Christopher Somerville

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 brilliantly sunny winter’s afternoon, and as blowy as hell on the hillside above Clovelly. This stretch of the North Devon coast was always notorious for the lack of shelter it afforded to seafarers and fishermen in the days of sail, and the waves were dashing against the tall black cliffs as though they would grind heaven and earth to pieces. In the woods the wind roared softly, and as we walked the coast path westward we had glimpses between the leafless oaks of the sea whipping itself into cream on the pebbly beaches far below.

The constant sea wind has streamlined these clifftop woods into a smooth curve that bends inland with hardly a twig breaking the continuous line of the treetops. In the shelter of the trees spring was coming early to North Devon, with shoots of bluebells and sprigs of primrose leaves already showing.

The view back from Gallantry Bower showed the eastward run of the coast to the estuary of Taw and Torridge, then on towards the ghost of Baggy Point in a haze of spray. The cliffs around Mouthmill Beach were full of fantastic geological contortions, the rocks bent into acute angles by tremendous upheavals below the surface hundreds of millions of years ago.

We dropped steeply down to lonely Mouthmill Beach with its abandoned limekiln. In Victorian times the Welsh limestone boats would dump great stone blocks here to be burned to quicklime and spread as fertilizer on the acid local land. Steeply up again to Brownsham Cliff, where we left the coast path to follow the fields to the ancient farming community of Brownsham.

Down in the ferny depths of Brownsham Wood we sat on a mossy wall to hear the wind make a roaring sea of the treetops. Then up and on through the parkland of Clovelly Court, and a steep descent on a path of cobbled steps into Clovelly.

The early 20th century chatelaine of Clovelly Court, Christine Hamlyn, was a bit of a tyrant, and she certainly ran an extremely tight ship. Everything in Clovelly had to be kept just so, with never a whiff of ‘tripper’. What she left for posterity is a village about as perfect as you could wish for, a photogenic tumble of cottages down a ludicrously steep cobbled street. As we climbed the roadway back to the car park, a full moon sailed across the bay and spread a sheen of silver across the restless sea, a scene so beautiful it was hard to believe it was real.
Start: Clovelly car park, North Devon EX39 5TL (OS ref SS 315249)

Getting there: Bus 319 from Barnstaple. Road – Clovelly is signed from A39 between Bideford and Bude.

Walk (6 miles, moderate, OS Explorer 126): Through Visitor Centre, down to roadway. Left (‘Coast Path/CP, Brownsham’). In 100m, left through gate (CP) into field. In 50m, fork right (CP) parallel to road. Follow CP for 2¼ miles. On Brownsham Cliff, where CP turns right down steps, keep ahead (290264, ‘Brownsham ¾’). In 200m, stile (red arrow/RA) into trees. Follow RA/’Brownsham’ to Brownsham car park (286260). Right through car park; left down steps; left (CP) along drive. Past shed, turn right (‘Mouth Mill’, Bridleway).

Follow bridleway track through woods. In ¾ mile, at fork keep right (ahead) across stream (297259). Left at junction (‘bridleway’); in 50m, right up stony track (blue arrow/BA). Through gate (299259); ahead along wood edge; through gate (BA). Half right up field slope to meet track at top right corner of wood ahead (302256, arrow on post). Left along track for ½ mile, through Court Farm to Clovelly Court. Right in front of church (309251); left at road. Keep left where cars fork right for car park (313250). In 300m, right at T-junction (316250); in 50m, left down woodland path, then steep cobbled steps into Clovelly. Left down village street (318248) to harbour; return up street to top (316247); right to car park.

Conditions: Slippery cobbles, muddy paths, unguarded cliffs; steep climb from Mouth Mill.

Lunch/Accommodation: Red Lion, The Quay (01237-431237) or New Inn (01237-431303); both stayatclovelly.co.uk

Info: Clovelly Visitors Centre (01237-431781); clovelly.co.uk; visitengland.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

The January Man – A Year of Walking Britain by Christopher Somerville (Doubleday, £14.99)

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

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Seatown lies tucked into a crack in the Dorset coast, right at the heart of a spectacular run of crumbling cliffs that stretches west from Chesil Beach to well beyond Lyme Regis. This is walking country so superb that it came as a surprise, even on a weekday morning in mid winter, to find ourselves climbing away westward from Seatown’s cosy old smugglers’ pub, the Anchor Inn, with only a handful of walkers to share the South West Coast Path with us.

The weather matched the landscape for magnificence, a cloudless blue bowl of sky, upturned over a coast of close-cropped pasture fields and tall bitten-off cliff faces. The whaleback of Golden Cap is the highest piece of land along the Dorset Coast. Up there, more than 600 feet above the sea, the view was sublime – east along the yellow wall of cliffs to the long curve of Chesil Beach and the distant wedge of the Isle of Portland, west over a great sloping rampart of rock steps smothered in scrub, to Charmouth and Lyme Regis sprinkled in white cubes down their valleys, and the tottering coast beyond.

This is one of the most dynamic coasts in Britain, the greensand and chalk toppings of the cliffs constantly slipping and sliding seaward on the treacherous layer of skiddy gault that underlies them. Rainfall and hidden springs lubricate the clay layer, making things even more wobbly. Falls are frequent, landslips commonplace. The angled flanks of the cliffs and the skirt of fallen material and rocks at their feet bear witness to their remarkable instability.

A young robin, emboldened by hunger, followed us down the steps from Golden Cap, pecking at fragments of chocolate that we let fall. We followed the Coast Path west along the shaky rim of the cliffs, looking down into the chaotic jumble of the undercliff where sedges, willows and brambles flourished in the untrodden ground.

At last we turned inland past lonely Westhay Farm, up to the ridge of Stonebarrow Hill and the homeward path. At Upcot Farm chickens roamed, the farmer dug his muckheap, and a handsome bull stood unmoving beside the stile, contemplating space and his own internal rumblings.

Down in a cleft below Golden Cap we found the broken walls of St Gabriel’s Chapel, built 800 years ago to serve a remote agricultural community in this isolated hollow. Most likely those medieval peasants never had the time or leisure, as we did, to drop down onto the beach at Seatown and watch the red ball of the winter sun sink below the horizon and leave a track of wrinkled gold across the sea.

Start: Anchor Inn, Seatown, Bridport, Dorset DT6 6JU (OS ref SY 420917)

Getting there: Seatown is signed off A35 Lyme Regis to Bridport road at Chideock.

Walk (6¾ miles, moderate, OS Explorer 116): From Anchor Inn, inland up road. In 250m, left (fingerpost/FP, ‘Coast Path’/CP’, ‘Golden Cap’) on path also marked ‘Monarch’s Way’. Follow CP for 2½ miles, over Golden Cap (407922) and three streams (398923, 389926, 386926). In field that follows 3rd stream, Westhay Water, bear right just below Westhay Farm at 3-finger post (385927, FP ‘Stonebarrow Hill’). 200m above farm, drive bends right; ahead here (382930, ‘NT car park’), up bridleway to car park (381932). Right on track along Stonebarrow Hill.

In ½ mile at next car park, fork right (390935, FP ‘Chardown Hill’). In 20m, through gate (‘St Gabriel’s’); fork right, diagonally downhill, path soon becoming a track, for ⅔ mile, to Upcot farm. Left (397930, FP ‘St Gabriel’s’); in 150m, right (FP, stile); follow hedge on right to bottom corner of field; right over stile (399927) into lane. Right, down to St Gabriel’s.

Opposite St Gabriel’s House, left (401924, FP ‘Seatown’) past chapel ruin (blue arrow) and on (‘Langdon Wood, Seatown’). In 250m, right (404925, FP ‘Langdon Wood’) up to 3-finger post (405924). ‘Langdon Wood’ points left, but bear half right uphill, following top hedge to gate (408924). Forward (FP ‘Langdon Hill’) to gate (410923). Forward (‘Seatown, Chideock’) along edge of Langdon Wood. In 300m, right (413923, FP, ‘Seatown’) down to CP (415921); left to Seatown.

Conditions: Some short steep climbs; unguarded cliff edges

Lunch/Accommodation: Anchor Inn, Seatown (01297-489215, theanchorinnseatown.co.uk) – friendly, comfortable, superbly situated.

Info: Lyme Regis TIC (01297-442138); visitengland.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

Britain’s Best Walks: 200 Classic Walks from The Times by Christopher Somerville (HarperCollins, £30). To receive 30 per cent off plus free p&p visit harpercollins.co.uk and enter code TIMES30, or call 0844 5768122

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

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At first acquaintance, Bedfordshire seems a rather nondescript county to walk in. It’s hard to get a grasp on the character of this low-rolling region with its large arable fields. But once you develop a taste for the many old copses and hedgerows, the slow-flowing brooks and sudden, unexpected viewpoints from ridges you hadn’t thought were there, Bedfordshire’s a place you find yourself looking forward to revisiting on foot.

An absolutely glorious afternoon helps, of course. The sun blazed down out of a clear blue sky on the cottages and dark ironstone church at Church End, the southerly node of the scattered village of Eversholt, on the eastern doorstep of Woburn Park. To balance the wintry nip in the air there were pictures of springtime in the village phone box, featuring improbably shaped lambs and unfeasibly yellow daffodils painted by the pupils of Eversholt Lower School.

We set out across a wide field of ploughland where we picked up shards of ancient pottery and a nacreous fragment of Roman glass. At Herne Green Farm a tractor ground along the furrows, turning dark soil like roughly broken chocolate and drawing a long white wake of gulls behind it.

An easterly wind began to rise, thrashing and hissing in the sycamores around Herne Green. A red kite circled the newly cut fields, looking for small creatures exposed by the plough. One of those unforeseen Bedfordshire views opened across a rolling plain to the north-east as we stumbled across crusty ploughlands down to the trees and half glimpsed house of Toddington Park.

Here handsome James Scott, Duke of Monmouth and by-blow of King Charles II, lived with his young lover Henrietta Wentworth, heiress to Toddington estate. Stories say they sold her property and jewels to fund the rebellion in 1685 that attempted to put Monmouth on the throne after the death of his father. It ended badly, with Charles’ brother James installed as King, and Monmouth himself sent ignominiously to the block.

Our homeward path lay across a succession of enormous fields, mostly of thick dark plough. There were old hedges of hips and haws, and a thread of a brook winding under elder bushes. The lichens that scabbed the elders glowed so incredibly yellow in the evening sun that it looked as though the young artists of Eversholt Lower School had been that way with their paint-boxes.

Start: Green Man PH, Church End, Eversholt, Beds, MK17 9DU (OS ref SP 983325)

Getting there: M1 Jct 12; A5120 into Toddington. Opposite church, right to Milton Bryan and Church End.

Walk (5½ miles, easy, OS Explorer): From Green Man, left along road. At crossroads, ahead through kissing gate/KG. Cross field to KG (984320, black arrow/BLA); up slope, to KG in a dip at far top corner of field (986317). Across rushy patch; through KG, then right through another KG into wood.

Bear left (yellow-topped post/YTP). In 100m cross grazing ride; in 100m cross another (BLA); leave wood at YTP (988314). Half left across field to hedge corner; ahead with hedge on left to stile (992309, BLA). Aim left of Herne Green Farm to double KG. Half right to stile; in 20m, left over stile, right along hedge, following ‘Monmouth Way’/MW signs. In ¼ mile, at farm drive (995302), aim across field towards double roof in valley below. Through gate by buildings (997299; YTP, MW); half right to KG (MW); half right across paddock to KG. Half right across drive to railing gap (998297, BLA). Cross large field, aiming between two electricity poles, to road on far side (003293, fingerpost/FP).

Right for 200m; left along track (FP); in 70m, right (BLA) across field, aiming for rails of footbridge (997293). Cross; aim to right of lone oak to cross Herne Grange drive (994295). Through gate (FP); across field to gate (BLA); across next field to gate under trees (989297). Follow right-hand hedge downhill for 2 fields to cross footbridge in valley bottom (984298, YTP). Right through KG; keep brook on right for 3 fields (YTP, BLA) to cross Park Road (984303).

Ahead with hedge on right. In 300m (985306), level with large oak at hedge end on opposite side of field, fork left and aim half right across field to hedge gap (BLA). Across next field to far corner (984310). Through hedge gap (YTP, BLA); follow path through plantation. In 250m fork left across field to post beside Palmer’s Shrubs wood (983313, BLA). Ahead through wood to KG (983317). Ahead across field past oak tree; down to KG (984320); cross field to Church End.

NB: Many arable fields to cross; lots of mud!

Lunch: Green Man, Church End (01525-288111, greenmaneversholt.com) – closed Mondays

Accommodation: Long’s Inn, Bedford St, Woburn MK17 9QB (01525-290219, longsinn.co.uk)

Info: Dunstable TIC (01582-891420); visitengland.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

Britain’s Best Walks: 200 Classic Walks from The Times by Christopher Somerville (HarperCollins, £30). To receive 30 per cent off plus free p&p visit harpercollins.co.uk and enter code TIMES30, or call 0844 5768122

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

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The blowy blue afternoon sky over Berkshire was patchworked with vast silvery clouds backlit by the sun. Along the hedges in the broad valley of the River Pang wind-dried umbellifers stood as tall as a man, each papery seedpod holding the blood-red streak of a single seed.

This is understated countryside, with a faint dip and roll to it. The sun put a glossy green polish on the wooded ridges of the valley. A jay, disturbed by our passing, swore like a trooper from its hideout in a thicket, and high overhead a stunting plane growled among the clouds.

We trod a carpet of gold and silver willow leaves beside the slow-flowing Pang. The water rippled as clear as gin over a gravelly bed. An angler had snagged his line in an elder bush; with great patience and dexterity he freed it and drew a flapping brown trout from the water. Then he lay prone, cradling the fish in a wetted palm, and slipped it very carefully back into the river.

Bradfield was a gorgeous dream of mellow red brick houses, the shaven playing fields of its college still smelling faintly of cut grass. Here we crossed the Pang and climbed the gentle slope to the north, into woods where horse chestnuts shone a rich mahogany in the leaf litter, as though freshly polished.

At a point where the sigh of wind in the treetops was overlaid by the seashore roar of the M4, we turned away through the silver birch and tall pines of The Gravels. This is sand and gravel country, a place of old heathy commons now overgrown with woodland, from which we looked out across the Pang valley to a rainstorm gathering in the south.

A tawny owl hooted among the hazels at Nightingale Green as we dropped down to recross the Pang and take the path through sedgy pastures back to Stanford Dingley. In St Denys’s Church we found red ochre frescoes 800 years old, and a medieval tile on which the Lamb of God gambolled with shaggy legs as unco-ordinated as a puppy’s – an image that bridged the centuries with charm and humour.

Start: Bull Inn, Stanford Dingley, Berks RG7 6LS (OS ref SU 576716)

Getting there: Stanford Dingley is 2 miles north of Chapel Row, west of Theale (between Jcts 12 and 13, M4)

Walk (7½ miles, easy, OS Explorer 159): From Bull Inn, left along road. At junction, left (fingerpost) on footpath (yellow arrows/YA) for nearly 1 mile to road (591719). Dogleg right/left across, and on (YAs) for 1 mile to road in Bradfield (604727).

Left; in 200m, left past ‘Private Road’ notice (603728; white arrow/WA; ‘Recreational Route’/RR). In 150m, right through gate (fingerpost). Aim half left across field to corner of hedge (599728); same line to gate through hedge, and on to cross road (596728). Up Greathouse Walk track (‘Bridleway’/BW). In ½ mile pass entrance to Great House Cottages (590734); in another 150m, at crossing of tracks, follow main track round to left (BW). In ⅓ mile, halfway up slope, left (585736, YA, RR) through ‘The Gravels’ wood. In 700m leave wood; forward to cross Scratchface Lane (577733).

Take path opposite (WA, RR); in 100m, right (WA, ‘Permitted Footpath’). Follow this path, ignoring side turnings. In 350m, at T-junction by post, left (574732, YA). Follow path (YAs) for ¼ mile; at wood bottom bear right (YA) to cross stile (574728). Down long field to lane (571727). Right; in 200m, opposite Mazelands Farm, left up track. In ¼ mile at 3 gates, right (567725; WA, RR, BW). In 200m, left through KG (YA), up fence and into House Leas wood (563725). Left (WA, RR), following wood edge south (‘Restrictive Byway’/RB) for ½ mile to Pangfield Farm (564719).

Skirt clockwise round buildings on marked ‘Preferred Pathway’, before turning left down drive. Cross road (566716); down track opposite. In ¼ mile, left at gate (569713, RB). Immediately left through gate (YA); half left across field to gate (571713, YA). Through trees; aim across field for St Denys’s Church; at road (575717), right to Bull Inn.

Lunch/Accommodation: Bull Inn, Stanford Dingley (0118-974-4582, thebullinnstanforddingley.co.uk) – cosy, stylish and friendly

Info: Newbury TIC (01635-30267);
visitengland.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

Britain’s Best Walks: 200 Classic Walks from The Times by Christopher Somerville (HarperCollins, £30). To receive 30 per cent off plus free p&p visit harpercollins.co.uk and enter code TIMES30, or call 0844 5768122

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

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The weatherman had threatened rainstorms over Wales, but enormous clouds of grey and silver were sailing in a patchy blue sky as we set off from Llandrillo up the old drover’s route into the heart of the Berwyn hills. This lonely range of high country sprawls across the borderlands of northern Wales, little walked and seldom ridden these days, but in times past crossed by a network of rough roads and tracks that brought mountain cattle and sheep east to the markets of the Welsh Marches.

The old drovers’ road from Llandrillo rose steadily eastwards, floored with rock, flanked by walls of slender split stones. Every so often, big lumps of quartz had been positioned among the dull green wall stones, their white glimmer a useful waymark for a benighted drover or late-working shepherd. Gradually the views opened out, north across the lush valley of the River Dee, ahead to where the great olive-coloured shoulders of Moel Pearce and Cadair Bronwen began to loom across the south-east skyline.

The wind rushed in the sycamore leaves and tossed the bright orange rowan berries around. A bunch of jackdaws went skeltering down the wind above the old road, whose numerous sheep gates separated the various flocks along these hillsides. Each barrier had its own ingenious home-made closing mechanism, slung with heavy weights – a cast-iron cylinder head, a baulk of timber, a necklace of heavy old ploughshares that clinked together as the gate swung to behind us.

From the little stone bridge of Pont Rhyd-yr-hŷdd the drove road snaked about to wind itself up for the last mile’s climb to the pass of Bwlch Nant Rhyd Wilym, where it tipped up and wriggled away through sombre moorlands towards the valley of the Afon Ceiriog. A shiny metal memorial lay beside the pass, inscribed to the memory of ‘Wayfarer’ – Walter Robinson, a cycling writer of the 1920s who enticed off-roaders in their thousands to explore these wild uplands of Wales.

We sat by the cairn, watching sun-splashes chase cloud shadows across the flanks of Cadair Bronwen and telling ourselves we’d come back one day, better equipped and with more time in hand, to tackle the whole glorious ridge. Then we turned back down the old road and along a quiet forest track, wind and rain showers in our faces and a prospect of sunlit mountains far in the west to lift the heart and the weary legs.

Start: Village car park, Llandrillo, near Corwen, Denbighshire LL21 0TG (OS ref SJ 035372)

Getting there: Bus – service T3 (Lloyds Coaches) from Wrexham.
Road: Llandrillo is on B4401 between Corwen and Bala.

Walk (9 miles; a long, steady climb; OS Explorer 255. Online map, more walks at christophersomerville.co.uk): From car park, left along B4401; right at chapel; climb country lane (‘Tegid Way’/TW’) for 3½ miles. At sheepfold (083366) TW turns left, but keep ahead to Wayfarer’s Memorial at saddle (091366). Return down lane. In 1¼ miles, at TW post just before Pont Rhyd-yr-hŷdd, right (073368) on hillside path, to gate onto forest track (069375). Follow track for 1¾ miles to cross bridge; up to road at Melyn y Glyn (046382). Cross road; down lane to Ty Uchaf. Down left side of barn; stile beyond (yellow arrow/YA); along fence to gate (044378) above Ty-Nant. Cross footbridge and stile beyond. Follow succession of gates, stiles and YAs past Moel-is-y-goedwig-isaf to reach drive at Ty’n-y-cae-mawr (041373). Right to lane; right to Llandrillo.

Lunch: Picnic

Accommodation: Tyddyn Llan, Llandrillo LL21 0ST (01490-440264, tyddynllan.co.uk) – comfortable restaurant-with-rooms.

Info: Llangollen TIC (01978-860828)

Britain’s Best Walks: 200 Classic Walks from The Times by Christopher Somerville (HarperCollins, £30). To receive 30 per cent off plus free p&p visit harpercollins.co.uk and enter code TIMES30, or call 0844 5768122
visitwales.co.uk; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk