Christopher Somerville

St Mary and the Devil’s Hole, Jersey

Nov 052016

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

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For a little island Jersey packs a big punch. Its north coast might have been designed specifically to illustrate the word ‘rugged’. The coves, headlands, cliffs and sea-stacks are of granite that is sometimes dark, sometimes pink and quartz-studded. They fold in on each other in a series of bays carved out by the storms and racing tides of the English Channel. This is a coast made for walkers, its well-signposted cliff path opening up one remarkable prospect after another.

Under high milky cloud we set out from the village of St Mary along a succession of ‘green lanes’ – roadways hardly wide enough for a car, leading us between hedgebanks overhung with oaks, sycamore, sweet chestnuts and beech, all pruned low by the constant wind. The lanes were walled with stout pink granite blocks, and the houses were of granite, too, solid and dignified. The small square fields of wonderfully fertile soil had been tilled for winter, and as everywhere in Jersey there was the sense of a settled, well-to-do community not too fussed by the world beyond the waters.

Jersey cattle cropped the pastures, their large dark eyes as beautiful as those of a Bollywood star. In the lush green cleft of La Vallée des Mouriers a stream went dancing and sparkling beside the path, and we followed it down towards the sea.

Out on the cliffs we set our backs to the blasting east wind and were buffeted along the coast path that rounded a deeply scooped bay and ran out towards the distant rocky neb of La Tête de Plémont. Views on this clear, cold day were astonishing – north-west to the Channel Islands of Sark and Guernsey, the green hump of Herm between them; north-east to the long flat reef of Les Écréhous with its fishermen’s cottages apparently perching in the sea, and beyond them the white beaches of the French coast fifteen miles away.

The Devil’s Hole made a fine spectacle from the cliffside viewing platform, with the sea hissed angrily between its jaws. Whether the Father of Evil ever did inhabit that dark, echoing cave is open to question, but the band of early Christian monks who built their retreat on the perilous rock of L’Île Agois just beyond were real enough. We carried away a vivid impression of the harshness of their lives, sustained by faith and a diet of shellfish, as we took the homeward path to St Mary.

Start: St Mary’s Country Inn, St Mary, Jersey JE3 3DS (map ref 603542)

Getting there: Bus 7 (St Helier–Devil’s Hole). Road – St Mary’s Country Inn is on B53 between St Ouen and St John.

Walk (7½ miles, moderate, Jersey 1:25,000 Official Leisure Map): Left from inn car park; cross B53; ahead down La Rue de la Vallée. In 300m pass ‘Jardin De Haut’ sign on left; left up path to cross B26 (605539). Continue on ‘Green Lane’; in 300m, left at archway. In 400m, right at T-junction to cross B39 (612542). On to T-junction; left, then first right to B33 (610544, ‘La Route de St Jean’).

Right, then first left (‘La Rue Es Abbès’). In 700m, left at junction (613552); in 100m, right. In 50m fork left up lane, soon becoming green lane. At road beside La Vue du Pré house, turn right, then fork right downhill. At ‘Le Hurel’ sign, fork right. In 200m, bend right across stream (613556); left along Le Chemin Des Hougues. In 300m, opposite lamp post by Les Hougues house, fork right along gravel lane down La Vallée des Mouriers. At bottom, through gate by reservoir pump house (608561). Just beyond, fork left/west along coastal path.

Follow ‘Cliff Path’ signs for 700m to road at Priory Inn (606558). Follow ‘Footpath’ signs; then from car park ‘follow ‘Devil’s Hole’ signs for 500m down to Devil’s Hole viewing platform (602561) and back to car park. Sharp right and follow ‘Footpath’ and blue signs for 1½ miles to road just south of Crabbe Farm (592551). Right for ⅔ mile if you want to visit La Grève de Lecq harbour; otherwise left for ½ mile to T-junction (600547). In 150m fork right past Le Ronvillais house; in 600m, left on B33 (602543); in 150m, right to St Mary’s Country Inn.

Lunch: St Mary’s Country Inn (01534-482897, liberationgroup.com)

Accommodation: Atlantic Hotel, St Brelade, Jersey JE3 8HE (01534-744101, theatlantichotel.com) – extremely comfortable and helpful; wonderful food.

Info: Jersey TIC (01534-859000); jersey.com

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

Fownhope and Wye Valley Walk, Herefordshire

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Oct 292016

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

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Clouds were pushing briskly north over Herefordshire in layers of slate grey and silver. The steeply folded countryside of the Wye Valley had settled in for the cold season with strings of scarlet bryony berries festooning the leafless hedges and the cattle gone from the pastures to their winter sheds.

Up in the trees above Fownhope the Wye Valley Walk traced the long ridge of Common Hill, looking south over steep quarrying ground – now thickly wooded – towards the rainy hills of the Forest of Dean. Fieldfares newly arrived from Scandinavia were pillaging the windfalls in long-abandoned cider orchards, their pale spotted breasts and smoky grey heads bobbing among the brown and yellow fruit.

‘We used to send all our cider apples to Bulmers,’ said the farmer who stopped for a chat. ‘But then they said, ”Tisn’t enough, don’t bother.” So now we just leaves ’em for the birds and the deer, and they go through ’em like nobody’s business!’

Through the ancient woodland of Lea and Paget’s Woods went the Wye Valley Walk, past old limekilns half buried among the tree roots. On the grassy slope beyond the woods a potbellied pig was champing the greenery with splayed tusks and plenty of squelching, his sagging stomach trailing along the ground.

A short, sharp climb to the elliptical rampart of Capler Camp, an Iron Age hill fort commanding a wonderful southward view across the Wye Valley. Down through pines and larches and we were finally at close quarters with the Wye itself, walking the bankside footpath round the wide bends of the river. The water raced by, swirling and bubbling, carrying a flock of Canada geese who trumpeted to one another as the river swept them away round a bend.

Back at Fownhope, the crooked broach spire of St Mary’s Church beckoned us. The 12th-century tympanum of the Virgin and Child inside the church displays all the idiosyncratic brilliance of the style known as the Herefordshire School of Sculpture. The wide-eyed Virgin delicately balances a mysterious fruit between thumb and forefinger. A Wye Valley cider apple? I’d like to think so.

Start: Greenman Inn, Fownhope, Herefordshire HR1 4PE (OS ref SO 578345)

Getting there: Bus 453 from Hereford
Road: M50, Jct 4; A449 (‘Ledbury’); in 1¾ miles, Fownhope signed to left on B4224.

Walk (6½ miles, moderate, OS Explorer 189. NB: Detailed directions are strongly recommended. Download them, along with online maps, more walks at christophersomerville.co.uk): From Greenman Inn, right along street. At church, left up Common Hill Lane. Pass Fownhope Medical Centre; in 200m, left through gate (584345). Dogleg right-left-right round 2 field edges (yellow arrows/YAs); up to cross stile and lane (585347) and on up bank (YA). In 50m, left (YA); in 30m fork right uphill (YA). In 150m, right by electricity pole (YA); in 100m, on ridge, right along Wye Valley Walk/WVW (586348).

Follow waymarked WVW east for ¾ mile to cross road on Common Hill (595346). Continue on WVW through Lea and Paget’s Woods for 600m to junction of paths at waymark post (599342). Blue and yellow arrows point ahead; but fork right, following WVW and ‘This Way to Ross’/TWTR. In 200m leave trees (599340); in another 250m, with Middle Green house on your left, bear right (601339), descending through successive gates with distinctive curly ironwork. Follow WVW down hedge on right into valley bottom (601337), then aim across field for kissing gate on skyline, 50m left of farm buildings at Overdine (600336). Ahead across field to B4224 (598334).

Left (WVW); in 100m, right down lane (‘Caplor’). In 150m, left into yard (597332). In 100m, right; follow WVW up fields, then steeply up steps to Capler Camp hill fort (596329). Bear right to barn; pass right end of barn; right along southern ramparts of fort. In 350m, enter trees (WVW); in another 70m, fork left (592329, TWTR) down through pines to road at Capler Lodge (591324). Left for 100m to viewpoint; then back along road and steeply downhill. At foot of hill, sharp left on path (587328); in 30m, fork right, steeply down past YA. At foot of slope, right along River Wye.

In ¾ mile, cross garden of Mancell’s Ferry cottage. At far side of garden, cross stile (576328).

If riverbank route clear:
Continue along riverbank for 1¼ miles. At entrance to wood (572337), don’t be tempted to continue beside river – the path is dangerously eroded in the wood. Instead, bear right away from river and follow southern edge of wood. In 300m descend to riverbank beside Leabrink house (575339). Follow path between house and river; continue on riverbank for 300m, then bear right inland (575342). Left through belt of willow; across field and through gate. Cross footbridge (576346); ahead (YA); in 50m, bear right up green lane past houses to B4224 (577346). Right into village.

If riverbank route flooded:
Keep ahead from Mancell’s Ferry cottage (NW) across field, soon with a bank on right, to metal gate, then kissing gate (YA). Cross farm track (573330) and keep ahead with bank on right. In 300m, right over stile (571333, YA); uphill with hedge on right. In 150m, at tree with YA, cross field to barn (573335). Pass to left of barn, cross 2 stiles (no waymarks) and field to kissing gate (574338, YA). Bear right down slope to stile (YA) on left of gate above Leabrink (575339). Follow hedge on left to cross lane by sewage works (577340, YA). Follow footpath (YA) back to Fownhope.

Conditions:
1. Wye riverbank path can flood in winter – ring Greenman Inn to check.
2. Don’t follow riverbank path through the wood near Leabrink – it’s slippery, eroded and dangerous!

Lunch/Accommodation: Greenman, Fownhope (01432-860243, thegreenman.co) – very smart, stylish place

Info: Hereford TIC (01432-268430)
visitengland.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

Wimpole Estate, Cambridgeshire

Walks 1 Response »

Oct 222016

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

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When the National Trust do something really well, it’s an absolute treat to be there. The Wimpole Estate in western Cambridgeshire is a good example. On this soft autumn morning the beautifully kept lime avenues stretched away in gold and green and the formal gardens of Wimpole Hall lay immaculately groomed. Cyclists cycled, runners ran, and families sauntered along the parkland walks or conveyed children to sessions of pumpkin lantern carving.

We passed the handsome square-faced bulk of Wimpole Hall, all red brick and pale stone facings, with its fierce statue of Samson slaying his foe with the jawbone of an ass. Up on the hill beyond, the views down broad avenues to south and east caused us to stop and stare – exactly as Capability Brown (whose bicentenary occurs this year) intended when he ‘naturalised’ the low-lying landscape more than two centuries ago.

Subtly sloped ridges rose, cunningly fashioned valleys fell away, artfully leading the eye past spinneys and hillsides to the castellated towers of a ruined castle on a tump. Sanderson Miller, supremo of 18th-century folly architects, perched it there to add a pinch of Gothic melancholy to the scene.

We found a path threading the belt of woodland that girdles the northern half of the estate. It was a classic autumn walk, a soft shoe shuffle through fallen leaves under oak, ash, beech, lime and chestnut, the hedgerow blackthorn sprays heavy with ripe black sloes.

Estate walks map in hand, we puzzled our way out of the trees and down to where the mock castle stood with round towers, arched windows and artistically crumbling walls. A path led down across the wooden lattice of the Chinese Bridge that spans a long artificial lake. Beyond the bridge, fat white sheep with kohl-black eyes cropped the parkland grass, even-tempered enough to allow passing little girls to pat their dewy fleeces.

We climbed the ridge once more for a final stretch inside the woodland belt, then came down to Cobb’s Wood Farm along a grassy track hedged with bright gold hazels. In the farmyard a row of amateur wood turners was hard at work at their primitive, treadle-operated pole lathes under the eye of a National Trust expert. ‘It was supposed to be a Christmas tree,’ murmured one of the turners, ruefully contemplating his wonky creation, ‘but now – I don’t know… maybe a leg for a very short chair?’

Start: Wimpole Hall car park, Arrington, Royston, Cambs, SG8 0BW (OS ref TL 337509). £2 – NT members free

Getting there: Wimpole Estate is signposted from A603, 10 miles south-west of Cambridge.

Walk (5¼ miles, easy, OS Explorer 209. Estate walks map available at Wimpole ticket office): Leaving stable block (ticket office, shop, café), aim ahead on path past front of Wimpole Hall. Through gate beyond; follow fence round to right; opposite wrestling nymphs statue, left (west) up broad grassy avenue (‘Woodland Walk’/WW on Estate map). At top of rise, right (330510) towards folly. In 300m, where trees on your left bend left, turn left over stile (331513, ‘Wimpole Way’). Turn right past info board and follow WW through woodland belt for 1¼ miles to top of rise where woodland ends (331526).

Turn right here and continue on WW through belt of trees. In ¼ mile, turn right on Folly Walk (FW), past info board and over footbridge (335525), following path out of trees and along field edge with hedge on right. Through gate, and follow path to folly (334520). Head downhill between 2 lakes, to cross Chinese Bridge (334517). Left along lakeside; in 300m, left across east end of lake (337516). Aim half right to meet track descending eastwards from folly (337519). Right; just before road, left up grassy field headland. At top of rise, right onto road (338524).

Left for 50m; right along WW in woodland belt. In 400m pass info board on right (‘viewpoint’ symbol on OS map); in another 200m, at well-defined crossroads of tracks (344523), turn right on track out of woods. Follow track to Cobb’s Wood Farm (345517). Right along driveway, over bridge, past lodge to road at Home Farm (341514). Left, then right up Wimpole Estate driveway to car park.

Lunch: Old Rectory Restaurant, Wimpole Estate

Accommodation: Sheene Mill, Melbourn, Royston, Cambs SG8 6DX (01763-261393, sheenemill.com)

Info: nationaltrust.org.uk/wimpole-estate

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

*’The Times Britain’s Best Walks’ by Christopher Somerville (Harper Collins) – 200 walks from the ‘A Good Walk’ column – is published 6 October.

Wadenhoe & Lyveden New Bield, Northamptonshire

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Oct 152016

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

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Another chance to walk with our artist friend Carry Akroyd through the Northamptonshire countryside that inspires her. A beautiful day of soft autumn light showed off these understated fields and woods in all the colour and detail she catches so strikingly in her East Anglian landscapes.

We left the pale limestone walls and thatched roofs of Wadenhoe, climbing gently from the valley of the River Nene into pastures of medieval ridge-and-furrow cropped by fat ginger-coated bullocks. A pair of red kites circled overhead, and Carry let out a perfect imitation of a kite’s shrill whistle to bring them lower. Along an old trackway we fingered the pink leaves of blackthorn bushes whose sloes hung in thick dark clusters, ripe for the gin bottle.

Through Lilford Wood on a speckled carpet of brown-and-yellow elm leaves, to a view at the far end across a ploughed field to the stone shell of Lyveden New Bield, Sir Thomas Tresham’s never-completed dream of a country lodge. Tresham, a staunch and devout Catholic, died in 1605, shortly before his son Francis became embroiled in the Gunpowder Plot. Disgrace and financial ruin followed for the family, and the unfinished lodge (a mansion in all but name) and its adjacent pleasure gardens were left to fall into decay.

Lyveden New Bield has been preserved and its grounds restored by the National Trust. We explored the eerie hollow skeleton of the lodge with its fine carvings of discreetly placed Catholic symbols, and climbed the moated mound behind for a view over the whole fantasy landscape. Then we took the homeward path through Lady Wood where the oak trees held up a canopy of quince-coloured leaves with wonderfully distorted limbs.

Long-tailed tits and siskins thronged the trees down by the River Nene, feasting among the seed cones of alders. Carry spotted a marsh tit, a rare sighting that made her exclaim with delight. And in the recesses of Wadenhoe’s box-backed church I found an old friend of ours – the Green Man, carved by some anonymous medieval mason, hiding in the shadows with a secret smile seven centuries old.

Start: Village hall car park, Wadenhoe, Northants, PE8 5ST (OS ref TL 011833)

Getting there: Wadenhoe is signed off A605 between Thrapston and Oundle

Walk (8½ miles, easy field and woodland paths, OS Explorer 224): Walk back up village street (‘Lyveden Way’/LW). Left at top (LW); in 30m, left through gate (LW). Aim a little right of church; in 200m, further right to kissing gate (009835, LW). Aim ahead through trees and across next field to far left corner to cross road (008836, LW). Cross next field to far left corner; right along road.

In 150m, left down track (006838, ‘Wadenhoe Lodge’). In ½ mile pass Wadenhoe Lodge; continue following LW. In another 500m pass track on left (994845, ‘No Footpath’); in100 m, left through gate, across 2 fields to path into Lilford Wood (992847, LW). Follow LW through wood, across fields to Lyveden New Bield (984853).

Returning from house, retrace steps to edge of field; right (LW) on path which curves to meet Lady Wood (980850). Right (LW); in 100m, left into wood, past picnic tables, across 2 duckboard footbridges and on south along path. In 300m, right at cross-path to observation tower (978848). Left down ride to bottom of wood (978844); left along LW. In 250m bear left (981843, LW); in 300m, at wood edge, right at T-junction (984842, LW).

In ½ mile, leave trees (989835) and continue on field path (LW). In 650m pass a brambly, iron-fenced pond on your left (993930); through next kissing gate (LW); on across next field to go through kissing gate (996827). LW goes left here; but turn right along green lane. In 300m, just past gate across lane, left (994825) along field edges with ditch on left. In 4th field, angle slightly right, following line of trees to cross stile to right of house (002821).

Ahead to Cross Lane; left to road in Aldwincle (004820). Right; in 200m, at junction, left (‘Nene Way’ fingerpost) across paddock and down path. In 200m, left at field edge (007820), and follow waymarked Nene Way for 1 mile to Wadenhoe.

Conditions: Lyveden Way signs are badly faded, but visible as white rectangles.

Lunch: NT café at Lyveden New Bield, or King’s Head PH, Wadenhoe (01832-720024, wadenhoekingshead.co.uk)

Accommodation: Talbot Hotel, Oundle PE8 4EA (01832-273621, thetalbot-oundle.com) – comfortable, long-established hotel.

Lyveden New Bield: 01832-205358, nationaltrust.org.uk/lyveden

Carry Akroyd: carryakroyd.co.uk

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

*’The Times Britain’s Best Walks’ by Christopher Somerville (Harper Collins) – 200 walks from the ‘A Good Walk’ column – published 6 October.

Beinn Eighe Mountain Trail, Kinlochewe, Scotland

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Oct 012016

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

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Beinn Eighe is a mighty mountain. It rises over 1,000 metres at its highest point, and presents an uncompromising assortment of cliffs, screes, corries and buttresses to anyone who ventures high into the range. Scottish Natural Heritage has laid out a very clear and well-marked Mountain Trail to guide walkers who don’t mind a steep and slithery ascent, on a circuit that takes in the top of one of the mountain’s eastern peaks. This isn’t a stroll in the park, though, and you need to be properly equipped for a mountain walk before you tackle it.

Our path from the shore of Loch Maree rose beside a rushing stream through banks of bracken and bilberry. The forest here is of Scots pines, some three hundred years old or more, their upper limbs bright orange in contrast with the ashen grey of their scaly trunks. We crossed the burn over a footbridge with a fine view back over the silty channels at the head of Loch Maree and the hump of Slioch mountain across the water.

Above the tree line the track climbed steep slides of marbly rock, crunchy with shattered shards of quartzite, to reach the cairn on the summit of Leathad Buidhe, ‘the broad yellow ridge’. The views made us gasp – back over the loch to the hills in the north-east, south-west to three enormous peaks of pale rock like the storm waves of a petrified sea – the northerly aspect of Beinn Eighe’s out-thrust fingers. The cairn stood sentinel over an upland of bog and lochan, shiny black crowberries and shell-burst clumps of orange-tipped deergrass – a place where the only sounds were the cheeping of meadow pipits, the raspy sigh of wind among rocks, and a faint subterranean chatter of running water.

A quick, cool dip in the peaty waters of Loch Allt an Daraich under the black-browed hummock of Meall a’ Ghiuthais, ‘pine-tree hill’. Then we followed the white twisting scar of the path across the moor to where it dropped steeply downhill beside the tumbling water of Allt na h’Airighe. The stream fell down into a dark, deep cleft, a fault torn open by giant convulsions hundreds of millions of years ago. We stopped at the rim to gaze down this crack in the face of Beinn Eighe, before descending among resin-scented pines already beginning to drip with the afternoon’s shower.

Start: Glas Leitir car park on A832 Gairloch road, 4 miles north-west of Kinlochewe (OS ref NH 001650)

Getting there: Bus twice daily, Kinlochewe-Gairloch (rome2rio.com/s/Gairloch/Kinlochewe). Road: Car park is on A832 Kinlochewe-Gairloch road, 1¾ miles beyond Beinn Eighe Visitor Centre.

Walk (4 miles, strenuous with 550m of climb, OS Explorer 433. Online maps, more walks at christophersomerville.co.uk): Cross under road and fork left (‘Mountain Trail’). Then simply follow the clearly marked trail (cairns and mountain symbol waymarks) very steeply up to cairn on Leathad Buidhe (993633). Right (north-west) past Loch Allt an Daraich, and follow trail very steeply down, along rim of Cnoc na Gaoithe above gorge, and down through woods of Coille na Glas-Leitire*. At post marked ‘6’, where Mountain Trail waymark points left along Woodland Trail, turn right down path to car park.
* (the map version has an ‘e’ on the end, though the car park is named ‘Glas Leitir car park’)

Conditions: Steep rocky paths, many steps, some rubbly stretches. Wear hillwalking clothes and boots.

Refreshments: Whistle Stop Café, Kinlochewe (01445-760423)

Accommodation: Kinlochewe Hotel, By Achnasheen, Ross-shire IV22 2PA (01445-760253, kinlochewehotel.co.uk)

Beinn Eighe Visitor Centre: 01445-760258 (open March-Oct)

Info: Mountain Trail booklet guide available from Scottish Natural Heritage’s Kinlochewe Office (01445-760254); also downloadable at snh.org.uk/publications

*’The Times Britain’s Best Walks’ by Christopher Somerville (Harper Collins) – 200 walks from the ‘A Good Walk’ column – published 6 October.

www.visitscotland.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

Thornton Reservoir and Bagworth Heath, Leicestershire

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Sep 242016

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

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Thornton Reservoir is shaped like the tail of a dolphin in the act of plunging headfirst into the coal-bearing country to the west of Leicester. Tucked into a bowl of shallow hills, it’s a lovely stretch of water on a sunny morning with dog-walkers, runners, cyclists and walkers exchanging the musical ‘How-do’ greeting of the area as they follow the circuit path through the resinous pines around the reservoir.

We took our time, watching fishermen in their small boats casting and tying flies with monumental patience. Great crested grebes sailed the reeds with snow-white cheeks and breasts, and a pair of half-grown cygnets sat tight on a dome-shaped nest padded out with the downy white feathers their parents had plucked and laid there.

From the north-western tail tip of the reservoir we climbed the ridge where Thornton village straggled on either side of the church spire. Down on the western side, young woodland has grown tall and graceful in the twenty years since it was planted – Manor Wood and Bagworth Heath Wood, component parts of the inspiring enterprise that is the National Forest, 200 square miles of planting to green up and beautify a great swathe of the post-industrial Midlands.

Where the lakes and meadows, the woods and commons of Bagworth Heath now lie, the pit wheels and slag heaps of Desford Colliery stood until its closure in 1984, the year of the miners’ strike. Many of the 700 miners who lost their jobs have joined their children and grandchildren in planting the millions of oak, ash, silver birch and rowan trees that compose today’s woodlands. A single pit wheel installed on an islet in one of the lakes is the only reminder of the pit and its hard realities.

We followed the path through Desford Brickworks Wood, looking out between the fresh young trees onto a vast red bank of spoil burrowed into thousands of corrugations by the digging machines. Then we turned away and made for the homeward path.

Start: Thornton Reservoir car park, Thornton, Leics LE67 1AR (OS ref SK 470074).

Getting there: Bus 26 from Leicester.
Road M1 Jct 22; from Markfield follow ‘Thornton’; car park is on Reservoir Road in village.

Walk (5½ miles, firm trails, field and woodland paths, OS Explorer 233):
From car park walk anticlockwise circuit of Thornton Reservoir. In 2 miles, just before Visitor Centre, cross weir at NW tip of reservoir (466081); right through kissing gate; follow ‘Leicester Round’/LR up bank to Thornton. Cross road (465079); down Hawthorne Drive opposite (LR). In 250m on left bend, ahead (LR, ‘Bagworth’) across paddock. Left down lane, following LR past Thornton Mill and up to cross railway (459079). LR through Manor Wood for 550m; at yellow-topped post/YTP (454076) left off LR on gravel cycle path to reach lake at Desford Colliery site (458068).

At roadway with car park opposite, right to T-junction. Left along road; in 150m, left through kissing gate (457066, fingerpost); up grass track. Half left to kissing gate (YTP; yellow arrow/YA); path through young woodland. Cross a grass ride (YTP); in 100m, right at T-junction (459065, YA). In 100m, left over stile (‘Permissive Path’/PP arrow); follow PP through Desford Brickworks Wood to recross fence. Left on grass path, which turns left (459062) beside road.

Follow this path for ⅔ mile, parallel with Heath Road and then Merrylees Road, to south-west corner of industrial estate at Merrylees (467058). Left (north) along bottom edge of field, following YAs and YTPs. In ½ mile, right down steps (464066) through industrial area. Ahead (YAs, YTPs) to pass fishing lake, then cross railway and river (465067). Up across a field; in following field, don’t turn left (466069), but keep ahead uphill with hedge on left, following YTP/YA to road (469072). Left past garage; first right to reservoir car park.

Lunch: Reservoir Inn, Thornton (01530-382433, thereservoirinnthornton.co.uk)

Accommodation: Curtain Cottage, 92 Main St, Woodhouse Eaves, Leics LE12 8RZ (01509-891361, curtaincottage.co.uk) – immaculate B&B

Info: Leicester TIC (0116-299-4444); nationalforest.org

www.goleicestershire.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

Portballintrae and Giant’s Causeway, Co. Antrim, N. Ireland

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Sep 172016

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

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A balmy day on Bushfoot Strand, a day of sun and smoky autumn light. Atlantic breakers curved inshore in three lines of creamy foam, and surfers were defying the ‘Don’t Swim’ notices to catch themselves a wave to remember. Runkerry House sprawled under the far headland with outflung wings and twin towers, its hedges thick with gleaming scarlet rosehips the size of cherry tomatoes.

At the outer tip of Runkerry Point, where a welter of black basalt lay like a spilt brain at the feet of the cliffs, we looked back round the pristine arc of Bushfoot Strand and on along the jutting green cliffs, westward to the distant hills of Donegal. Then we turned east and followed the cliff tops through drifts of harebells and the white rococo trumpets of convolvulus. The path skirted Leckilroy Cove with its dark slit of a cave and toy slipway, and led across the flat grass-grown roof of the futuristic Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre. We tiptoed gingerly over the skylight windows like cat burglars, and joined the people thronging down the roadway to the Causeway itself.

The Giant’s Causeway, so heavily promoted in tourist literature, is a bird’s-beak of basalt dipping into the sea. It can seem an awful disappointment if you come on it from the wrong angle. ‘Where are the pipes?’ an American visitor was asking everyone in sight. ‘I thought there were enormous pipes rising up…’ and he flung up a hand to indicate a sky-high phenomenon.

If he’d walked beyond the crowded Causeway and on along the mountain path round the next bay, he’d have seen natural wonders to make him gasp – mighty basalt columns fifty feet high, packed together like organ pipes or fossilised monster teeth in a landslip coast of rugged magnificence. Seen from this steep cliffside path, the Giant’s Causeway lay revealed in all its proper enormity, backed by a Dante-esque headland.

We couldn’t resist a ride in the rattletrap old Causeway tram, trundling tick-tack! tick-tack! along its grassy track through the dunes to Bushmills at not many miles an hour, emitting banshee wails as it went. A crunchy return path beside the track, a saunter through the dunes, and we were back on the broad sands of Bushfoot Strand once more.
Start: Beach Road car park (free), Portballintrae, BT57 8RT (OSNI ref C929424)

Getting there: Bus service 172 (Coleraine-Ballycastle); 252 (Belfast-Coleraine)
Road – A2 to Bushmills, B145 to Portballintrae

Walk (6½ miles, easy/moderate, OSNI Discoverer 1:50,000 Sheet 4; ‘Portballintrae Causeway Loop’ instructions/map at walkni.com; online map, more walks at christophersomerville.co.uk): Path to beach; cross footbridge; along beach to path below Runkerry House and on to Causeway Hotel and Visitor Centre (944438). Down steps; road to Giant’s Causeway (947447). Follow Blue Trail past Causeway, under ‘The Organ’ formation (952449), round next corner to path’s end in The Amphitheatre (952452). Back to fingerpost; fork left uphill (‘Red Trail’). Up steep Shepherd’s Steps to top (951445). Return to Visitor Centre and tramway station below. Option 1: Follow path beside tramway; fork right just before river bridge (937426) on dunes boardwalk back to Portballintrae. Option 2: Tramway to Bushmills; path returns beside tramway for 1 mile to cross river (937425); in 100m, left on dunes boardwalk back to Portballintrae.

Lunch: Picnic; Causeway Hotel (028-2073-1210, thecausewayhotel.com) or Giants Causeway Visitor Centre.

Accommodation: Bayview Hotel, Portballintrae, Co. Antrim BT57 8RZ (028-2073-4100; bayviewhotelni.com)

Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre: 028-2073-1855, nationaltrust.org.uk/giants-causeway

Giant’s Causeway & Bushmills Railway: 028-2073-2844; freewebs.com/giantscausewayrailway. £5 fare. Weekends, BH April-June; daily July, Aug; weekends Sept, Oct.

Northern Ireland’s Year of Food:
discovernorthernireland.com/yearoffoodanddrink2016

www.discovernorthernireland.com; satmap.com

Scarborough to Robin Hood’s Bay, North Yorkshire

Walks No Responses »

Sep 102016

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

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I hadn’t visited Scarborough for 20 years, and my daughter Ruth had never been there in her life. But she’d often pictured the town, a classic among North Yorkshire’s seaside resorts, and on this lovely morning it was more than fulfilling her fantasies. Regency crescents, sweeping sands, the cliffside tumble of the old town, donkey rides, tacky fun palaces and elegant cast-iron arcades, all lay bathed in clear sunshine.

We climbed the many steps to St Mary’s Church on its ridge. Poor Anne Brontë, dead at 29 of the consumption that had already claimed her sister Emily, lies buried here in a flower-strewn plot. The prospect from the cliff railings just above the church must be one of the best on this coast of wonderful views – the big crescent of North Bay rimmed with elegant Victorian hotels and houses, headlands of many-coloured cliffs reaching into the ice-blue sea beyond.

From the northern end of the strand we looked back to the gaunt ruin of Scarborough Castle silhouetted high on the dark ship-like promontory that divides the town’s two sandy bays. From here northwards the bays have a harder edge; they are floored with ‘scars’ or parallel ribs of rock, remnants of strata turned on edge through subterranean upheavals, then ground down by the sea.

The well signposted Cleveland Way took us unerringly north at the very edge of the crumbly cliffs. This is a mineral coast, a working place where alum, jet, iron and coal were dug with pick and shovel out of the cliff faces. We passed headlands delved and eroded by diggings, bays with tiny rough jetties and tramways. Inland it was all gently undulating cornfields and old farms with pale stone walls and red roofs.

The miles flew by. I was amazed to see the great bulk of Ravenscar promontory loom ahead, a signifier that we’d walked a dozen miles at least. A quick cuppa in the tearoom on the headland and we were striding along the curved coastline towards the red roofs of Robin Hood’s Bay, a shovelful of houses thrown down a cleft by some careless giant.

We trod the steep streets of the village on feet that were beginning to feel the miles. Every crooked corner and flight of narrow steps called for the camera; but we had only baths, beers and beds on our minds just now.

Start: South Bay Underground car park, Foreshore Road, Scarborough, YO11 2HD (OS ref TA 045877)

Getting there: Rail to Scarborough. Bus 93 from Whitby. Road – A171 (Whitby), A170 (Pickering), A64 (York), A165 (Bridlington).

Walk (15 miles, easy, OS Explorer OL27. Online maps, more walks at christophersomerville.co.uk): North up South Bay promenade. At NW corner of Old Harbour (047888), left up West Sandgate Terrace; on up steps to church and Anne Brontë’s grave (047891). Up snicket opposite church to railings; left round North Bay to Old Scalby Mills PH (036909). From here, follow well-waymarked Cleveland Way National Trail to Robin Hood’s Bay.
Return: Bus 93 from Thorpe Lane, Robin Hood’s Bay.

Conditions: Some steep flights of steps; unguarded cliff edges.

Refreshments: Hayburn Wyke Inn YO13 0AU, 1½ miles north of Cloughton, ½ a mile off Cleveland Way (01723-870202, hayburnwykeinn.co.uk); Raven Hall Hotel, Ravenscar (01723-870353, ravenhall.co.uk)

Accommodation: 17 West Street, Scarborough, YO11 2QN (01723-361914, 17weststreet.co.uk) – stylish and welcoming stopover.
Victoria Hotel, Station Rd, Robin Hood’s Bay YO22 4RL (01947-880205, victoriarhb.com) – very friendly and full of character.

Information: Scarborough TIC (01723-383636)

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

Butser Hill and the Meon ponds, Hampshire

Walks No Responses »

Sep 032016

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

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On this bright windy day the view from the triangulation pillar on Butser Hill was at its very best – the South Downs billowing east and west, Portsmouth and Southampton sprawled far in the south, while out to sea the matt blue bar of the Isle of Wight stretched along the horizon. To the north-east the great hollow of the Devil’s Punchbowl took a bite out of the shoulder of the Surrey Hills.

Dog walkers trotted by, one couple watching their six sheepdogs fan out across the grass. The hilltop was bright with golden bird’s-foot trefoil, sky-blue harebells, bright yellow heads of wild parsnip, and tall plants of marjoram whose flowerheads we crushed between our fingers to savour their pungent smell.

This southwest corner of Hampshire is a tangle of quiet lanes. At the foot of the hill we followed a white chalk holloway, the breathy roar of a harvester percolating through the trees from the cornfields beyond. Oxenbourne Lane was spattered with fallen hazelnuts, their flesh pale green and milky. The scarlet berry clusters of lords-and-ladies grew along Cumber’s Lane, a favourite with off-road drivers. A temporary ban on their activities had resulted in the smoothing out of boggy tyre ruts and a thickening of greenery along the smashed-up verges.

The bald head of Butser Hill loomed on the eastern skyline as we crossed the infant River Meon, dried to nothing in a pebbly bed. Lower Farm and South Farm lay silent, all thatched sheds, flint walls and Dutch barns packed with round straw bales. We passed a run of olive brown ponds, the source of the Meon, and leaned on the bridge to savour twin smells – the tang of mint flourishing in the trickling water, and the sweet aroma of jam in the making that wafted seductively from the open windows of Springhole Cottage.

A flinty track shaded by a magnificent avenue of beech trees brought us south to Tegdown Bottom, where sheep and lambs were crying to one another. At the crest the South Downs Way made east for Butser Hill. The broad old track flickered with the shadows of low-flying swallows fuelling up for their long flight south to Africa – a tiny frisson from the oncoming autumn.
Start: Butser Hill car park, near Clanfield, Hants GU31 5SP (OS ref SU 712201)

Getting there: Butser Hill is signed from A3 between Horndean and Petersfield.

Walk (6¾ miles, easy, field paths and lanes; OS Explorer 120. Detailed directions are downloadable with online maps, more walks at christophersomerville.co.uk). Pass kiosk hut; through metal gate; follow grass path past radio station to pass trig pillar at summit of Butser Hill (717203). Keep ahead down far slope till you meet wide grass track; left along it (717204; occasional red-topped marker posts), through gate and on, keeping fence close below you. In ¼ mile pass a group of tumuli (714208); go through a belt of scrub and begin descending a ridge. Halfway down fork right, aiming for distant church spire. At foot of slope, into trees; in 50m fork left downhill to kissing gate at bottom (706212). Right along chalk holloway lane to Oxenbourne Lane (706217).

Left along lane; in 200m, right; in 175m, left along trackway. In ½ mile, at junction of six lanes in a grassy circle, turn left (696220) along Cumber’s Lane to cross road (696214). Take lane opposite past Fishpond Cottages to road (694211). Right for ⅔ mile past Parsonage Farm to T-junction; left (685210, ‘Clanfield, Horndean’) past Lower Farm. In 250m, left over stile (fingerpost); across paddock, through gate (yellow arrow/YA); left up South Farm drive. Bear right through farmyard and on along lane to cross bridge over ponds (685205; source of River Meon). Follow drive to Upper Barnes (685196); on up green track (YA, fingerpost) for ½ mile to meet South Downs Way/SDW (693190). Left on SDW to road (706191); left to car park.

Lunch: Rising Sun PH, North Lane, Clanfield, PO8 0RN (023-9259-6975, therisingsunclanfield.co.uk)

Accommodation: Upper Parsonage Farm, Harvesting Lane, East Meon, Petersfield GU32 1QR (01730-823490, upperparsonagefarm.co.uk)

Info: Petersfield TIC (01730-268829)

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

Gedney Drove End, Lincolnshire

Walks No Responses »

Aug 272016

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

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Gedney Drove End lies at the end of five miles of lonely road, out on the shores of the Wash estuary under the enormous skies of the South Lincolnshire flatlands. It’s a salty, strong-flavoured place, and so are born-and-bred Drove Enders.

From the sea bank beyond Gedney Drove End there must be forty miles of land and sea in view, all of it in narrow parallels of green and purple salt marsh, olive and brown sand and mud flats, ice blue sea and the black distant shores of Norfolk and Lincolnshire shimmering like a mirage. Within the three-sided cup of land that holds the Wash live hundreds of thousands of birds, and countless millions of lugworms, crustacea and other invertebrates that feed them. From the top of the sea wall we watched a lonely figure bending over a spade out on the mud flats, digging lugworms for bass fishing.

We walked the sea bank south, with the great estuary spread out on our left hand and massed fields of peas, kale, wheat and potatoes on our right – the soil here, reclaimed from the sea by the building of the parallel banks, is the richest and most productive in Britain. Down at the wide mouth of the River Nene we stopped to admire the twin white lighthouses that mark the channel.

Peter Scott, founder of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, lived in the lighthouse on the east bank in the 1930s. It was on these marshes that he shot and wounded a goose, and saw it fall on inaccessible ground where it took three days to die. The experience haunted him, and was the catalyst for his conversion from wildfowler to dedicated conservationist.

Before turning back along the Old Sea Bank through the arable fields to Gedney Drove End, we dropped down the outer slope of the sea wall and followed a muddy path through boot-high thickets of samphire to the edge of the marsh. Redshank cried, the wind hummed and brought smells of salt and mud, and up on the sea bank a flock of starlings squabbled for insects brushed out of the grass by a herd of slowly lumbering bullocks. I could cheerfully have stayed there all day.
Start: Village Hall car park, Gedney Drove End, Lincs, PE12 9NW (OS ref TF 461295)

Getting there: Bus – Long Sutton Call Connect (0345-234-3344; book in advance)
Road – Gedney Drove End is on B1359 signed off A17 between Long Sutton and Holbeach. At T-junction in village, left to car park in 200m.

Walk (7½ miles there-and-back; easy, OS Explorer 249 – NB: online maps, more walks: christophersomerville.co.uk): Back towards T-junction; in 200m, left (fingerpost) to Old Sea Bank (464296). Right for 250m; left up road to cross T-junction (469296). Ahead up path to sea wall (472298). Right for 2¾ miles to gate at River Nene mouth (492264). NB Old Sea Bank (see below) can be overgrown approaching Marsh. To avoid this stretch, return along sea wall from Nene mouth to Gedney Drove End. To continue round walk from gate, turn right along bank to road (486263); right for 600m; at left bend, keep ahead (482268, fingerpost) along Old Sea Bank (can be overgrown) for ¾ of a mile to road at Marsh (477279). Right; at left bend (478283), right to sea wall (481285). Left to Gedney Drove End.

Lunch: Rising Sun PH, Gedney Drove End (01406-550734)

Accommodation: Woodlands Hotel, 80 Pinchbeck Road, Spalding, Lincs PE11 1QF (01775-769933; woodlandshotelspalding.com) – comfortable, very friendly.

Info: Spalding TIC (01775-764551)

Yorkshire Wolds Walking & Outdoors Festival: 10-18 September; theyorkshirewolds.com

www.visitlincolnshire.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

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