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

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For years we’d been saying to ourselves: ‘Must walk the Dragon’s Back!’ Now the day had come, a cold and misty one down at Pengenffordd. But we could feel a warmer morning waiting in ambush behind the clouds that wreathed the western outliers of the Black Mountains.

The knobbled ridge of the Dragon’s Back rises quite abruptly from the banks of the Rhiangoll stream. We climbed steeply through sheep pastures where fat lambs ran crying to their anxiously bleating mothers. Celandines spattered the grass, ten thousand miniature suns glittering in the steamy light.

Up on the roughly mounded ramparts of Castell Dinas, it was easy to see why Norman invaders chose this ancient hill fort for their stone stronghold. The castle commands the valley, the road from south to north, and the looming heights of Mynydd Troed beyond.

The dominant aspect of its position proved deceptive however; Castell Dinas was besieged, captured, yielded and recaptured over the course of three hundred years of border strife, till Owain Glyndŵr destroyed it and vanished into the mists of mythology.

We passed the dimpled hollow of the castle well, and went down to a saddle of ground below. Families out for a hike were climbing the steep spine of the Dragon’s Back, their children gambolling ahead like spring lambs. It was a good old puff up to the stone shelter at the summit, and once up there the prospect into the wildest quarter of the Black Mountains took our breath away all over again.

From the pass beyond, a green track sloped away into a silent valley hemmed in by mountain slopes, a secret little corner of these hills. Iridescent oil beetles were excavating egg-laying nests in the loose pink soil of the path. Cuckoo flowers had opened among the boggy sedges where the first leaves of spearmint yielded their distinctive chewing gum scent to our pinching fingers.

Down at Rhyd-y-car the householder was digging over her raised beds. ‘Beans and onions, a row of potatoes and some nice beetroot,’ she told us. ‘I’ve lived here more than sixty years now,’ and she smiled as though every spring had been a particular gem.
Start: Car park near Dragon’s Back Inn, Pengenffordd, nr Talgarth LD3 0EP (OS ref SO 174297) – £2 honesty box.

Getting there: Dragon’s Back Inn is on A479, Crickhowell-Talgarth.

Walk (4½ miles, strenuous, OS Explorer OL13): Go down steps beside the map board; turn right along path; in 40m, left up steps (yellow arrow/YA). Down the slope to cross the brook; steeply up 3 fields to Castell Dinas fort (179300). Down the north side to gate (180303); ahead up a clear hill path to the summit shelter (185306). On down to Bwlch Bach a’r Grib saddle (187308). Bear half right down a grassy track past trees; on for ⅔ mile to reach a sheep dip (196304). Where the wall turns sharp right, go right across the stream. Follow path to a gate; left up the wall to turn the corner (196302); follow the wall to the right. In 300m, right through a gate (193301); follow green lane to Rhyd-y-car (187300). Ahead along the road; in 500m, right on track (187295, gate). In 50m, bear left, keeping the hedge on your left (yellow arrows) for 500m to the road at Cwmfforest (182291). Turn right up the road; in 250m at left bend (180291), keep ahead on a dirt road for ½ to car park.

Info: Crickhowell TIC (01873-811970)
satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk
More walks info: @somerville_c

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

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Low cloud was swirling clear of the fell tops along Wharfedale as we set out from Grassington. The village was packed, as busy as ever, but ten minutes put us high above the stone-built houses on a path rising through sheep pastures to the walled track of Edge Lane, where no-one came or went.

The narrow squeeze stiles between the fields were each sealed with a tiny wicket gate on a powerful spring that shut smartly behind us with a rat trap snap. Nothing was more reminiscent of our former walks in this delectable dale than that sharp ‘crack’ of wood on stone – though the hinges have been modernised since the days when they were bodged from the soles of discarded rubber boots.

Wharfedale ran away north-west, exuding its habitual aura of peace and plenty, neat green fields walled with stone barns dotted here and there, the gently ‘inbye’ grazing rising to wild moorland tops with rugged profiles, and a far view of Pendle Hill’s broad back some 25 miles off in Lancashire.

Pine trees sighed in the wind around Wise House. Across the cleft of Hebden Beck the ground rose abruptly, too steep for farming, a jumble of red-brown bracken and pale grey rocks fallen from the scars or gritstone cliffs at the rim of the valley.

Down at Hole Bottom we teetered across Hebden Beck’s slippery stepping stones, collecting a boot full of beck water apiece. Scale Haw Force’s waterfall crashed down its rock steps just upstream, a fine noisy spectacle.

A steep climb through meadows led to a zigzag path up through the coarse gritstone rocks of Scale Haw where we came upon a large sleepy slow worm, the smooth bronze belly distended with its latest meal.

A blasting wind up at Scar Top, a puzzling scramble down hard-to-read paths on a bracken slope, and we were threading the walled lanes of Hebden towards the green and level homeward path beside the peat-brown River Wharfe.

How hard is it? 6½ miles; a moderate walk by field and fell paths; rough going just below Scar Side House

Start: Grassington National Park Centre car park, BD23 5LB (OS ref SE 003637)

Getting there: Bus 72 (Skipton-Buckden)
Road – on B6265 Wharfedale road.

Walk (OS Explorer OL2): Left into village; right (Hebden Road); in 200m right (Low Lane, High Lane). In 250m, left (006640, gate, yellow arrow/YA). Field path (stiles, YAs) to Edge Lane (013641). Right, in 550m, at gate, left (017638, ‘Hebden Gill’). Just before High Garnshaw, right (020643, gate), down fields to drive (022642), down to Hole Bottom (024641). Right along drive. In 200m, left (024639, fingerpost/FP ‘Edge Top’) to cross Hebden Beck by stepping stones (NB: if beck swollen, return to drive, left to Hebden).

From stepping stones, right along opposite bank. In 250m grassy track rises to gate (025637). Either continue parallel to Hebden Beck to cross B6265 in Hebden (see last paragraph below); or to continue this route, don’t go through gate, but turn left uphill along wall. Near top, bear left to wicket gate (026639). Grassy path up through rocks to Scar Top House (028639). Right (FP) to cross drive, stiles, FPs to pass Scar Side House (028637). Down through bracken (Access Lane = a bit of a scramble – pick your own path!) to stile/wicket gate at bottom (027635). Next gate, fields and FPs down to cross B6265 in Hebden (026632).

Ahead down road, in 150m, left (027630, kissing gate, FP); follow ‘Suspension Bridge’ beside Hebden Beck to road (027624). Right; in 150m left (‘Dales Way’ FP). Right along Dales Way for 1½ miles to Linton Falls (001634); right (FP) to car park.

Conditions: Hebden Beck is crossed by stepping stones. Slope below Scar Side is steep and scrambly in places – for adventurous walkers!

Info: National Park Centre, Grassington (01756751690), yorkshire.com
satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk
More walks info: @somerville_c

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

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The Cerne giant looked particularly rampant this morning, the low sun of early spring lighting up every detail of his splendid physique. No-one knows when this phallic wild man, brandishing a fearsome club and very clearly ‘pleased to see you,’ was cut into the chalk hillside above Cerne Abbas.

Plenty of fun has been had with the Cerne Giant over the centuries. Childless couples would couple on his mighty member to quicken their seed. Advertising agencies have clad him in jeans and a condom; he has been paired with a giant Homer Simpson wielding a doughnut, and has sprouted an outsize grass handlebar moustache during Movember. Unadorned, though, he emanates the wildness, dignity and menace that his originators must have intended.

We set out west from Cerne Abbas, blown by an icy east wind along banks already thick with primroses. Bees were bumbling there, and we spotted a great black oil beetle in jointed armour labouring up through the grasses. The wind whistled in the leafless hawthorn hedges and trembled the green spear-blade leaves of wild garlic up in Weam Coppice.

At the ridge we passed the medieval earth-and-flint bank of Park Pale, constructed to keep the hunted deer in Cerne Park. Beyond ran the Wessex Ridgeway, an ancient track, broad and green, hurdling the downs. We followed it north past holly and elder hissing with wind, looking west to where hedges and field shapes undulated together across the chalk valleys under a clear-cut skyline.

From Redpost Hill we cut east across big open fields jingling with flints, under the first lark song of the year sounding sweet and silvery in the upper air. A view opened ahead over the valley of the River Cerne, with the thatched cottages and old gabled manor at Up Cerne far below. South over the distant, unseen sea a long cloud bar formed, streaming slowly to the west.

In the hedge-banks along the lane to Cerne Abbas, violets made splashes of contrasting colour to the predominant yellow of celandines, primroses, dandelions and daffodils. Back at the village we climbed Giant Hill, circling round the great chalk man before returning by way of Cerne Abbey – abbot’s hall, tithe barn, guest house, and a tall porch hidden in a thicket, with an oriel window exquisitely carved.

Start: Giant View car park, Cerne Abbas DT2 7JX (ST 662016)

Getting there: Bus: X11 (Dorchester – Yeovil)
Road: Car park is signed off A352 (Yeovil-Dorchester)

Walk (6½ miles, easy, OS Explorer 117): Cross A352; right around field edge to green lane; left. In 50m fork left; follow lane, then path (yellow arrow; fingerposts ‘Cerne Park,’ then ‘Weam Coppice’) up valley, into wood by gate (650013). In 50m fork right uphill. At top of trees (647013) dogleg right/left (‘Sydling Drove’), past radio mast and sarsen stone to Wessex Ridgeway (645013). Right; in 1¼ miles pass ‘Up Cerne’ fingerpost (639032); in 100m fork right, then right (fingerpost ‘Wether Hill’). Cross field; pass ‘Up Cerne’ fingerpost (642033); on, soon downhill to T-junction (653035). Right to pass Great Pond (655031); in 150m round left bend; in 50m right (655029) past end of trees to cross road by white gate (656027). On across field (fingerpost) to road (659023); ahead to A352 (661018); ahead to car park.

Giant Hill climb (strenuous): Ahead from car park (‘Picnic Area’); left on Kettlebridge Lane (663015); follow ‘Giant Hill’ and yellow arrows to climb wooden steps. Clockwise up and around Giant’s enclosure; returning, follow ‘Abbey’ signs to Cerne Abbey; back around to car park.

Info: Dorchester TIC (01305-267992)
satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk
More walks info: @somerville_c

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

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A day of big weather over the Forest of Bowland – big clouds sailing in patches of blue sky, a big boisterous wind across the high empty moors of this most treeless of ‘forests’. Bowland is a huge area of wild hilly country in the north west of Lancashire, Slaidburn a rare centre of civilisation at its heart.

We passed the First World War memorial in the village – 27 local men killed in that great slaughter – and crossed the arched bridge over Croasdale Brook. From the road a field path led north by way of stepped wall stiles and clover leys, the big bosomy fells of Bowland rising in the west, their flanks dull red with bracken, the long back of Pendle Hill ten miles off in the southeast like an upturned ship’s hull.

Twenty years ago the Forest of Bowland was notorious for possessing only one public footpath within its hundreds of square miles of moorland. Nowadays, thanks to the Countryside & Rights of Way Act of 2000 and a more enlightened attitude among landowners, plenty of hill paths are open to all, and the lower pasture lands are crisscrossed with rights of way.

We followed a path across grass fields gleaming in the sun, down to Shay House and a moorland road north. Soon we branched off along tracks and paths through coarse grass, rush clumps and boggy dells where cattle stared and went trotting off with panicky little steps.

Below lay Stocks Reservoir, looking for all the world like a natural lake with its islets, encircling trees and angling boats. The navvies who lived up here in the late 1920s, constructing the reservoir dam, had a canteen with its own branch railway line bringing barrels of Dutton’s Blackburn ale direct to the cellar, whence it was sold to the men at 4d a pint.

Round the reservoir we went, crossing the grassy rampart of the dam wall, then descending a long track through sheep pastures. We passed the Tudor country house of Hammerton Hall, the dozens of blank windows in its three gabled bays lending it a secret and inward looking air, and came down to Slaidburn just as the rain began to freckle in over the hills.

How hard is it? 6½ miles; moderate; field and moorland paths

Please only walk within your Tier area, or enjoy this as an armchair walk till restrictions lift. And please consider others when you park.

Start: Slaidburn car park, BB7 3ES (OS ref SD 714524)

Getting there:
Slaidburn is signed from A65 (Skipton-Settle) at Long Preston.

Walk (OS Explorer OL41): Right along road; right by war memorial; in 200m, left (712526, wall stile, fingerpost) up fields. Beyond beech plantation, half left (712529); path over 6 fields to Shay House drive, left of barn (707544). Right to road (710546); left. In ½ mile, right (710553, fingerpost) on moorland track. At corner of plantation fork half left (714556, yellow arrow/YA) to far left corner of plantation ahead (717559, stile, YA). On across stream and past ruined house for 700m to reservoir track (723559). Right. In 1 mile, cross track near Board House (717547); cross dam wall. Near far end, right down steps; left; at end, left (720544, gate). Immediately right up bank, across successive stiles and fields. Right along grassy track (721543) with wall on left, down to Hammerton Hall. Through gate (720539); right; bend left through gate (YA); follow stony drive. 100m after crossing Holmehead Bridge, left (713530) with wall on right. At ford (714525), right along river to road (712525); left into Slaidburn.

Info: forestofbowland.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk
More walks info: @somerville_c

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

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Notwithstanding its name, the New Forest is not a monolithic block of trees. These 150 square miles of ancient royal hunting ground comprise woodland, wetland, heathland, water and farmland, a wonderful patchwork of accessible countryside from which to tease out a walk for a short winter’s day.

Waymarks are thin on the ground in the New Forest, but the patch of open heath that stretches south of Burley is crisscrossed with good clear paths. We set out on a cold sunny morning along a gravelly track that ran between flowering gorse, sombre winter-dark heather and individual silver birch trees whose slim trunks and dusky red twigs glowed in the clear light.

New Forest ponies cropped the grass by the path, delicately snipping off precise bites with their strong grey teeth. From Turf Hill the southern skyline was spiky with ranks of conifers. We caught a glimpse of a pale blue whaleback hill on the distant Isle of Wight. Between hill and trees rose the slender rocket shape of Sway Tower, a Victorian folly 218 feet tall, built entirely of concrete and still standing proud in the landscape.

It’s easy to get the impression that these heaths form a flat tableland, but in fact they are burrowed with surprisingly steep valleys known as ‘bottoms’. We dropped down into Shappen Bottom past the tufted mire of Holmsley Bog, and crossed the long disused track of the Southampton-Dorchester railway, savouring the smell of bog myrtle cones that we pinched and rubbed to release their spicy fragrance.

Up on Holmsley Ridge beyond we strode west into the sun and wind, buoyed up on exercise and exhilaration. Three ponies had caught the same mood; they came cantering across the path, hooves drumming, tails flying, the leading pony neighing wildly and kicking up his heels as he frisked along.

Down in the hollow of Whitten Bottom streams, pools and flooded ruts led to Whitten Pond, the wind-ruffled water steel blue, the grassy margins a brilliant green in the low afternoon sun. A broad track beyond climbed the gently domed nape of Dur Hill Down, before looping off across the heath towards the old railway.

It’s a shame that Slap Bottom signifies nothing more exciting than ‘sloping valley’. There we steered around a group of ponies grazing the bank of a stream, and sauntered back to Burley in the cold bright sunlight.

How hard is it? 5¼ miles; easy; heathland tracks, wet in parts.

Start: Burley Cricket car park, Cott Lane, Burley, Ringwood BH24 4AP (OS ref SU 214029)

Getting there: Bus 125 (Ringwood)
Road – Burley is signed off A35 (Christchurch-Lyndhurst) and A31 (Ringwood-Southampton)

Walk (OS Explorer OL22): Cross road; down track (‘Forestry Commission Burley’). In 50m left on gravel track. In nearly 1 mile cross old railway (219015); in 200m fork right (219013). In ¾ mile keep ahead (right) at fork (209010) to Whitten Bottom. Cross stream by outlet at Whitten Pond (203012); ahead to cross road at barrier (201013). On along track over Dur Hill Down. In ½ mile at post, right (194013) along line of trees, on track curving right across heath to road (201017). Left across old railway; right into Burbush car park. Aim left towards power lines; in 50m, right on path between trees, across stream into open. Ahead up slope; in 500m, left (206018) on clear track. In ½ mile at Goat’s Pen Cottage join gravel drive (212025); at tarred road, right to car park.

Info: Ringwood Gateway (01425-473883, thenewforest.co.uk); satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk