Christopher Somerville

The Upchurch peninsula sticks up from the North Kent coast into the wide tidal basin of the Medway Estuary.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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This is one of those outposts, remote and full of character, yet amazingly close to London, that one stumbles upon with a thrill of discovery – especially at this time of year when the apple orchards are in full blossom.

Under the 700-year-old roof of St Mary’s Church at Newington the damned bared their teeth in the agonies of Hell while angelic trumpet blasts summoned the righteous from their coffins – the vivid events of Judgement Day depicted by a medieval fresco painter, as admonitory as a slap on the backside. From the candy-striped flint and ragstone tower of St Mary’s we followed a path north over the green upland of Broom Down to Lower Halstow, neatly tucked along its creek beside the great marsh and mud expanse of the Medway estuary.

Black-headed gulls screeched around a brace of beautifully restored Thames barges moored at Halstow Quay. On the seaward horizon the big blue cranes on the Isle of Grain dipped with majestic slowness like giraffes stooping to graze. A wind scented with salt and mud blew stiffly inland to rustle a million pink and white apple blossoms in the orchards around Ham Green.

Up the seaward edge of the peninsula we went, past the old coasting craft-turned-houseboats lying belly down in Twinney Creek, a curl of smoke rising from a home-made tin chimney. Then inland past the orchards around Frog Farm, the tiny shoulder-high apple trees frothing with blossom and already beginning to hum with hoverflies and early bees. The tremulous, bubbling cries of a curlew came from the saltmarshes behind us as we followed the narrow lanes through Ham Green and on by the fishing lakes.

As we passed through Upchurch, the village cricket team in well-washed whites was walking out onto Hollywell Meadow. In Chaffes Lane a bunch of lads puzzled over the oily innards of an old scooter. A flat-capped man who must have seen off at least eighty winters gave us a wink as he shuffled into the side door of the Crown Inn, and in St Mary’s Church an effigy of the Green Man spewed a mouthful of flowers like a promise of spring.

Start & finish: Newington Station, Newington, Kent ME9 7LQ (OS ref TQ 859650)
Getting there: Train (www.thetrainline.com; www.railcard.co.uk) to Newington. Road: M25 (Jct 2), M2 (Jct 5); A249 towards Sittingbourne; A2 towards London for 1½ miles. Park near Newington station.

Walk (7 miles, easy, OS Explorer 148): Down Station Road; in 20m, opposite No 41, left along alleyway; left along Church Lane. Under railway; on to crossroads (861653) with Church of St Mary the Virgin to right. From crossroads, ahead (‘Lower Halstow’) down Wardwell Lane. In 200m on right bend, left (861655; footpath fingerpost); on through valley by footbridges and stiles. At foot of slope (860660), bear left up slope, aiming left of pylon; cross left-hand of two stiles. Follow path under power lines, over Broom Downs to road at Lower Halstow (859669). Left; immediately right along path with stream on left; in 300m, left across footbridge; right at end of alley to T-junction (859672), with Three Tuns PH and St Margaret’s Church to right.
Across junction by pub; pass ‘Private – No Parking’ sign, then ‘Moorings’ house to reach Halstow Wharf. Continue along Saxon Shore Way/ SShW past Halstow and Twinney Creeks for 1½ miles to Shoregate Lane (850691). Inland (SShW) for ¼ mile to Ham Green Farm (847688). Right along road; in 20 m, left (SShW) on track through orchards, past riding stables (SShW) to road (844683). Left (SShW); in 250m, right (SShW) across field; through kissing gate (843679) with lake on right. SShW bears right here, but turn left (‘public footpath’ arrow) along hedge; cross paddocks into housing estate at Upchurch. Left to T-junction; right up The Street, past The Crown PH and St Mary’s Church (844675).

Opposite Post Office, left down Chaffes Lane. In 200m, left opposite Bradshaws Close (844672). Take right-hand of two footpaths (stile, ‘footpath’ fingerpost), across paddocks by kissing gates for ⅓ mile. At far side of paddocks, right over stile (846667); bear left around paddock. On far side, left over a stile (847666, yellow arrow) down path to road (848665). Right to crossroads with Breach Lane (851663). Through a kissing gate opposite; aim for pylon, then keep same line over fields and through an orchard to its top right corner (853658). Left over stile, across field, then between paddocks to cross road (854655). Continue same line across large field; under railway (856650); ahead to A2 in Newington; left to Station Road; left to station.
One of 25 walks in Walks In The Country Near London (new edition) by Christopher Somerville, just published by New Holland.

Lunch: Three Tuns, Lower Halstow (01795-842840)
Church keyholders (NB Please contact several days in advance of your walk in order to avoid disappointment): St Mary’s Church, Newington – Rev Liz Cox (01795-844241; rev.liz.cox@btinternet.com); St Margaret’s Church, Lower Halstow, and St Mary’s Church, Upchurch – Rev Jacky Davies (01795-842557; jackytd@halstowmillhouse.eclipse.co.uk)
More info: Sittingbourne TIC (01795-417478); www.visitkent.co.uk
Readers’ Walks: Come and enjoy a country walk with our experts! Dates, info etc.: http://www.mytimesplus.co.uk/travel/uk/1867/times-walks. Next walk: Lake District, 8 April
www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk

People have been doing the Waterfalls Walk since the days of stovepipe hats and crinolines, and this steep, tree-hung circuit of the two moorland rivers that rush together in Ingleton village to form the River Greta continues to be one of Yorkshire’s prime outdoor attractions.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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I’d always assumed that any walk so popular must be a bit tame – but not at all. The twin gorges of the River Twiss and Doe may be well-trodden, but they’re far from commodified. The combination of thick woods, waterfalls, churning narrows and thread-like paths exerts as much magic on today’s walkers as it did on Victorian holidaymakers in search of swoonsome thrills.

Setting off from Ingleton along the narrow path that shadows the River Twiss, we were almost at once enclosed in the dark walls of a gorge, with the river running fast among mossy stones splashed with dipper droppings. Beside the path lay a money tree, its hide as scaly as a lizard’s with tens of thousands of copper coins hammered into the boughs for luck. The trail climbed the wall of a canyon above swirling holes where the south-going river chased round and round before escaping, sculpting semi-circular hollows in the rock walls with a continuous swallow and gurgle. Its cold breath and smell of stone and earth came up to us as we crossed the gorge on lattice footbridges under which the peat-charged water sluiced as dark and frothy as a gush of porter.

A roe deer went bounding up the bank, its white scut bobbing a warning. A long view upriver showed Pecca Falls crashing down a staircase of slippery rock steps. Beyond the cascade the trail left the trees and followed a curve of the Twiss. A wonderful view opened ahead towards Thornton Force, pride of the walk, descending a series of rapids before hurling itself in a 50- foot freefall into a smoking pool. Above this thunderous weight of water we followed a walled lane into the mist. Unseen and offstage, sheep bleated, a farmer whistled and a quad went puttering over an invisible field by Twisleton Hall.

Below the farm the River Doe echoed and hissed in its own steep walled canyon, leaping down towards Ingleton and its confluence with the Twiss through S-shaped channels carved through the shale by the force of water alone. We crossed above potholes boiling with toffee-coloured bubbles, and skirted backwaters where the surface lay marbled with scarcely moving patterns of foam. Below the white wall of Snow Falls the path snaked past another money tree and on through mossy old quarry workings, to emerge at the foot of the gorge with the church and houses of Ingleton lying beyond, as muted and dreamy looking as any faded Victorian lithograph.

Start & finish: Waterfalls Walk car park, Ingleton, N. Yorks LA6 3ET (OS ref SD 693733)
Getting there: Bus – Service 80 (Lancaster-Ingleton), 581 (Ingleton-Settle). Road – M6 Jct 34 (A683, A687) or Jct 36 (A65) to Ingleton. Waterfalls Walk is signed in village.

Walk (4½ miles, moderate/strenuous, OS Explorer OL2): From car park follow waymark arrows up River Twiss, along lane via Twisleton Hall farm (702751) and down River Doe.
Conditions: Continuous slippery paths and steps.
NB – Online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk.

Refreshments: Frumenty & Fluffin teashop, Main Street, Ingleton (01524-241659)
Accommodation: Croft Gate, Chapel-le-Dale, Ingleton (01524-242664; www.croft-gate.co.uk) – quiet, friendly and immaculate B&B
Waterfalls Walk: Open 9 a.m. daily; £5 entrance/car park pp; £11 family; complimentary leaflet guide
More info: Ingleton TIC (01524-241049); www.visitingleton.co.uk; www.yorkshire.com
Readers’ Walks: Come and enjoy a country walk with our experts! Dates, info etc.: http://www.mytimesplus.co.uk/travel/uk/1867/times-walks. Next walk: Lake District, 8 April
www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk

Some walks just grab you so hard that you know you’ll be back to enjoy them again, if not sooner then later.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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It was a good five years since I’d last set off from Alfriston, but nothing had changed in this lovely corner of East Sussex. The same clear-cut line of the South Downs above the village, running down to their final embrace of the coastal flatland; the same eccentric old carvings in the Star Inn’s frontage; even identical late winter weather, a cold blue sky arched over Alfriston, calling me up to the hills.

A covey of partridges burst whirring out of the root crops as I went up the flinty, half-frozen path onto the roof of the downs. Views were wide and wonderful – the North Downs a grey-blue line 30 miles to the north, the green billows of the South Downs riding up and away into the west, Alfriston lying with its stumpy church spire and tiled roofs like a village in a Brian Cook book jacket, all flat angles in bright brick reds, acid greens and indigos. The cold air stung my nostrils and smoked my breath. Descending to pass below the Long Man of Wilmington, I saw that spiders had strewn the ancient chalk-cut giant with a maze of cobwebs, so that the 200-ft figure sparkled as though encased in diamonds on its steep hillside.

Frost clung in tight curls to the muddy ruts of the path that led through the woods to Folkington. Elizabeth David lies in the churchyard under a gravestone carved with aubergines, peppers and cloves of garlic. Celebrity chefs are twenty to the teaspoonful nowadays, but she was the first, a post-war culinary pioneer who introduced beige British tastebuds to snazzy foreign flavours, a shock from which we’ve never recovered.

A snaking old track brought me south to Jevington with its cheerful Eight Bells pub and thousand-year-old church tower built like a fortress against Viking marauders. A Saxon Christ adorns the wall, victorious over a puny, wriggling serpent. Crossing the downs on the homeward stretch, I marvelled at how a corner of countryside with such a vigorous and bloody history – Viking and French raids, coastguard battles with the smuggling gangs, Second World War bombs and doodlebugs – has settled to a tranquillity as smooth as the applewood smoke rising from Alfriston’s chimneys into the blue Sussex sky.

Start & finish: The Willows car park, Alfriston, East Sussex BN26 5UQ (OS ref TQ 521033)
Getting there: Train (www.thetrainline.com; www.railcard.co.uk) to Eastbourne; bus 126 to Alfriston. Road: Alfriston signed off A27 (Brighton-Eastbourne), 5½ miles after A26 Newhaven roundabout.

PLEASE NOTE: The Wealdway Path between Folkington and Jevington will be closed for six months from 1 April 2012 for work by the Water Authority

Walk (8½ miles, moderate, OS Explorer 123):
From The Willows car park (521033), follow footpath by wall on right of coach park. Cross stile; right to cross another; right along river bank; left across White Bridge (522031) to road. Cross road; take footpath on right of house. In 20 yards up steps; on up hedged path. In 100 yards, left through hedge (525031 – South Downs Way/SDW marker post); diagonally right on path across field; through hedge; across next field to cross stile onto SDW (532033).

Right to cross road; follow SDW uphill past Windover Reservoir to go through gate into Access Land (538035). SDW continues ahead, but turn left along fence over ridge; in 30 yards, right along track, through gate and on for a mile, passing Long Man of Wilmington (542034) where you join the Wealdway path. At The Holt, through gate into wood (551040); right along track for ½ mile to St Peter’s Church, Folkington (559038). Bear right (as you approach church) along Wealdway for just over a mile to T-junction of track; left (561021 – ‘Wealdway’ arrow) to road; right through Jevington, passing Eight Bells pub (563017).

Continue for 100 yards to left bend; take path on right of road to St Andrew’s Church (562015). On up SDW for 2/3 of a mile to Holt Brow (553019). SDW turns right here, but keep ahead for one and a quarter miles through Lullington Heath NNR, passing Winchester’s Pond (540020), to fork (533020). Keep ahead (‘Litlington’), down to road (523021). Left past Litlington church. Just before Plough & Harrow pub, right (523017 – ‘Vanguard Way’) to Cuckmere River; right along bank for 1 mile to Alfriston.

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Lunch: Eight Bells, Jevington (01323-484442; 8bellsonline.co.uk); Plough & Harrow, Litlington (01323-870632; www.ploughandharrowlitlington.co.uk)
More info: Eastbourne TIC (01323-415450); www.visitsussex.org
Family Support Work sponsored walk: Alfriston-Wilmington-Alfriston (7 miles), Easter Monday, 9 April – info 01273-425699; www.familysupportwork.org.uk
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk

In 1776, 22-year-old Thomas Coke inherited the Holkham Estate – 30,000 acres of sandy, salty, windblasted and flinty land along the North Norfolk coast.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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The young owner dedicated himself with a passion to improving the agriculture of this barren countryside. By the time he died in 1842, hugely famous as a breeder of sheep and cattle, grass and turnip pioneer and all-round agricultural reformer, he was known simply and universally as ‘Coke of Norfolk’.

On a glorious sunny afternoon, the tall column of the Coke Monument glowed brilliantly in strong winter sunlight among the bare trees of Holkham Park. Guarded by stone sheep and long-horned cattle, embellished with bas-reliefs of sheep shearers, horses and dogs, diggers and planters of seed, the inscription named Thomas Coke ‘Father, Friend and Landlord’, and declared: ‘Of such a man contemporaries needed no memorial. His Deeds were before them: His Praise in their hearts.’

Grand sentiments, and a grand artificial landscape to wander through, a gentle forest of old sweet chestnuts and beeches in which a long lake lay like a dark jewel. Pink-footed geese honked and chattered as they rested on the water. On a green knoll the Church of St Withburga caught the westering sun and threw it back dazzlingly from windows and flint cobble walls. Across the lake lay the grand Palladian palace of Holkham Hall, severely built of yellow brick by Thomas Coke’s uncle, the Earl of Leicester. Fallow deer roamed its parkland, their big branchy antlers occasionally clashing as they grazed close together.

From this miniature land of content the trail extended into the southern half of Holkham Park with its more agricultural feel – big open fields of beet, carrots and winter wheat, bounded by conifer belts and pheasant coverts. Coke of Norfolk would have appreciated the Holkham of today, a subtle balance of commercial and utopian landscapes.

Thomas Coke took a barren countryside and made it tremendously productive, literally sowing the seeds of North Norfolk’s agricultural success. Human beings are not the only beneficiaries of this transformation. The pink-footed geese that come from Iceland and Greenland to winter on the Norfolk coast spend each day in the fields, feeding on sugar beet fragments, before flying seaward at dusk to roost on the marshes and mudflats. That’s where I found them towards nightfall, gabbling and jostling in their hundreds, a seething carpet of big rustling birds. I watched them from a hide, entranced, as the sky turned apple green, then gold and pink, before darkening to the indigo of night.

Start: Holkham, North Norfolk NR23 1RG (OS ref TF 892440)
Getting there: Coasthopper Bus (01553-776980; www.coasthopper.co.uk), King’s Lynn-Cromer
Road: On A149 between Brancaster and Wells-next-the-Sea

Walk directions: (6½ miles from Holkham or 8½ miles with hide extension; easy; OS Explorer 251): Up Holkham Hall drive, through gateway (892435); right, following Farm Walk (red posts) to Coke Monument (884436). Ahead to lake; right (anti-clockwise) round lake (Lake Walk, yellow posts) via St Withburga’s Church (878436). At T-junction at foot of lake (880427), left past Ice House, right along The Avenue to pass Obelisk (884420). In 300 m, left (883416; Park Walk, green posts) back to gateway at Holkham.

Hide extension: Start walk from car park at north end of Lady Anne’s Drive (891448; £5 all day, coins or card). To reach easy access bird hide (883452, signposted) turn left on forest track beyond car park.

Lunch/accommodation: Victoria Hotel, Holkham (01328-711008; www.holkham.co.uk/victoria) – superbly friendly, warm and genuinely welcoming
Tea: Rose Garden Teashop, Holkham (01328-711285)
Information: Holkham Estate (01328-710227; www.holkham.co.uk); Wells-next-the-Sea TIC (01328-710885; www.visitnorfolk.co.uk)
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk

Kingston lies shut away in a tangle of high-banked lanes, a South Hams village that retains a vigorous social life in and out of the holiday season.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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Crockers and Terrys lie companionably in the churchyard of St James the Less, our starting point for a walk along the coast of this isolated region of south Devon. In the ferny banks an astonishing treasury of flowers had responded to the mildness of this winter – herb robert, celandines, primroses, red campion and snowdrops all blooming together.

Between the leafless, wind-streamed trees of Furzedown Wood we caught glimpses of the tide-ribbed, dull gold sandflats and milky turquoise water of the Erme estuary, a snaking channel that reached its mouth between wooded headlands of black rock. Out on the coast a low wind brought a breath of winter in from the sea. The water lay slate-coloured under a grey sky streaked with pearly patches. Contorted cliff faces fell hundreds of feet to secret beaches and coves floored with tight-packed parallel lines of rock scars. A little back from the edge ran the path, swooping a couple of hundred feet into the green grassy dips, then soaring back up and over a succession of headlands.

It was heady walking, with the sea-monster shape of tidal Burgh Island as an aiming point ahead. The island’s Art Deco hotel gleamed in the muted winter light, an exotic morsel much picked over by guests both actual and apocryphal – Noel Coward, Winston Churchill, The Beatles and M. Hercule Poirot among them. We descended to the shore in Bigbury-on-Sea opposite Burgh Island’s other hostelry, the tiny old Pilchard Inn. Jane opted to cross the sandy causeway for a bowl of soup and a bit of a sit-down there, while I set off back to Kingston through the switchback fields and stream valleys of the hinterland.

By the time I’d fetched the car and negotiated the narrow lanes back to Bigbury-on-Sea, the tide had risen to cover the causeway. I watched as Jane came ashore on Burgh Island’s tall blue sea tractor, riding in state like Queen Suriyothai on her war elephant.

The Dolphin in Kingston is one of those pubs that draws you in on a cold winter’s night – a combination of lamp-lit windows, the promise of a pint and a plate of food, a cosy setting and the flicker of a real good fire. It was great to get the weight off our muddy feet and settle down there with the wind and rain shut out, the map spread on the table and a great day’s walking to chew over at leisure.

Start & finish: Dolphin Inn, Kingston, Bigbury, Devon TQ7 4QE (OS ref SX 636478)
Getting there: M5, A38 to Ivybridge turn; minor road to Ermington; A3121, A379 to Modbury; minor road to Kingston.

Walk (9 miles, strenuous, OS Explorer OL20): From Dolphin Inn, left past church. At crossroads, right (‘Wonwell Beach’). In ¼ mile, just past dogleg, left (632481; ‘Wonwell Beach’); follow fingerposts and yellow arrows/YAs over fields for ¾ mile, down through Furzedown Wood to road by Erme estuary (620478). Left for 150m; left up steps (‘Coast Path, Bigbury-on-Sea’). Follow coast path for 5 miles to Bigbury-on-Sea (if tide allows, cross sands causeway – 651442 – to Pilchard Inn – 648440).

Climb Parker Road; at top, through gate (653446; arrow, fingerpost/FP). On across fields; at end of 3rd field (658448), left downhill with fence on right (FP, ‘Ringmore’). Follow YAs, crossing lane at 656453, to Ringmore. At road, ahead to T-junction by church (653460). Right, then left up side of church. In 150m, left through kissing gate (653461; ‘Kingston’ FP). Diagonally right across field and through gate; follow YAs through gates and fields, turning left (650463) to descend to stream in valley. Bear right (648463) along stream, crossing it at ruined Noddonmill (649465); on (YA) along left bank of stream, into wood (very muddy!). In ¼ mile, steeply uphill out of trees; anti-clockwise round field to far right corner (645471; FP). Right along farm track. Round left bend, and turn right (644473; FP) across field to lane (643474). Left (YA) for 50m; right (FP) and follow YAs along field edges and through woodland to road (637476). Right to T-junction in Kingston (636477); right, then left to Dolphin Inn.

NB – Online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk. Click on Facebook “Like” link to share this walk with Facebook friends.
Lunch: Pilchard Inn, Burgh Island (01548-810514; soup and baguettes only; if marooned by high tide, return ashore on Sea Tractor – £2– check times/tides in advance); Journey’s End Inn, Ringmore (01548-810205).
Accommodation: Dolphin Inn, Kingston (01548-810314); low beams, fires, good cheer – a community hub.
More info: Totnes TIC (01803-863168); www.visitdevon.co.uk
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk