep steps to gate at top (138728). Across fields; walled lane (139726) to Lydgate Farm (140721). Left (‘Brushfield); in 40m, fork right by cottage (gate). At T-junction left (142721); in 100m, right (wall stile, yellow arrow/YA) across fields and through High Dale. In 1 mile at southeast end of dale, through gate (156715); fork left uphill on road. At Brushfield follow ‘Priestcliffe’ and ‘Millers Dale’. Follow stony lane for ¾ mile to T-junction (152724); right (‘Priestcliffe Lees Nature Reserve’, YA). Across field; bear left down steep path into Millers Dale. Left along Monsal Trail (158729). In 1 mile, just before viaduct, fingerpost (142732, ‘Lime kilns’) points to lime kilns. Return to Monsal Trail; left across viaduct to car park.

Lunch/Accommodation: Anglers Rest, Millers Dale SK17 8SN (01298-871323, anglersrestmillersdale.co.uk)

Info: visitpeakdistrict.com

Walking the Bones of Britain – A 3 Billion Year Journey from Outer Hebrides to Thames Estuary by Christopher Somerville (£25, Doubleday) is out on 24 August

Thatcham Reedbeds & Greenham Common, Berkshire

Walks No Responses »

Aug 122023

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

A harsh scolding call sounded from dense foliage as we followed a path through the watery jungle of Thatcham reedbeds. The crisscross striping of reed stems, of leaves and the shadows of leaves, made it impossible to spot the little sedge warbler in its subtle camouflage of brown and grey.

They have been digging gravel out of the Kennet valley for a long time now, and what’s left is a string of ‘lakes’ (flooded gravel pits) and extensive reedbeds where reed buntings and warblers nest each year. The feathery reed heads swung in today’s stiff west wind, and there was a constant dreamy susurration from millions of willow leaves.

We crossed a bridge over untroubled water, a clear stream above a gravel bed, then the turbid olive channel of the Kennet & Avon Canal at Bull’s Lock. Beyond the canal a crunchy lane ran south past a meadow of contented cattle, chin deep in grass, and came to Bury Bank Lane on the boundary of Greenham Common.

Greenham Common used to be a USAF airbase, and Cruise missiles with nuclear warheads were housed here from 1983 onwards. The Peace Women’s movement established camps around the perimeter in protest, scaled the fences, danced on the missile silos and otherwise kept their cause in the headlines until long after the nuclear weapons were shipped out in 1991.

Walking the gravelly paths and climbing the former control tower for a high-level view across the common today, the contrast between then and now is astonishing. The great runways for the bombers lie beneath heathland full of flowers – lady’s bedstraw, centaury, viper’s bugloss in vivid shades of yellow, pink and blue. The empty missile silos under their grassy domes resemble the tombs of long-gone warriors. And the massive leaky fuel tanks have been transformed into green-skinned lakelets.

We turned off the common into a tree-hung green lane which ran north to cross the dimpling River Kennet. Back on the Kennet & Avon Canal, we strolled homeward among sickly-smelling meadowsweet and tall spikes of purple loosestrife, signifiers of high summer.

How hard is it? 6 miles; easy; gravel tracks and lanes.

Start: Nature Discovery Centre, Lower Way, Thatcham RG19 3FU (OS ref: SU 506670)

Getting there: Rail to Thatcham, then ½ mile walk along canal.
Bus stop on Lower Way
Road: signposted off A4 in Thatcham.

Walk (OS Explorer 158): Follow path on right of lake. At foot of lake, right (506667, ‘Reedbed Trail;/RT). In 250m, where track bends left, keep ahead on path (503667, RT), following RT signs. In ½ mile at canal, right across long bridge (500666) past Bull’s Lock; in 150m, left across canal. Left on road; under railway (499666); follow ‘footpath’ fingerposts. In 400m through gate by Lower Farm Cottages (500663), on for ½ mile to cross Bury Bank Road (502654 – take care!). Up path opposite to gate onto Greenham Common. Right; in 300m, pass large grey shed, then gate (501651); fork right on path to Control Tower (500650). From tower take main path south, through gate; left along wide gravel track for ¾ mile. 100m past banded waymark post, fork left (511647). Through trees, past lakes. At waymark post with double band, left (518650, gate) across road. Gravel track opposite; at T-junction, left (521654) to cross River Kennet (521655), then canal (522661). Left on towpath to Widmead Lock (509662). 50m beyond, right (banded post, gate, RT). In ⅓ mile cross railway (506666); ahead to car park.

Lunch: Cafés at Discovery Centre and Control Tower

Accommodation: Regency Park Hotel, Bowling Green Road, Thatcham RG18 3RP (01635-871555, regencyparkhotel.com)

Info: bbowt.org.uk; www.greenham-common.org.uk; greenhamtower.org.uk.

Salisbury Crags and Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh, Scotland

Walks No Responses »

Aug 052023

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

A spatter of rain and a good strong wind over Edinburgh, but that wasn’t going to spoil our fun. Nor was the closure of Radical Road below the iconic ramparts of Salisbury Crags. ‘There’ll be another route up Arthur’s Seat,’ said Dave Richardson, botanist, musician and long-time friend. We put away the mandolins on which we’d been bashing through ‘The Steamboat’ hornpipe at his kitchen table, donned the boots and set out for Holyrood Park.

Lucky citizens of Edinburgh, to have this great wild upthrust in their midst, more of a wedge of unspoiled highland and wildlife than anything resembling a city park. Rock falls in 2018 saw Radical Road closed off to the public, and it hasn’t reopened since. But we found a stony path that led up along the rim of Salisbury Crags and gave memorable if head-spinning views down and along this volcanic curtain of dolerite that was squeezed up and out of the depths some 325 million year ago.

‘Wood sage, heath bedstraw, bloody cranesbill,’ enumerated Dave as we passed scatters of wild flowers in white and purple. At the apex of the crags the main spectacle of the park rose ahead, a double hump of high ground composing the striking miniature mountain of Arthur’s Seat. We dipped down into a saddle of ground where many paths met, then set our faces and feet to the steep and rocky climb. Greenfinches gave out their sneezy calls from scrub bushes beside the path, whose slippery rock steps had been polished green and red by countless footfalls.

Arthur’s Seat itself is a pluton, the top of a column of basalt that punched up from below into the crater of a massive volcano, long eroded away. Standing up there in the blasting wind we were lords of one of the world’s most remarkable cityscapes – Edinburgh Castle and the jumble of monuments on Calton Hill riding their volcanic crags, petrified lava flows shaping the nearby slopes. the Pentland Hills away to the south, and northwards a glimpse of the red cantilevers of the famous railway bridge stepping across the Firth of Forth towards the hills of Fife.

How we ended up sliding on our backsides down Whinny Hill’s prickly slopes is another tale entirely. But we landed back at Dave’s in time to give ‘The Steamboat’ another run-around.

How hard is it? 3½ miles; strenuous; cliff-top path, some slippery rock underfoot, short steep climb.

Start: Holyrood car park, Queen’s Drive, Edinburgh EH8 8AZ (OS ref NT 271737)

Getting there: Train to Waverley Station; right on Princes Street; first right (Calton Road); in 800m, right on Horse Wynd, then Queen’s Drive.

Walk (OS Explorer 350; many route maps online, e.g. travelswithakilt.com/arthurs-seat-walk-map): From roundabout next to car park, left along Queen’s Drive. In 50m, fork right uphill; in 100m, right again up stony path along top of Salisbury Crags (unguarded edge). In ¾ mile, opposite Arthur’s Seat, descend to meeting of paths in valley on left (273728). Bear left uphill under Arthur’s Seat; steeply up rock steps to saddle below peak (276731). Sharp right and follow path to foot of stone steps (277730) up to summit. Return to foot of steps; ahead, down and then up across Whinny Hill, bearing north for ⅔ mile, down to Queen’s Drive (279740). Left to St Margaret’s Loch (277739); clockwise along shore to south end (275737), then path along Queen’s Drive to car park.

Lunch: The Pakora Bar, 111 Holyrood Road EH8 8AU (0131-202-5200, thepakorabar.co.uk)

Accommodation: The Scott, 18 Holyrood Park Road EH16 5AY (0131-651-2007, uoecollection.com)

Info: ‘Discovering Edinburgh’s Volcano’ (edinburghgeolsoc.org);
geowalks.co.uk/arthurs-seat/arthurs-seat-self-guided-walks;
visitscotland.com

Walking the Bones of Britain – A 3 Billion Year Journey from Outer Hebrides to Thames Estuary by Christopher Somerville (£25, Doubleday) is out on 24 August

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