Christopher Somerville

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

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Mighty clouds of elephant grey came sailing over the high slopes of Black Edge and Binn Moor, and on across the Colne Valley. Among them, blue streaks gave promise of a better, if brisker, afternoon.

It’s a long time since the buzzer at Bank Bottom Mill summoned half the working population of Marsden to its carding machines and looms. The weather-stained old mill stands redundant at the bottom of the town, as big as a cathedral, acres of windows and grey slate roofs round a central tower and a slender octagonal chimney.

We followed a laneway among these haunting ruins, then on to where a great grass bank filled half the skyline. The dam of Butterley Reservoir is a really impressive sight, even when floodwater is not cascading in white ripples down its spillway.

Blakeley Reservoir, high above, is smaller and wilder. Local volunteers were planting young oaks along the banks of Wessenden Brook. Here we stood and looked back along the twisting valley with its man-made lakes, insinuated among the hills at the turn of the 20th century to feed the mills and wells of industrial Huddersfield.

Walking the Pennine Way across these moors used to be a purgatorial flounder among bogs and peat hags. Nowadays, thousands of old mill flagstones give dry passage across the morass. This afternoon’s westward walk beside Blakeley Clough was a pure pleasure, striding firm-footed as the sun burst from behind the clouds and turned the moor grass to a sea of wind-ruffled gold.

The moor top reservoirs of Black Moss and Swellands lay side by side in modest beds, their water the polished indigo of a lobster’s shell. On the shore of Redbrook Reservoir the Pennine Way met the Standedge Trail, whose stony path we followed, chased by an icy wind. It carried us down from the hills and back to Marsden by way of a narrow old walled lane, from which we looked down over the terraced houses along the valley, and the tall black chimney of the great mill complex still standing silent at the foot of the town.
Start: Marsden railway station, Marsden, W. Yorks HD7 6AX (OS ref SE 047118)

Getting there: Bus 185 from Huddersfield. Road – Marsden is on A62 (Huddersfield-Oldham)

Walk (7 miles, moderate, OS Explorers OL21, OL1): Cross canal, walk downhill. At left bend, right across river, past church. Cross Towngate; along weir side. Cross Mount Road; up Binn Road. In 100m, fork left by Marsden Industrial Society between Bank Bottom Mill buildings (048111); on along lane to Butterley Reservoir dam. Up steps on left (049106); at top, right on Kirklees Way (fingerpost) for 1 mile to top of Blakeley Reservoir. Right on Pennine Way (054091, fingerpost) over Marsden Moor for 2 miles. Just before Redbrook Reservoir, right (027094) along Standedge Trail (unmarked, broad track). In ¾ mile cross Mount Road (037101). Up Old Mount Road; in 50m fork left (‘Hades Farm’). In 900m, right (042110, ‘Marsden Heritage Trail’, Point 15) down walled lane to track (044111). Left past house; walled lane for 300m to gate on left of farmhouse (044113). Right along house wall; ahead through 2 gates (yellow arrow); down sloping field, following gully to bottom left corner (046115). Cross stile; right down lane to road; left across A62; return to station.

Conditions: Some short, steep ascents/descents; some muddy parts

Lunch: The Railway, Marsden (01484-841541, railwaymarsdenhuddersfield.co.uk)

Accommodation: The Carriage House, Manchester Rd, Standedge, Marsden HD7 6NL (01484-844419, thecarriage-house.co.uk)

Info: yorkshire.com/places/west-yorkshire; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

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

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‘Oh, we have people here all the year round to visit the waterfalls,’ said the landlord of the New Inn at Ystradfellte, ‘and a nice Sunday carvery, and that’s how we keep going.’

The New Inn, as warm and welcoming as you’d like every village pub to be, is at the heart of tiny but thriving Ystradfellte, in a cleft of the Brecon Beacons country. It takes a good positive community to keep a pub, post office, church and village hall going these days in such a small and out-of-the-way place.

Brooks trickled and field ditches chuckled with water after last night’s rain. Down at Porth-yr-Og, unearthly groans and roars issued from a cave in which the Afon Mellte went churning and twisting invisibly through subterranean narrows. A file of youngsters in hard hats and caving overalls came up the path, grinning their heads off with excitement at what they’d seen down there.

A narrow, stony laneway, all mud and moss, led us over a green hillside and down into a parallel valley where the Nedd Fechan river rushed beneath Pont Rhyd-y-Cnau, ‘bridge at the ford of the nuts’. Hazels still overhung the water, but squirrels had gathered all the nuts for winter.

We walked upriver beside the Nedd Fechan, feeling its cold breath on our cheeks. The rain-swollen water hurried over rapids, fed by tributaries that tumbled down through the woods in stepped waterfalls. Pwll Du, the black pool, lay quiet, a dark silver disc in a cave mouth at the foot of a crag. We scrambled up a steep little path and teetered along at the rim of the gorge, ducking under silver birch boughs crusty with white and green lichens.

A farm track across the river led up to Cefn-ucheldref, the ‘back homestead’, a lonely clutch of mossy ruins on the hillside. A final crossing of the Nedd Fechan, and we followed an old bridleway eastward over a sedgy upland until the neat white houses of Ystradfellte appeared below in a twinkle of lights through the dusk.

Start: Ystradfellte car park, Brecon Beacons, CF44 9JE (OS ref: SN 930134)

Getting there: Ystradfellte is signed from A4059, 4 miles north of Hirwaun

Walk (6 miles, strenuous in parts, OS Explorer OL12): Right by New Inn, past church; cross river; in 200m, right (932130, stile, yellow arrow/YA). Follow path for 600m to car park (928124). Detour right down zigzag path, then left over stiles to see Porth-yr-ogof cave. At road beyond car park, right; just past ‘Cwmporth’ sign, left (blue arrow, ‘bridleway’) south-west along narrow walled lane.

In 900m at T-junction (921117, blue post), right to road. Left; first right (919117, ‘Nedd Valley’). In 200m, left through gate (unmarked); down steep lane to river at Pont Rhyd-y-Cnau (912116). Don’t cross bridge; turn right (north) on riverbank path. In 500m, at Pwll Du pool and cave (912121), climb narrow path above pool. Follow narrow path, close to fence on right at top of gorge, north for 500m to cross river on bridge below Dyffryn-Nedd (912126).

Up track (YAs) to field (911128); follow track, keeping same height above river. In 500m aim a little left for ruins of Cefn-ucheldref (909135, stile, YA). Right along lane above; in 350m, right on track (908139, unmarked), descending to cross river (911140). Left at road above; in 200m, right (913141, gate, ‘Ystradfellte’ fingerpost).

Half right across field, through gate; follow track. From next gate (914140) follow grassy track; in 150m, fork right. Follow path past occasional posts across open ground. In 300m pass rocky outcrops on left (917139); aim east across big open area, passing left of enclosure with poles (920139), then aiming for gate in angle of walls at far left corner of field (924138). Follow green lane south-west for ½ mile to Ystradfellte.

Conditions: muddy bridleways, narrow path on steep slope from Pwll Du northwards. Boots, sticks, mud-proof legwear!

Lunch: New Inn, Ystradfellte (01639-720211; waterfallways.co.uk) – excellent, friendly pub

Accommodation: Nant-Ddu Lodge, Cwm Taf, Merthyr Tydfil CF48 2HY (01685-379111, nant-ddu-lodge.co.uk)

Info: breconbeacons.org; visitwales.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

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

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A slip of tan sand, a jumble of sharp black rocks and a welter of surf at Northcott Mouth. We stood and watched the waves leaping up at the feet of the cliffs and falling back in a hissing collar of spray – a sombre, elemental scene to set the mood for this unforgiving stretch of the North Cornwall coast.

From the cliff path we looked down on dark scars that seamed across the beach under Menachurch Point, each narrow ridge an individual rock layer tilted on end by subterranean upheavals, then ground down level with the beach through the inexorable power of the sea. Sections of the clifftop had cracked and fallen away, leaving grassy bowers hanging over space where sheep grazed as nonchalantly as though in some cosy paddock.

Down into Sandy Mouth where a jet of water spouted out of the cliff; up, over and down again into the tumbled wasteland of Warren Gutter, the path so black and greasy it looked more like coal-mining country than the Cornish shore. A slippery haul up Warren Point and over to Duckpool’s tiny strand, a pause to look back along thirty miles of thundering grey surf, and we turned inland into the peaceful cleft of the Coombe Valley.

Two thatched houses guarded the ford at Coombe. Beyond lay deep woods of sweet chestnut, hazel and oak under a sky mottled in grey and airforce blue. Sedgy strips of meadowland formed the valley floor, where a stream twisted in snake bends as it sought out a way to the sea. This is the most perfect Swallows-and-Amazons setting for children staying in the cottages at Coombe, and we saw them paddling and yelling in the stream as we followed a parallel path back through Stowe Woods and up a lumpy bank to Stowe Barton.

The National Trust looks after this complex of granite buildings, a classic ridge-top farmstead of Cornwall, its roofs low and slated, its lane flanked by extravagantly wind-sculpted trees. Beyond Stowe Barton a good broad bridleway ran south across whaleback fields. This is not cream tea Cornwall – it is hard, stony land to farm and a dangerous coast to fish. Stone walls are built thick and strong, lanes burrow between windbreak hedgebanks and the land slopes westward to plunge off the scalloped cliff edge into the sea.

Start: Northcott Mouth, near Bude EX23 9EL (OS ref SS 203085)

Getting there: From Stratton on A39 (Bideford-Bude) follow ‘Poughill’; from Poughill, follow ‘Northcott Mouth’. Park neatly at end of road.

Walk (6 ¾ miles, strenuous on coastal section, OS Explorer 126): Coastal path north for 2 miles to Duckpool (202117). Road inland; at junction, left; in 100m, right through Coombe to cross ford (210117). Ahead (‘Coombe Valley’) on woodland track. In ⅔ mile fork right (221116, fingerpost) across stream. In 150m, fork right (220114); cross stream; left and follow path westward for ⅔ mile through Stowe Wood and on to cross road at Stowe Barton (212112). Follow lane opposite (‘Northcott Mouth 1.8 miles’, blue arrow/BA). In 350m, left (209110, BA); follow bridleway south. In 700m cross road (209103) and on, following BAs. In ⅔ mile go through gate (206094); bear right (unmarked), and keep to left-hand hedge. Ahead for ⅔ mile to Northcott Mouth.

Lunch: Preston Gate Inn, Poughill (01288-354017, prestongateinn.co.uk) – warm, friendly village pub

Accommodation: Landmark Trust cottages around ford at Coombe (01628-825925; landmarktrust.org.uk) – beautifully kept, classy self-catering

Info: Bude TIC (01288-354240)
visitengland.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

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

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The Lyth Valley was seething with moisture, in the air and on the meadows. The River Lyth ran within the confines of its banks, but only just. The hills were wet and misted. There had been rain over South Cumbria – a lot of it – and there was going to be a lot more.

It wasn’t really the morning to leave the light and warmth of the Lyth Valley Inn, if any morning ever is. But we thought we saw a chink of better weather in the offing, and plunged out waterproofed to the nines.

The upland of Whitbarrow, walled with ramparts of pale grey crags, rises between the valleys of Lyth and Winster. You can get up there from the cart road that curves round the northern snout of Whitbarrow. The limestone cobbles of the old track were skiddy this morning, and carpeted with black and gold hazel leaves. The view over the stone walls was of lumpy green sheep pastures patched with bracken the colour of damp fox fur.

Past Fell Edge Farm the track began to rise, snaking to and fro among the outcrops until it slipped over the top by way of a wall stile. Up here the wind blew strong and cold from the north-west. A patch of sea in Morecambe Bay gleamed like tarnished silver under a momentary smear of sunlight.

Whitbarrow’s broad back was dotted with clumps of low-growing juniper. A pinch of the hard green berries released savours of gin that clung to the fingers. We sniffed the damp wind and the harsh chalky smell of wet limestone. There was a sense of freedom and exhilaration up here on our own, the landscape veiled, the Lakeland mountains shut away from sight in the north but rising like waves in the mind’s eye.

At the cairn on Lord’s Seat we had a wind-whipped moment or two, watching the rain draw a milky sheet across the sea. Off the crags and down a slippery path into the stone-walled pastures at Row, where the ewes all stared as though they had never seen a human being before.

It was just beginning to freckle with rain as we descended the path to the Lyth Valley Inn. That chink of opportunity for a walk had proved just exactly wide enough.

Start: Lyth Valley Inn, Lyth, Kendal, Cumbria LA8 8DB (OS ref SD 453896)

Getting there: M6, Jct 36; A6 towards Kendal; A590 towards Barrow; in 2½ miles, left on A5074 for 3 miles to Lyth Valley Inn. Please park opposite.

Walk (5½ miles, moderate, OS Explorer OL7): Up track opposite Lyth Valley Inn. In 150m fork right; in 250m, right at junction (449895, ‘Whitbarrow’). Follow byway for 1 mile to gate (436895) where byway turns right; keep ahead here (blue arrow). Past Fell Edge Farm path begins to climb, zigzagging up crags to wall at top.

Cross step stile (438886, yellow arrow/YA) onto Whitbarrow upland. Follow discernible path south past silver birch trees, aiming for large round boulder on skyline (437883), then for three conical cairns. Path bears left here (SE) to reach plantation wall (440879). Left along wall for 100m; right over ladder stile; ahead with wall on left for 450m to wall stile (443875; don’t cross yet!), where path trends away right past notice board to reach cairn on Lord’s Seat (442870).

Return to cross wall stile; follow path through trees. In 150m, left (YA) for 700m to gate (448880, YA). Left to go through small wall gate; on for 400m through Township Plantation to go over path crossing (450885, YA). Follow main track through wood, ignoring side turnings, curving gradually left for 300m to meet wall (449888). Follow it left to gate into fields (448888). Follow wall on right down to Row. Through gate (450893); lane down to road; turn right. In 150m, left (452892) up lane to return to Lyth Valley Inn.

Conditions: Paths can be slippery after rain

Lunch/Accommodation: Lyth Valley Inn (01539-568295; lythvalley.com) – really comfortable and friendly; lovely food

Info: Kendal TIC (01539-735891); golakes.co.uk.

visitengland.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

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

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The red squirrel sat on the garden wall at The Medlars B&B, nibbling nuts, his tail like a puff of ginger smoke held tightly to the curve of his back. The Isle of Wight is full of red squirrels (it has no grey intruders to out-compete and infect our native species), but I’d never seen one so bold and so willing to hold a charming pose for my delight.

We could have crouched all morning at the window watching the squirrel, but the early morning held the promise of a walk inland from the salty old port of Yarmouth. First, though, a wander along the sandy narrows of Norton Spit among prickly leaves of sea holly and fleshy spears of glasswort, out to the harbour pontoon where moored yachts bobbed.

The Yar estuary curves north through tremendous reedbeds to Yarmouth, a brackish tideway that all but isolates Wight’s western tip into an island of its own. Isle of Wight footpaths are beautifully waymarked and maintained, an exemplary network. The Freshwater Way carried us unerringly south through Saltern Wood and up to a wonderful view, east across reedbeds and river to folded downlands muted by the wintry light to shades of apricot and grey.

Along the margins of thick clay ploughland, oak leaves were beginning to turn brown and crisp. At King’s Manor Farm a donkey grazed the paddocks, gulping and chewing with noisy relish. Birds were forming the flocks that herald winter – pigeons busily pecking in the newly sprung wheat, crows reducing the farmers’ insect enemies as fast as they could gobble them.

In All Saints Church at Freshwater, morning service had just come to an end. ‘Ah, walkers! Come in, welcome! A cup of coffee? Yes, the church is a bit of a Saxon-Norman mishmash, but we love it!’

Beyond All Saints we crossed a broad bridge over the River Yar and followed an old railway path as it curved back to Yarmouth. Black-tailed godwit and ringed plover stalked the river shallows above their own rippled reflections.

Back on the north coast we made our way down to the shore and followed a sea-stained promenade back into town. A Lymington-bound ferry rumbled away out of Yarmouth, red and white sails scudded in the Solent, and the mainland lay grey and misty on the horizon, no more than a cloudy dream on the edge of sight.

Start: River Road car park, Yarmouth, Isle of Wight PO41 0RA (SZ 354895)
Getting there: Red Funnel Ferries (redfunnel.co.uk), Southampton-East Cowes. Bus 5, Cowes-Newport; bus 7, Newport-Yarmouth.
Road – A3021, A3054 to Newport and Yarmouth.
Walk: (6 miles, easy, OS Explorer OL29): From car park, A3054 to cross bridge. On left bend, right (347896, ‘Coastal Path, Fort Victoria’). At seafront, right along Norton Spit, then along pontoons to end. Return to coast road; left towards bridge; in 50m, right and follow ‘Freshwater Way/FW’. In 400m bear right (348892) through Saltern Wood. In another 1¼ miles, left at All Saints Church (347873) along road. Cross River Yar; left (349871) along railway path. In 1½ miles pass ‘Off the Rails’ café (358894); in another ½ mile, left (364896) along B3401 to cross A3054 (363898). Down steps (‘Yarmouth’ fingerpost) to shore; left into Yarmouth.
Lunch: Off the Rails Café, Yarmouth PO41 0QX (01983-761600, offtherailsyarmouth.co.uk) – bright and quirky; or Red Lion Inn, Freshwater PO40 9BP (01983-754925; redlion-freshwater.co.uk)
Accommodation: Medlars B&B, Halletts Shute, Yarmouth PO41 0RH (01983-761541, medlars-bnb.com) – immaculate B&B
Info: visitisleofwight.co.uk
Isle of Wight Walking Festival 2018: 28 April – 13 May
visitengland.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk