Christopher Somerville

Wild plums, green and purple, hung heavy above the path as Jane and I began our circuit of Thorney Island, a narrow-necked peninsula suspended like a bulbous fruit from the inner shoreline of Chichester Harbour.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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A memorable feature of my wife’s childhood in this low-lying coastal country had been the vee-shaped bomber planes from Thorney Island’s RAF base – long since closed – that would rumble overhead, low and dark in the sky.

Black-headed gulls screamed peevishly from the mud banks exposed at low water; oystercatchers piped, and curlews made their melancholy bubbling cry. Salt, mud, seaweed – the smells were of tidal country under a drying wind. As for the views, they widened over mud flats green with algae and weed, seamed with wriggling creeks known locally as rithes, out west to the low wooded coastline of Hayling Island. Inland, hissing beds of reeds lined the waters of the broad ditch romantically named Great Deep.

Sea lavender lay in purple mats on the salt marshes. Leopard-spotted comma butterflies alighted on fleabane flowers and opened their scalloped wings to the sun. From the seawall path, the army establishment that replaced Thorney’s RAF base in 1984 was so well hidden among the trees it might not have been there. The only clue as to where those great triangular bombers had taken to the skies was a grey smear of runway tarmac, long disused.

We watched a lovely old wooden sailing boat scudding down Sweare Deep under a white bulge of jib, the mainsail rattling up as the boat heeled into Emsworth Channel. By the time we had reached Longmere Point at the nethermost tip of Thorney, the tide had crept in to cover mud flats, shell banks and rithes in a rippling world of water that spread south towards the open mouth of Chichester Harbour.

St Nicholas’s Church at West Thorney, ‘the least known and altogether uttermost church in Sussex’, has stood here on the remote eastern coast of the island for 800 years. Wartime Allied and German servicemen share the graveyard, foes in life, brothers in death.

Under the seawall an unseen fish hunted the flood-tide shallows, dorsal fin and tail cutting the surface. Far to the east the spire of Chichester Cathedral glowed ghostly white in the evening sun, the South Downs ran in black and gold along the northern skyline, and from the marina moorings came the music of halyards blown by the wind against yacht masts, chinking and chiming like miniature bells.

Start: Sussex Brewers PH, 36 Main Rd, Hermitage, West Sussex PO10 8AU (OS ref SU 755057)

Getting there: A27/A259 to Emsworth. Park in village; follow A259 to Sussex Brewery PH

Walk (9 miles, easy, OS Explorer 120. NB: Online maps, more walks at christophersomerville.co.uk): Follow footpath down side of pub (fingerpost), then field edges south to boatyard. Right (755053, fingerpost) through Emsworth Yacht Harbour to sea wall. Left (753052, fingerpost) anti-clockwise round Thorney Island for 7 miles, passing Little Deep (752047), Great Deep (749040), Marker Point (746023), Longmere Point (768011), West Thorney Church (770025), Stanbury Point (770031) and Prinsted Point (766042). At foot of road above Thornham Marina (766051), turn left inland along Sussex Border Path past Thornham Farm for half a mile to cross Thorney Road (756051). Over stile (fingerpost), across field and opposite stile. Right (fingerpost) past stilt houses, and retrace path to Sussex Brewery PH.

Lunch: Sussex Brewery PH, Hermitage (01243-371533; sussexbrewery.com) – a really friendly, clean and welcoming pub.

Chichester Harbour Conservancy (01243-512301; conservancy.co.uk) – walks, information and much more.

Information: Chichester TIC (01243-775888; visitsussex.org)
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Sparrows were chirping in a bright morning over north-west Worcestershire as we left the cheerful Tally Ho Inn and plunged out into a wide rolling landscape with the Herefordshire hills lumped blue and cloudy in the south-west.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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A big dark hare sprang up almost underfoot and dashed away across a newly mown hayfield, yellow-green and stubbly. This was exhilarating walking, like striding across the backs of great solid waves.

Hanley Child lay at the foot of orchard slopes, a clutch of medieval houses and outbuildings, timber-framed under tiled roofs. By Town Farm sheep came bleating across a field, their phlegmy voices loud and manic. The farmer hurried to block their escape through the gate. ‘Out walking? Yes, it’s lovely round here. A hidden treasure – or so they tell me,’ he smiled wryly.

We descended a nettly and brambly bank to Stonyford, and took the track to Norgrove where cherries hung heavy in the orchard, their colours a spectrum from creamy yellow through tangerine to boot-polish crimson. Beyond the house lay tangled woods and the long, man-made lake of Kyre Pool, centrepiece of an 18th-century landscaped park, perhaps the work of Capability Brown. The multiform house dates back in part to Plantagenet times and looks out on gardens, lawns and pools.

In the adjacent church we found a very beautiful and simple 14th-century painting of a haloed saint, holding in her left hand a book or box, in her right an orb or perhaps a circle of light from a lamp. The red ochre figure is the preliminary sketch made by the artist; the brilliant pigments with which he embellished the saint have all faded or fallen away, and only this ghost of his first inspiration remains.

We turned for home by way of The Grove farmhouse with its early Dutch gable, and the old moat at Bannall’s Farm sunk in a thicket of oak and ash. The farm dogs barked us in and nuzzled us out, down the lane to Coppice House, and along the edges of barley fields. On the hill above Woodstock Bower a great silky-coated bull was roaring softly. ‘He won’t hurt you,’ reassured the farm worker who bounced up in his buggy. ‘He’s got a bad hip, that’s all, and the young heifers won’t leave him alone. I’ll walk you across the field, if you like,’ and he did so, with proper old-style courtesy.

Start: Tally Ho Inn, Broadheath, Worcs, WR15 8QX (OS ref SO 662655)

Getting there: Broadheath is on B4204 between Tenbury Wells (A456) and Clifton-upon-Teme

Walk (8½ miles, easy/moderate, OS Explorer 203): Over stile in left corner of Tally Ho’s car park as you face the road. Down field, aiming for lone tree at bottom. Up far slope, aiming right of bushy patch to right of Hill Farm. Follow hedge right to stile in corner (655654, yellow arrow/YA). Diagonally left to bottom left corner of field (stile/YA); diagonally down to gate at far bottom corner (652653). Left along lane (blue arrow/BA), through gate and on past Court Farm, Hanley Child; at fork, right to junction by Town Farm (648651).

Left; in 100m, right over stile; right along hedge to stile (YA); down jungly bank to road at Stonyford (645650). Left to cross river; in 150m, ahead through gate (fingerpost). Diagonally left through cherry orchard to gate near Norgrove house (639649). YA points left to bottom of orchard. Right over stile (YA), across bottom of garden, clockwise round lawns to go through gate at top left corner of garden. Diagonally left through adjacent gate; half left down slope; cross stile (637649, BA) into trees. At T-junction of paths, right for ⅓ mile to reach Park Pale track beside Kyre Pool dam (631649). Left across dam, follow track for ¾ mile to B4214 (629639).

Cross road; left along it for 200m; right (‘Kyre Park Gardens’) on minor road. In 350m, turn right for Kyre Church and Kyre Park Gardens, or to continue walk, turn left here (627635, fingerpost) along track by walled garden. Pass cottage (628633); on up left side of garden to cross footbridge. Left to recross B4214 (630633). Down drive opposite (‘Bridleway’); pass The Grove and keep ahead (635632) along rutted track (BA). At bottom of slope, left through gate (636634); aim half right across field (BA) to go through gate on far side (639636). Right along hedge, through gap; ahead across field, up next field’s hedge to pass moat (643638).

At Bannall’s Farm (644638), left down stony lane, following BAs. Through gate by Coppice House (643641); on through trees. In 150m, reach 2 gates; through right-hand one (643642); on by fence along bottom of garden. Through gate at end, and on through a series of horse gates. Climb bank; on along field edge, following BAs for nearly ½ mile. Nearing Woodstock Bower, path forks; take upper (left) one. In 150m, just before gate, left over stile (654642, YA); climb bank. Cross stile at top; follow wood edge round to right; cross stile, up bank to turn left over track at top of hill (656644, fingerpost). Cross fields, then drive; through gates (YAs) to cross road (657646; stile, fingerpost). Over field to Broach Cottage (660647); left up drive to cross road (659649, fingerpost). Follow hedge on right; right over stile in top corner (660651, YA); bear left clockwise round garden edge. Cross stile in top right corner; ahead between fence and hedge to road (662651); left to Tally Ho.

Lunch/Accommodation: Tally Ho Inn, Bell Lane, Broadheath, near Tenbury Wells (01886-853241; tallyhorestaurant.co.uk) – cheerful country pub with good clean rooms.

Info: Tenbury Wells TIC (01584-810136 or 01684-892289)
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I’m sure Mary Poppins would declare Wootton Rivers ‘practically perfect’. The little Wiltshire village lies snug under the downs on the edge of the Vale of Pewsey, all thatched roofs and red brick.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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Sparrows were chittering in the thatch as we walked out and up along a green lane to the roof of the downs under a milky blue sky.

Up there ran the ancient trackway known as Mud Lane – after all the recent rain we soon discovered why – flanked by old mossy woodbanks and overhung by big beech and ash, and holly trees as substantial as well grown sycamores. I became aware of a staring pair of eyes in the shadows of an oak, and made out the leafy face of the Green Man, venerable spirit of the greenwood, carved with wonderful skill into the stump of a broken-off bough. The artist had resisted the temptation to give the Green Man a jolly grinning countenance, and had instead provided him with an expression appropriate to his status as a woodland god – thoughtful, solemn and crafty.

Mud Lane ran out of the trees and over the nape of Martinsell Hill. The promontory down curled away like the flank of a great beast, dimpled with old pits that might have been medieval rabbit warrens, or maybe the clay delvings of the British potters that lived up here 2000 years ago, making their coarse grey Savernake ware for the Roman army. Nowadays cattle munch the downland grass, and walkers stop to sit with hands around knees and stare across the Vale of Pewsey to the far hills, one of southern England’s most breathtaking views.

Below Martinsell Hill we followed a track across the high ramparts of the Giant’s Grave, an Iron Age hill fort where autumn gentians trembled their glowing purple trumpet flowers in the wind. From here there was a view to challenge the Vale of Pewsey, more intimate but no less stunning, down into the secret cleft of Rainscombe where a fine Georgian house lay among gold, scarlet and green trees like a promise of earthly delights.

A slippery clay path bought us down into the Vale, and we followed the towpath of the Kennet & Avon Canal back to Wootton Rivers in the soft grey light of the autumn evening.

Start: Wootton Rivers village hall car park, near Marlborough, Wilts SN8 4NQ approx. (SU 197631)

Travel: Rail: Pewsey (two thirds of a mile from Pains Bridge on Kennet & Avon Canal)
Bus: Bookable Bus from/to Pewsey (not Sun, BH) from/to Royal Oak PH – 08456-525255, option 1
Road: M5 Jct 15; A346 through Marlborough; Wootton Rivers signposted to right in 3 miles

Walk (8½ miles, moderate, OS Explorer 157):
From car park, left past Royal Oak PH. In 200m pass ‘Tregarthen’; road bends right, but keep ahead (197634) up green lane. At top of rise (200642), left along field edge; right (‘Mid Wilts Way’/MWW) up head to Mud Lane trackway (198646). Turn right for 50m to find Green Man on left (ref SU 19840 64645), then return west along Mud Lane (occasional MWW). In 1 mile cross road by car park (183645); on across neck of Martinsell Hill, aiming between wood on right and spinney on left, to go through gate on skyline (177642). In 200m cross track (174642, ‘Oare Hill’ fingerpost); in another 300m, opposite stile on right, turn left off Mud Lane (171642) through hedge. Cross field, aiming for left-hand of 3 separate tree clumps. Pass to right of it (172637), on downhill with trees on right. At bottom corner of field, follow fence to right (170634, MWW) across Giant’s Grave (166632).

On down beside fence to corner of field (162629). Cross stile (MWW); left along hedge and across end of field. Through gate (161628, MWW), across green lane and on along right-hand field edge. Cross Sunnyhill Lane (161623, fingerpost); across field, through hedge gap (161621); diagonally left across next field to far fence (164618). Right to wired-up gate (164615); right along hedge for 50m, left across stile. Diagonally left across corner of field to cross stile into green lane (164616). Right to cross Pains Bridge (165612); east along canal towpath for 2½ miles. At Bridge 108 (198629), cross canal by lock to return to car park.

Lunch/accommodation: Royal Oak PH, Wootton Rivers, SN8 4NQ (01672-810322; wiltshire-pubs.co.uk) – friendly village local

Information: Devizes TIC (01380-734669)

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‘A grand hill in a beautiful situation with a character all its own and an arresting outline,’ says Alfred Wainwright of the fierce dark pyramid called Mellbreak.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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That neatly sums up this formidable-looking but actually quite manageable hill that lowers like a grumpy, humped-backed monster over the western side of the long narrow lake of Crummock Water. Setting out from the Kirkstile Inn, the northern face of Mellbreak looked so dark, sheer and forbidding that we wondered how on earth we were to get up there. But once we’d reached the slippery screes that fan out down the mountain, it was easy enough – a bit of zig-zag, a lot of hard breathing and upwards effort, and we were standing proud at the northern summit cairn, 1300 feet higher and a lot sweatier than an hour before.

The view from the 1,668-ft northern peak of Mellbreak must be one of the best anywhere in the Lake District – back over Loweswater and north as far as the misty spread of the Solway Firth and the grey humps of Scotland’s Galloway hills; east across Crummock Water to the pink screes of towering Grasmoor; north to the great mountain spine of Red Pike, High Stile and High Crag; west to the long green ridge of Hen Comb and Loweswater Fell rising across the deep, unpopulated valley of Mosedale.

A steep, skeltering path dropped us into Mosedale. Down there a green track skirted the western flank of Mellbreak in wonderful isolation and silence. If Mosedale ever had farms, fields and folk, they are long forgotten. Here were swathes of bog grazed by Herdwick sheep, and watery dells full of orchids, sundews and flowering sedges, all caught in a cradle of shapely fells. ‘Dreary and wet’ was Wainwright’s sour summing-up of Mosedale. The Master wasn’t always right, was he?

Down on Crummock Water we turned north along the lake shore. What were the islet of Low Ling Crag and its tiny tombola beach of grey shaley stones created for, if not for swimming in the cool lake water on a hot summer afternoon? That’s what we did, and went on homeward with renewed springs to our heels.

On the grass verge outside the Kirkstile Inn sat a man with muddy hiking boots, a glass of beer and a very contented smile. ‘Oh,’ he winked as we went by, ‘it’s shocking, this is! Wish I was at work!’

Start: Kirkstile Inn, Loweswater, Cumbria CA13 0RU (OS ref NY 141209)

Getting there: Kirkstile Inn is signed from the Loweswater road, off B5289 (Buttermere-Cockermouth). Enquire at inn about local parking – official car parks at Maggie’s Bridge (134210) and Scalehill Bridge (149215).

Walk (6 miles, hard, OS Explorer OL4): From Kirkstile Inn fork right off left bend; immediately right (‘No Through Road’). Country lane south for ½ mile past Kirkgate farm. At gate, lane curves right (139202); ahead uphill between trees. On open fell, keep ahead to bottom of scree (141199). Bear left; zigzag up (steep, skiddy!) to north summit of Mellbreak (143195). Ahead into dip. In 500m path bears right to a fork, 50m before rock outcrop on main path (145190) Fork right here on faint path, steeply down to track in Mosedale (141186). Turn left (south) for 900m, to pass metal gate. Shortly afterwards track curves left and follows the lower line of the bracken; keep ahead here (144178), aiming for curved peak of Red Pike. In 350m, go through gate in fence on bank (146175); descend to turn left along track by Black Beck (146174). Pass 3 footbridges (152174; 155175; 156178) but don’t cross any of them. On reaching Crummock Water, bear left (north). Nearing north end of lake, in 1¼ miles, branch left (149197) up path through bracken which bisects angle with stone wall ahead. Reaching wall (148199), follow it to Highpark Farm. Turn right through gate in wall (145202); left through gate; on along stony lane. Cross Park Bridge (145205); fork left to Kirkstile Inn.

Refreshments: Kirkstile Inn (01900-85219; kirkstile.com)

Dinner/Accommodation: Bridge Hotel, Buttermere CA13 9UZ (01768-770252; bridge-hotel.com) – friendly, well-run family hotel

Guidebook: Family Walks In The Lake District by A Wainwright/Tom Holman, pub. Frances Lincoln

Info: Keswick TIC (01768-772645); lakedistrict.gov.uk
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Fine old high jinks they had in former days on the hilltop of Cym-y-Bwch, the ‘Horns of the Buck’, just outside Oswestry where Shropshire looks west into Wales.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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From Georgian into Victorian times, hotly contested horse races were held up here, competing for purses of golden guineas and the solid silver Sir Watkin Williams Wynn Cup. What with the drinking, gambling, pickpocketing and lewd behaviour that came to plague the occasion, the gentry stopped attending, and in 1848 the last races were run.

These days the old grassy figure-of-eight track is a favourite place to take a breather and walk the dog. The Offa’s Dyke Path National Trail runs through the Old Racecourse, and we followed its straight course along a thickly wooded scarp edge among firs that gave out a resinous, almost buttery smell. Tiny goldcrests flitted in the treetops. A brisk, blowy sky ran overhead, and huge views opened from the blue distances of the Cheshire plain to the Long Mynd and the Breidden Hills further south.

A tangle of steep lanes led out of the trees along the line of Offa’s Dyke. In the fields beyond Pentre-shannel farm we found the old rampart more than man-height, its earthen bank knitted with big oak and ash trees and burrowed to a grey tissue by rabbits that scampered for cover. By a cottage on a green lane we met a couple walking their sheepdogs ‘Oh,’ said the woman, ‘try Hafod Lane if you want lovely flowers and views.’

It proved a great piece of advice. The narrow lane runs round the flank of the knobbly hill of Mynydd Myfyr. We climbed between banks of frothy yellow crosswort, red campion, blue speedwell and little scarlet wild strawberries to a superb view west over green lumpy country towards the higher Welsh hills – a steeply folded landscape nurtured and shaped by sheep and cattle farming, but somehow retaining a smack of wildness.

We found a path skirting the northern slope of Mynydd Myfyr. A lonely farm lay there, so deep in its cleft that only its roof showed until we were right on top of it. We crossed fields of lush grass and descended flower-bordered lanes, then headed back into the woods once more. A stiff climb, a shady tunnel of firs, and we were up at the Old Racecourse, on the Horns of the Buck, with the wind in our faces and a fifty-mile view to savour.

Start: Oswestry Old Racecourse car park, Shropshire, SY10 7HL approx. (OS ref SJ 258305).

Getting there: Signed to left off B4580 Rhydycroesau road, 2 miles west of Oswestry.

Walk (7½ miles, moderate, OS Explorer 240): Turn left along grass track of Old Racecourse to Janus Horse sculpture (257303). Left here along Offa’s Dyke Path/OD (yellow arrows/YA, OD acorn symbols) for 2 miles, passing Pentre-shannel farm (257279) to reach a lane (258274, ‘Trefonen ½ mile’). Leave OD and turn right to T-jct. Over stile (YA, ‘50’ logo), up hedge, through gate (254273). Aim a little right of white cottage opposite, crossing 2 fields (stiles, YAs) to green lane (250273). YA points right, but go left to road by cottage.

Left along lane for ¼ mile to junction just past New Barns (250269). Right here through gateway and up drive. Through gate, on along right side of barns; follow track across 2 fields to cross stile on right of gate (245268). Right up Hafod Lane round Mynydd Myfyr for a little over ½ mile; turn right over stile (243277, ‘footpath’) up hedge to stile (YA). Follow fence on left (YAs, stiles) to Pant-y-ffynon farm. Right into grassy drive (247277, YA), left along it. Through gate, immediately right over stile (YA); half left across field to cross stile to left of gate (249276, YA). In bottom right corner of next field, stile into lane.

Left; in 100m, right over 2 stiles close together (250277); half right across field to go through hedge gap a little to right of tall trees (249279). Keep parallel to the upper hedge, down to cross stile, right along track to road at Croesau Bach (247280). Cross road; bear right along lane opposite for ⅔ mile, down to bear left across bridge (256282). Follow Offa’s Dyke Path for ¼ mile back into Candy Wood. Where OD turns right (254286), go left along woodland track. At first fork after that, go left (YA); at next fork, go right (252288, YA) for 600m along bottom of wood with river on left. Track then rises steeply to rejoin OD (255298); left to Old Racecourse car park

Lunch: Picnic; or Barley Mow, Trefonen (01691-656889; offasdykebrewery.com)

Accommodation: Helen Gilbert, The Pentre, Trefonen, Oswestry, postcode (01691-653952; thepentre.com) – first class, friendly B&B; evening meal by arrangement.

Information: Oswestry TIC (01691-662753/662488)

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