Christopher Somerville

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


The River Hamps is a winterbourne, only flowing after winter rains, and on this warm cloudy summer’s day it was a bushy green channel of butterbur leaves smothering the dry stones of its bed.

Setting off from humpbacked Weag’s Bridge, I followed the Manifold Way’s cycle path past the looming cliff of Beeston Tor, its grey limestone face seamed with cracks and caves. The path snaked to and fro across the dry Hamps, the verges spattered with yellow rattle and common spotted orchids.

A side path led up through Old Soles Wood and on up Soles Hollow into open sheep country. I crossed the long ridge of Mere Hill with spectacular views east to the gorge of the River Manifold and the tent-shaped upthrust of Bunster Hill at the entrance to Dovedale. These iconic hills, dales and uplands of the Staffordshire/Derbyshire border are a walker’s dream, and it felt like a privileged moment to have them grouped together in one prospect.

At Slade House I found a big cream-coloured bull blocking the farm drive. He seemed dopy and drowsy among his harem, but we hadn’t been formally introduced, so I hopped a stone wall and bypassed the bovine roadblock.

Below Slade House a deep and sinuous dale, seemingly nameless, runs eastward. As soon as I got into it I found slopes of unimproved grassland thick with wild flowers – intense blue milkwort, harebells nodding on slender stalks, and masses of greeny-white greater butterfly orchids. What a treat to be walking here.

Things soon got a little more challenging as the path wriggled under sycamores and hazels in a dank, damp tangle of herbage. I walked with head bowed, watching for slippery stones, and hands raised out of the way of stinging nettles, like a surrendering soldier in a jungle.

Out of the stingers at last, I came to the tumbledown farm and neat holiday cottages of Rushley, and turned up the long open-sided road to Throwley Hall farm. On a knoll rose the blackened stone ruin of Throwley Old Hall, tall and stark, its Tudor mullioned windows looking out blankly over medieval ridge-and-furrow fields to the deeply carved cleft of the Manifold Valley.

I sat and stared, munching an apple, while the Throwley cattle came to the wall and stared at me.

How hard is it? 7 miles; moderate; field and woodland tracks

Start: Weag’s Bridge, Grindon ST13 7TX (OS ref SK 100541)

Getting there: A523 (Leek-Waterhouses); at Bottom House, B5053 (‘Warslow’). In 1½ miles, right to Grindon; then ‘Manifold Valley’ to car park on left before Weag’s Bridge.

Walk: Pass bridge (don’t cross); ahead on cycle path (Manifold Way/MW). In ¾ mile after 3rd bridge, left off MW (101534, gate, ‘Old Soles Wood’) up woodland path. In ⅓ mile through gate (100529); up cleft. In 500m left through gate (102525, yellow arrow/YA); right along wall for ½ mile to cross road (104517). Follow drive to Slade House (107510). Through farmyard (fingerpost ‘Calton’), then gate (YA). Grass path to next gate (107508); fork left (stile), down hedge to bottom. Left (107504, gate, YA) along dale bottom path for 1½ miles to road at Rushley (124514). Left; in 100m, left up road (‘Manifold Trail’/MT). In 1 mile pass Throwley Old Hall (111525); on to farmyard; left (‘Calton’). Immediately dogleg right/left through wicket gate (110526, YA, MT). Half right to corner of wall (108528); track to gate beside trees (108529); down slope to gate (107533, MT); follow MT back to Weag’s Bridge.

Lunch: Picnic

Accommodation: Black Lion Inn, Butterton, Leek ST13 7SP (01538-304232, blacklioninn.co.uk) – everything you could want in a comfortable, welcoming village inn.

Info: peakdistrict.gov.uk; enjoystaffs.com

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


This walk starts along one of the most beautiful waterside paths in the Yorkshire Dales, a cornucopia of waterfalls, limpid pools, wild flowers and birds of the uplands. Buttery yellow bird’s-foot trefoil, salad burnet, golden tormentil and rock rose; blue of milkwort and insectivorous butterwort on lime-green leaf rosettes, early purple orchid still in bloom – the banks of the beck were spattered with the bright colours of low-growing plants well sheltered in the narrow valley.

The beck came jumping from pool to pool, sluicing down rocky cliffs hung with dense mats of sodden mosses. Its trickle and bounce, the energy in its scouring of flat stone and moulding of flanking rocks were in tune with the dipper who bobbed and curtsied on a branch of hawthorn overhanging a pool, and with the ring ouzel – rare bird of the uplands – that streaked away low and hard with a flash of its white collar.

In the dark little hollow where the first tall waterfall hissed down its rock face, the path made a hairpin bend and climbed precariously to a narrow cleft in the limestone outcrop up which we scrambled. A repeat performance above the second fall, and the climb eased off.

Up ahead the vee of the valley was blocked by a great orange-yellow heap of spoil from the Buckden Lead Mine that once roared and hammered up in this remote spot. We passed broken buildings and rubble-strewn ground scattered with the tiny white flowers of spring sandwort, a metallophyte or plant capable of flourishing on ground polluted with heavy metals – a delicate entity to grace an industrial wasteland, albeit framed by green hills.

Up at the 702m summit of Buckden Pike we sat to catch our breath and take in the view – north over an immense lowland, south towards the Peak District, and west to where the Three Peaks of Yorkshire stood clear in their characteristic shapes – Whernside’s rising ridge, Ingleborough’s tall double hump, and the sloping leonine profile of Penyghent.

The long descent across the moor and through a network of stone walls was glorified by the sunlit westerly prospect up Langstrothdale, the dale sides undulating downward in a smooth succession of limestone ribs and sloping green pasture, an encapsulation of all that makes the Yorkshire Dales such wonderful walking country.

How hard is it? 5 miles; strenuous. NB A walk for agile, sure-footed walkers, properly shod. Narrow path with unguarded drops; some rock scrambling along Buckden Beck.

Start: National Park car park, Buckden BD23 5JA (OS ref SD 943773)

Getting there: Bus 72B (Grassington-Buckden), 874 (Leeds, Ilkley) Sun, BH
Road: Buckden is on B6160 between Cray and Kettlewell (signed from A684 Leyburn-Aysgarth)

Walk (OS Explorer OL30): Leave car park through gate (‘Cray Hill Bridge, Buckden Pike’). Right (‘Buckden Lead Mines’) along wall, then left on path on left bank of Buckden Beck. Path soon becomes narrow and twisting. Just before first tall waterfall, path hairpins back to left (947776 approx), then short scramble up rock outcrop. Same again just before second tall fall (948776 approx). Above second fall, cross fence before changing to path on right bank. In ½ mile at mine site (954781), up left side of spoil heap, on into ruins. Just before arched entrance, left on path (wall on left). In 100m right uphill beside wall on left. Follow this clear path uphill for 800m to angle of wall (961786). Left (ladder stile) to trig pillar on Buckden Pike (961788). Ahead by wall; then follow clear path, slippery and rocky in places, for 2¼ miles back to Buckden.

Lunch/Accommodation: Buck Inn, Buckden BD23 5JA (01756-761933, thebuckinn.com)

Info: National Park Visitor Centre, Grassington (01756-751690, yorkshiredales.org.uk)

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


The three neighbouring counties of Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire butt up against one another near Mickleton, and today’s walk would be shared between the latter two.

The houses of Mickleton stood in beautiful Cotswold stone, more cream than gold in colour. In the high wall of the manor house a line of musketry loopholes bore witness to the invasion fears of 1940.

In the buttercup pastures beyond St Lawrence’s Church, newly shorn ewes bleated in phlegmy voices for their fat-legged lambs. Steep green parkland slopes led us east below the Italianate red tiled roofs of Kiftsgate Court. The treble atonal humming of a swarm of bees, invisible but close overhead, made us duck as they flew by like a cloud of djinns.

From the footpath alongside Hidcote Manor’s gardens we glimpsed visitors in bright summer clothes strolling by flowerbeds and borders of every artful hue and design. Then it was out across the sloping fields of Hidcote Combe, following the Monarch’s Way above Marchfont Brook. Sheep snoozed and grazed under a cloudless sky where a vintage single-engined aeroplane purred like a throaty old cat – the sound of a warm summer’s afternoon.

Hidcote Combe is a sharp extremity of Gloucestershire, a finger rudely poking the backside of Warwickshire. At Admington Lane we crossed the county border and began to traverse the lower slopes of Meon Hill. This flat-topped hummock is laden with stories and superstitions ranging from witchcraft murders to the red-eared hell hounds of King Arawyn, Lord of the Netherworld.

All seemed as peaceful and rooted as could be on this day of glorious views across the Vale of Evesham. Yellowhammers wheezed among the hawthorns. We sat on a field headland for the pleasure of staring across many miles of sunlit countryside, down over acres of buttercup fields to the pale spire of Lower Quinton church backed by a distant line of low green hills.

Up and on at last across fields corrugated into ridge and furrow by medieval farmers. The long whaleback of Bredon Hill and the pale blue silhouette of the Malverns came into view as we followed the margin of a ploughed field sown with pumpkins, their varieties recorded on golden labels – Mellow Yellow, Gladiator, Hot Chocolate, Chucky. What would a literate ploughman of the Middle Ages have made of that?

How hard is it? 6¾ miles; easy; field paths

Start: St Lawrence’s Church, Mickleton, Glos GL55 6RZ (OS ref SP162435)

Getting there: Bus 21/22 (Stratford-Moreton-in-Marsh)
Road – B4632 (Stratford-Broadway)

Walk: Below church, through gate (‘Heart of England Way’/HEW); follow bridleway. In next field, gate (164434, blue arrow/BA, HEW); path with hedge on right. At next gate HEW goes right across stream (166431), but keep ahead, following BAs for ½ mile to road at gate (173430). Right for 40m; left (gate, fingerpost); fork left uphill (yellow arrows, kissing gate/KG) to cross top of Hidcote car park (177430). Left through gate; follow Monarch’s Way/MW (posts, waymarks) for 1⅓ mile to Admington Lane (187447). Right along road – take care! In ¼ mile, at Admington Road Farm, left (191446, stile); follow MW and Centenary Way/CW for ⅔ mile to road (185454) at Homeleigh. Dogleg right/left; follow MW/CW for ¾ mile to road in Upper Quinton (178462). Left; from ‘The Orchard’ follow HEW across fields (KGs). In ½ mile with wooden gate (‘Permissive Access’) ahead (122458), turn left through KG (white arrow). Right along hedge and on. In ⅓ mile, through woodland. On emerging (171452), right downhill; through KG (170451). Left along hedge; follow HEW to Mickleton.

Lunch: Picnic

Accommodation: Three Ways House Hotel, Chapel Lane, Mickleton GL55 6SB (01386-438429, threewayshousehotel.com)

Info: Chipping Campden TIC (01386-841206)

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


The two renovators were busy lime-washing the chancel of Benington’s Church of St Peter, but they courteously moved their buckets and twitched back their plastic sheeting to let us wander around. Extraordinary stone carvings abound in St Peter’s – a pair of Green Men supporting the chancel arch, a gurning friar, face howling in terror, and the effigy of a king either plunging a sword into his own guts or trying to pluck it out.

No such dramas in the churchyard, overgrown or rewilded according to your point of view, the gravestones half drowned in cow parsley, buttercups and miniature cranesbill.

The whole village of medieval timber framed houses seemed awash with greenery this spring morning, and the elderly gardener leaning on his fork at the gate of Town Lane had all the time in the world to expound on the life and times of Benington. Lucky for us that the famed gardens of Benington Lordship hadn’t opened yet, or we would never have got away from this delightful spot.

A scribble of blackcap song, loud and melodic, followed us along the nettly verge of a barley field. Skylarks sang over the fields each side of the broad flinty track of Cotton Lane as it curled up and over the back of Great Brookfield Common.

A short stretch of High Elms Lane, a ridge road lined with pale pink campion and Jack-by-the-hedge, and we were following a shady green lane where enormous poplars trembled their ace-of-spade leaves in the wind.

A reviving sandwich and immaculately kept pint at the Lordship Arms on the crossroads in Burn’s Green, and we went on east past a dimple of ponds, walking a wide track through hay meadows waist-high with grass awaiting its first cut of the year.

The bridleway through Benington Park made a pale parting among the sombre blue-green of wheatfields. Here I picked up a big solid flint shaped and scalloped, perhaps a palaeolithic hand axe.

In a sea of silky green barley a fragment of hedge, thickly powdered with may blossom, showed where a country lane had once run. We crossed the fields to find Duck Lane, and turned homewards between banks of periwinkles spreading their royal blue petals like windmill sails.

How hard is it? 6 miles; easy; field paths and green lanes

Start: St Peter’s Church, Benington, Herts SG2 7LH (OS ref TL 297236)

Getting there: Bus 384 (Hertford-Stevenage)
Road – signed from A602 between Stevenage and Watton-at-Stone

Walk (OS Explorer 193): Up lane to junction; right (‘Ware, Hertford’). Just past bus shelter, right (303235, kissing gate) on permissive path. In ½ mile at arrow post, ahead (299229); in 100m, join sunken lane on left. In 300m, by brick hut (296228), fork left uphill on Cotton Lane. In ¾ mile, left up road (298215). In 500m, fork left (301217, ‘Benington’) up track. In ¾ mile cross road at Lordship Arms PH (309226). In 300m at Pond Cottage, fork right along track (312228). In 100m fork left (blue arrow/BA). Follow BAs, descending into valley. In 500m, left (318230, BA post). In 500m at far corner of Home Covert, bear right (312230, BA) through trees and across field. Cross Benington Park house drive; right (BA) onto hill top by 4-finger post (308234). Left up hedge for 30m; right on path across field, then on left of hedges. At bottom of slope, left (309240, BA); in 250m, left (306241) along green lane, then Duck Lane to Benington.

Lunch: Lordship Arms, Burn’s Green (01438-869665, lordshiparms.com) – superb real ale pub.

Accommodation: Roebuck Inn, London Rd, Stevenage SG2 8DS (01438-365445, roebuckinn.co.uk

Info: Benington Lordship Gardens – beningtonlordship.co.uk

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


A cloudy, murky morning over Cranborne Chase. The views from Win Green were all melted into muted greys. The topograph on the saddle of high ground hinted at the prospect: fifteen miles northeast to Salisbury, twice that to the Isle of Wight down in the southeast.

Children skipped and tumbled down the steep slope towards the wooded Ashcombe valley. The sharp spring wind was soon shut away, and calm descended on the deep green cleft where the path ran edged with primroses, violets and pungent wild garlic in full flower.

These woods of the Ashcombe Estate are a prime example of careful management and discreet signage. The vast hunting forest of Cranborne Chase, on whose borders they lie, was once a different affair – a tangled tract of deep forest where outlaws skulked and wild locals in straw helmets beat up gamekeepers and poached the deer.

Down in Tollard Royal all was peachy, the snugly thatched cottages of flint and clunch, the gossipers on the benches round the village pond, all in a Sunday morning peace under steep valley slopes.

We climbed over a ridge where spring lambs were busy butting milk out of their mothers’ udders. In the cleft below the rains of late winter were drying, leaving Munday’s Pond a soggy circle of nettles.

Our path lay uphill, breasting a slope beside the old hazel coppice of Rotherley Wood. A marvellous sentinel oak, twisted, split and bow-backed, stood with its feet in a flood of bluebells, and the hazel stools themselves were circled by the sharp evergreen leaves of butcher’s broom, another indicator of ancient woodland.

Up on the back of Rotherley Down lumps and bumps in the turf showed where a Romano-British settlement was excavated in 1886-7 by local landowner General Augustus Pitt Rivers. ‘Skulls’, says the inscription on a modest pillar. ‘1 was brachycephalic, 3 were mesaticephalic, 6 were dolichocephalic, 3 were hyperdoliocephalic, one was uncertain’. The General, father of modern British archaeology, remained an educator to his fingertips.

Beyond the settlement site we turned along the chalky white track of the old Ox Drove ridge road towards Win Green. The clouds had cleared, and the Isle of Wight lay blue and humped on an invisible sea far in the southeast, a view familiar to those residents of Rotherley Down two thousand years ago.

How hard is it? 7¼ miles; easy; downland and woodland tracks

Start: Win Green car park, near Tollard Royal, SP7 0ES (OS ref ST 924204)

Getting there: Tollard Royal (B3081) signed from A350 (Shaftesbury-Blandford Forum). At top of hill before Tollard Royal, follow ‘Donheads’, then ‘Win Green’.

Walk: Through gate at top of car park; follow path along fence and downhill. Follow ‘Wessex Ridgeway’/WR and ‘Footpath’ signs through Ashcombe valley. In 1¾ miles, hairpin back left (937185, ‘Tollard Royal’ fingerpost); in 50m right through 2 gates (WR); follow path with fence on right. In ¾ mile, just before Tollard Royal pond (945178), left over stile. (NB for King John Inn, right at road). From stile climb bank, at top, on through gate (arrow) along fenced path to stile (949181). Diagonally left down to gate (940184, Munday’s Pond on left). Ahead on grassy track up slope beside Rotherley Wood. In ⅔ mile track enters wood; ahead through gate onto open down; Pitt-Rivers information pillar and excavations to right (950194). Opposite pillar, left through gate; right up middle of fields (arrows) to Ox Drove road (949205). Left; in ½ mile fork left (938206, ‘Cranborne Droves Way’), then right on chalk trackway. In ¾ mile, beside NT ‘Win Green’ sign, left (928207) up grass path to car park.

Lunch/Accommodation: King John Inn, Tollard Royal SP5 5PS (01725-516207, kingjohninn.co.uk)

Info: cranbornechase.org.uk