Christopher Somerville

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

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There’s no shortage of plumed helmets, dragon-roaring shields, coats of mail, crossbows and swords – some of these real enough to cleave a foe in twain – in English Heritage’s child-friendly shop at the gates of Tintagel Castle.

I crossed the footbridge slung over the chasm that separates the mainland from the castle on its massive, rock-like promontory, known as The Island. Here, protected by sheer cliffs on all sides, a prosperous community traded tin for Mediterranean pottery and glassware in post-Roman times. And here, if the ancient chroniclers and poets can be believed, Arthur the Once and Future King was conceived of an adulterous union (magically facilitated by the wizard Merlin) between the British King Uther Pendragon and the Duke of Cornwall’s wife, beautiful Igraine.

Was Arthur born at Tintagel? Or was he washed up there on a tempest-driven wave, to be raised by Merlin in the cave that still underpins The Island? And what of the ancient stone inscribed with Arthur’s name, unearthed at Tintagel in 1998? I pondered these signs and wonders as I explored the tiny Dark Ages dwellings and the stark castle ruins on the promontory. Then I set out north along the coast path with the sun on my back and the wind in my face.

It was a springtime day in a thousand, under a sky of unbroken blue. The path wound into and out of hidden valleys, swung up flights of steps and slithered down over slaty rocks. Primroses, white sea campion and pink tuffets of thrift trembled in the strong sea breeze. Herring gulls wheeled and wailed above a sea of milky turquoise two hundred feet below. Ahead, the cliffs crinkled around tiny rock coves, leading the eye forward to a great curve of coast where Cornwall ran north into Devon.

In the gorse banks above Smith’s Cliff, tiny Dartmoor ponies galloped skittishly to and fro. I walked out to the spectacular sheer-sided promontory of Willapark, one among dozens of sections of this precious piece of coastline bought by the National Trust with funds raised through their Neptune Coastline Campaign – 50 years old this very month. Beyond Benoath Cove’s perfect fingernail of dull gold sand lay Rocky Valley, where the Trevillet River jumps down towards the sea over a series of rock steps. I crossed a little grassy saddle near Firebeacon Hill, brilliant with violets and shiny yellow stars of celandine.

Under the white tower of a coastguard lookout, the coal-black cliffs of Western Blackapit stood twisted, contorted and streaked with splashes of quartzite as though a painter had flicked his brush across them. Beyond the promontory, the white houses of Boscastle lay hidden in their deep narrow cleft, appearing in sight only at the last moment as I turned the corner by the harbour wall – a magical revelation of which Merlin himself might have been proud

Start: Tintagel Castle, near Camelford, Cornwall, PL34 0HE (OS ref SX 052889)

Getting there: A30, A395, B3266; or A39, B3263 to Boscastle. Park in village car park (PL35 0HE) – about £5 in coins. Then take bus 595, or taxi (£10, Boscars, tel 07790-983911, boscars.co.uk) to Tintagel. Walk down to castle entrance.

Walk (6 miles, strenuous, OS Explorer 111. NB: online maps, more walks at HYPERLINK “http://www.christophersomerville.co.uk” christophersomerville.co.uk): Follow South West Coast Path to Boscastle.

Conditions: Many steps and short steep sections

Lunch/Tea: Harbour Lights Tea Garden, Boscastle (01840-250953)

Accommodation: Mill House, Trebarwith, near Tintagel, PL34 0HD (01840-770200, themillhouseinn.co.uk)

Tintagel Castle (English Heritage): 01840-770328; english-heritage.org.uk

NT South West Coastal Festival 2015: nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/south-west

Info: Boscastle TIC (01840-250010)
satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk; LogMyTrip.co.uk

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

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Fifty years ago next week Britain’s first National Trail, the Pennine Way, was officially opened. It wound through some steep and beautiful landscape in industrial West Yorkshire, but it gave a wide berth to Hebden Bridge – back then a stinking, roaring, smoking mill town, famous for its fustians and corduroys, but nobody’s idea of a pleasant stopover for holiday makers.

Times have changed, and so has the town after a big smartening-up. A new detour route, the Hebden Bridge Loop, is being opened to coincide with the Pennine Way’s anniversary, beckoning walkers aside to savour the organic cafes, artisan bakers and boutique shops of the newly sparkling gritstone town down there in the depths of Calderdale.

On a brisk day with newborn lambs jumping in the fields I climbed the cobbled lane to Horsehold Farm, where the new Loop path led me along the edge of a steep beechwood. A strong, cold wind blew in from the west with a spatter of snowflakes in its skirts. I dropped down through the tender new green leaves of Callis Wood to where road, railway canal and river ran squashed close together by the tight geography of the Calder Valley.

The Hebden Bridge Loop rose very steeply up the northern flank of Calderdale by way of narrow cobbled laneways between green gritstone walls footed in daffodils. Up in the fields 600 feet above the valley bottom, nesting curlews and golden plover flew away with wild bubbling cries, the haunting sound of spring in the northern dales. Back across Calderdale the slim finger of the monument on Stoodley Pike stood high, pointing into a sky swirling with snow and sun.

From the ridge I descended with a superb view north over Golden Clough to far moors painted chocolate and cream. Down through fields of heavily pregnant ewes to Hebble Hole and the little ancient stone footbridge over the Golden Water, a perfect picnic spot on some warm summer’s day. But today it was up and on with the wind at my back to high-perched Heptonstall on the edge of its cleft, and a vertiginous path all the way back down through Mytholm Woods to Hebden Bridge.

Start: Hebden Bridge Station, W. Yorks HX7 6JE (OS ref SD 996268)

Getting there: Rail to Hebden Bridge. Bus – 500 (Keighley), 590, 592 (Halifax-Todmorden), 900 (Huddersfield). Road – M62, Jct 20; A58, A6033 to Todmorden; A46 to Hebden Bridge

Walk: (7 miles, strenuous, OS Explorer OL21): From station entrance, right under railway; right up Palace Hill Road. Down across railway; first left (989271, ‘Horsehold’) up road. Just before Horsehold Farm (982267), follow red circles and white arrows of Hebden Bridge Loop /HBL. In third of a mile, at fingerpost ‘Mankinholes 3¼ miles’, turn right across stream (980261; ‘Collis Bridge’, HBL) In100m, right down gravelled track (‘Pennine Bridleway’). In 450m, with house in sight through trees to left, cross over broad track and take path (978265, ‘Pennine Way’/PW) down to track; on down to cross canal, river and A646 (971264)

Right (PW); in 50m, left (PW, ‘Hebble Hole’) under railway. Very steeply up cobbled laneway. At second pair of yellow arrows/YA, fork left uphill; on up past Higher Underbank Farm. In 100m, hairpin back right by board marked ‘Wainwright Route/ Official Route’ (968266). Follow Official Route over stile, along path. In 300m, fork left uphill at 2-arrow post (970268); steeply up to The Cludgie (ancient WC) and house on road (971269). Left (PW); in 200m, right (PW) north up field edges. In ⅓ mile, cross Badger Lane (967274); on past Badger Fields Farm, over crest, down to cross Golden Water in Hebble Hole on footbridge (968282). In 30m, fork left (YA); in another 100m fork right and keep parallel with river. In 150m, left up steps (970282), through gate (HBL) onto paved field path. Follow this (HBL, YAs) for ¾ mile to Windy Harbour Farm (982283). Right off lane here; immediately left through squeeze stile; follow HBL to road (983283). Right into Heptonstall.

Pass Cross Inn; first right into Hepton Drive (HBL on road name plate); first right into Church Lane; follow HBL past church, then steeply down vertiginous path through woods to road in Hebden Bridge (989273). Right (HBL); in 100m, left (HBL) down steps. Left along A646 at bottom; at traffic lights (991272) right to cross canal; left along towpath. Pass under bridge No. 16 (995270); hairpin back right to road; left to station.

NB – Some short, steep climbs; many steps; vertiginous path from Heptonstall to Hebden Bridge.

Lunch: Cross Inn, Heptonstall (01422-843284).

Accommodation: Hare and Hounds, Old Town, Hebden Bridge HX7 8TN (01422-842671, hareandhounds.me.uk) – very friendly, cosy country pub.

Pennine Way 50th Anniversary celebrations: nationaltrail.co.uk/pennine-way
Hebden Bridge Loop Launch Day, 25th April. Info, map etc – hbwalksersaction.org.uk/pennine-way.html

Info: Hebden Bridge TIC (01422-843831); yorkshire.com
satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk; LogMyTrip.co.uk

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

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Tam-o’-shanters off to the Forest Community Trust at the tiny scattered hamlet of Abriachan on the hillside above Loch Ness. Nearly 20 years ago they bought a chunk of their local forest and moorland, where they’ve laid out, waymarked and maintained a superb network of footpaths that connect some fascinating sites and viewpoints over the surrounding hilly landscape. The start of the walk to Cairn na Leitire’s rocky peak is a forest play area complete with big wooden fort, tree house, bird hide, loos and playground – ideal for junior adventurers.

On a still, cool morning with a hint of rain in the air we left the play area and set out on the climb through pine forest and silver birch. A tiny toad as long as my little fingernail squatted on a rock, hoping in vain to avoid the sharp eyes of Jane. We crossed an undulating moor of bilberry with mats of pale green lichen and purple heather tufts. From the cairn on Carn na Leitire the views widened across the hills as far as the broad shoulder of Ben Wyvis rising into cloud some 25 miles to the north.

Thick curtains of rain rippled through the valleys parallel with our patch of upland, but miraculously seemed to be avoiding us. Then they changed course, and smacked us with all they’d got. Dripping wet, we took shelter in a shieling, a reconstruction of the kind of hut that local cattle-herders would have used in the summer months – circular, tiny, with stone foundations and turf sod walls under a heather-thatched roof. How smoky, smelly and conversational it must have been in there, with five or six people crammed tight together and a good peat fire blazing away.

We lingered in the shieling till the rain marched away eastwards. Then it was out and down into the forest, pressing on through downpours and bright sunshine interludes, with the stacked pine logs exuding pungent smells of resinous sap. The sun drew out the male scotch argus butterflies, chocolate brown with fiery orange embellishment to the trailing edges of their wings. Suddenly the tall damp grasses were full of them, restlessly fluttering, never perching for long, a brilliant display of colour and movement to brighten the homeward miles.

Start: Abriachan Forest Trails car park, near Drumnadrochit IV3 8LD approx. (OS ref NH 540353)

Getting there: A82 south from Drumnadrochit; in 6 miles, hairpin left (‘Abriachan’ – use turning circle on right). In 1½ miles pass Abriachan village hall on right; in 250m, fork left (‘Abriachan Forest Walks’). Pass Loch Laide; in 400m, by ‘Abriachan Forest Trust’ sign on left, left onto dirt road; in 350m, left into car park.

Walk (5½ miles, moderate, OS Explorer 416): Follow ‘Wee Tree House, Loch Laide’ sign past playground. At boardwalk junction, left to Tree House; return along boardwalk to T-junction. Left to hide on Loch Laide. Return past left and right turning; take next left. Beside wooden play fort, left to Bronze Age hunt reconstruction. Just beyond, left at junction. In 300m trail forks; go left (footprint waymark). At 542346 pass carved bench; at another carved bench, left (542344, ‘Carn na Leitire’). In 300m, at fork with ‘posts’ sculpture on left, bear right. Path swings anticlockwise round hillock. Pass post on left; in 50m, ignore path on right (544343) and continue on main path to cairn on Carn na Leitire (547345).

Continue on clear path across moor. At successive junctions (551341 and 554341) go left (‘Balchraggan’ fingerposts). In 800m pass The Shieling hut (558342); continue to T-junction. Right on forest track for ¾ mile to meet Great Glen Way (549337). Right along GGW for 1¼ miles to T-junction by forestry store (536345); right for ¾ mile to car park.

Refreshments: Picnic

Accommodation: Bridgend House, Village Green, Drumnadrochit, IV63 6TX (01456-450865, bestbandb-lochness.co.uk) – very friendly and obliging B&B.

Abriachan Forest Trust: 01463-861259, abriachan.org.uk

Abriachan Trails: Download map/instructions at walkhighlands.co.uk

visitscotland.com;satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk; LogMyTrip.co.uk

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

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The Sculpture Trail in the heart of the Forest of Dean was a pioneering project when it first opened in 1986. The artists’ brief was to respond to the Forest, an ancient mineral-rich woodland between Wye and Severn whose atmosphere is full of latency and ‘otherness’.

Some of those initial works have been absorbed organically by the place; twenty remain, with more planned, strung out along a winding path – a giant seatless chair on a hillock, charred boats in an old coal mine drain; a tall staircase to nowhere, then a whole oak tree felled, sawn and reconfigured into a neat jenga-stye pile. These artefacts in such a natural setting could be an intrusive annoyance, but somehow they work together to reinforce the air of secrecy and mystery that the Forest exudes so powerfully.

On a cold winter day under a blue sky netted with the bare limbs of oak, beech and silver birch we walked the circuit as far as the installation named ‘Cathedral’, a big stained glass window suspended between the pine trees and glowing with sunlight. From here we crossed the road that bisects the Forest and headed south past Speech House Lake among the Inclosures – areas where the growing trees were once fenced off against grazing animals. The Forest of Dean has its own laws and customs, enforced by traditional wardens known as Verderers, and Forest-born locals – the ‘Foresters’ – jealously guard their rights to graze their animals and to mine for coal, iron and stone as, when and where they see fit.

We followed forest paths and the trackbeds of old industrial railways between the trees to New Fancy Colliery, where the great spoil tip is now a greened-over hillock with a superb view from its summit across a purple and green ocean of treetops. The goshawks that hunt hereabouts were elsewhere today. But by the side of the homeward path we spotted what looked like a tight coil of rope, patterned with black diamonds – a male adder, still sunk deep in hibernatory half-consciousness as it waited for spring and the mating season.

Start & finish: Beechenhurst Lodge Visitor Centre, Speech House Road (B4226), near Coleford, Glos GL16 7EJ (OS ref SO 614121)
Getting there: Bus service 30 (Cinderford-Coleford). Road: Beechenhurst Lodge is on B4226 between Cinderford (A4151) and Coleford (A4136).
Walk (9 miles, easy, OS Explorer OL14): From Visitor Centre follow Sculpture Trail (leaflet map/guide available from Centre; blue-ringed posts/waymarks). From Sculpture 16, ‘Hanging Fire’ (624126), walk to B4226. Right for 100m; left into car park just east of Speech House Hotel. Ahead through gate (623122) into Cyril Hart Arboretum. Ahead for 150m to next gate; don’t go through, but turn right along path. In 400m, through gate (622118); left (SE) along Spruce Ride. In 300m, over a crossroads; in another 300m, right (627115) on path along left (east) shore of Speech House Lake. At end of lake fork left with ditch, then fence on left for 400m to T-jct (628109); right for 100m, then left for 300m to meet cycleway (628105). Path runs beside it for ½ mile to 6-way junction of tracks (631099). Right here along surfaced track. In 300m, right (630096, ‘New Fancy Picnic Site’); in 200m, fork left into car park. Follow ‘Viewpoint’ to summit lookout (629095).

Back to car park, and to road entrance (627095). Left along road for 150m; right through gate, and on west along trackway. In ½ mile descend to track (619097); left for 30m; at ‘Three Brothers’ sign, right (north) along rising grass track for nearly 1 mile. At junction, take 2nd right (618111) along waymarked ‘Gloucestershire Way’/GW. In 400m it forks left (618114, GW, yellow arrow/YA) off hard-surfaced track onto grassy/muddy ride. Continue north for 400m to cross stile (618119); left on path through trees, down to track; right to cross B4226 (take care!) to car park and Visitor Centre.

Lunch: Speech House Hotel on B4226, half a mile east of Beechenhurst Lodge (01594-822607; thespeechhouse.co.uk)
More info: Beechenhurst Lodge (01594-833057)
www.satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk; LogMyTrip.co.uk

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

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The twin cherubs on St Arvans’ village fountain have been discharging streams of water – dried up these days – from their cast-iron urns for well over a century now. Distinctly underdressed, on this cold St David’s Day they looked and felt half frozen. We left them to their invisible pouring, and followed a wide grassy ride west across the fields to where the barns of Rogerstone Grange overlooked stud farm paddocks of horses in thick winter coats.

Field paths led us on through a broad, undulating landscape typical of these southernmost Welsh Borders. In the margins of Chepstow Park Wood a buzzard mewed like a frightened kitten as it side-slipped the dive-bombing attacks of a pair of angry crows. Turning back east through the conifer wood, all was still and windless, though the tree tops roared a hundred feet above our heads.

At the forest edge we sat on a bench and looked out across sunlit slopes and the first yellow-green buds of this year’s daffodils to a wide silver streak of the Severn Estuary. Then we plodged on along puddly lanes and paths to Gaer Hill, trenched with the concentric ramparts of a magnificent Iron Age hill fort. It was built by the Silures, dark-complexioned, curly-haired and famous for fierceness in battle.

With the flat, tree-encircled crowns of the Forest of Dean ahead we dropped downhill and went west to where the Wye Valley’s sheer limestone cliffs walled in their gorge. From the Eagle’s Nest lookout on Wyndcliff there was a spectacular view over the deserted village, ruined church and working farm of Lancaut, cradled in a great meander of the flood-reddened Wye. Then we plunged down the steep metal stairways and slippery, worn-away stone treads of the 365 Steps, a 19th century tourist attraction (I counted 306).

At the foot of the cliffs a last stretch through sunlit meadows brought us back to St Arvans, where the wintry afternoon sun had brought a touch of warmth to the fountain cherubs’ cold iron limbs, if not a rosy glow to their green-painted cheeks.

Start: The Piercefield Inn, St Arvans, Chepstow, Monmouthshire NP16 6EJ (OS ref ST 519963)

Getting there: Bus 69 (monmouthshire.gov.uk), Chepstow-Monmouth
Road – St Arvans is on A466 Chepstow-Monmouth road

Walk (8 miles, moderate, OS Explorer OL14.): From The Piercefield, left along A466. At right bend, ahead along Devauden Road. Left along Church Lane; right round east end of church; left and on through kissing gate (516965) and down hedged ride (yellow arrows/YA). At kissing gate in valley, ahead on broad grass ride. At Rogerstone Grange’s barns (507965), right along track to farm road. Right; immediately left (fingerpost, ‘Tewdrig Trail’/TT). In 200m, left through gate (506968, YA); on along edge of wood; through next gate (502968) and over stile beyond (499969, YA). Follow fence down to ford stream (496968, stile, YA). Follow hedge on right. At far end of field, right over stile (YA); left down hedge to ford another stream (492968, stile, YA). Aim right of Park House; cross stile into lane (489966, YA).

Along lane, then road. In 300m, right (488964, ‘Devauden’ fingerpost) into Chepstow Park Wood through metal barrier, and up forest road. In 100m fork right; follow forest road for 1½ miles. At sharp left bend (502974), bear right past 2 benches and leave wood to follow sunken lane to road (507978). Left; in 70m, right (fingerpost, YA), following TT across fields. In 700m, at third fence/hedge (513981), don’t go through gate ahead (YA), but go through gate on right (unwaymarked) and follow fence on left. Through gates on left of barn (515980, TT); on along drive. Opposite Gaer Hill Farm, left through ‘stepthrough stile’ (516979); bear right (anticlockwise) round field, following hill fort rampart on your right, to cross stile (518979, YA). Downhill by fence on right to cross road (520979). Ahead up ‘No Through Road’. In ¼ mile, right (522982) up drive, past Porthcasseg Farm and on (YAs) along grassy drive. Cross stile (529981, YA) and follow right-hand hedge to cross stile (YA) into Black Cliff Wood. Right here (531980, ‘Wye Valley Walk’/WVW) along upper edge of wood.

In ⅓ mile path bends right; in another 250m, at waymark post (528975), turn left downhill to Eagle’s Nest lookout. Return to WVW; left along it for 200m; at bend, turn left at waymark post (527974, YA, footprint symbol), steeply down the 365 Steps. At the bottom, bear right (fingerpost), following WVW past old quarry and on along track, with A466 50m below on left. In ¼ mile at waymark post (525972), WVW, footprint and yellow triangle all point uphill to right; don’t follow these, but fork left and continue on path parallel with A466 for 200m to cross minor road (523971, stile, fingerpost, YA). Aim up slope opposite to tall tree; on to road by cottage (519972). Left into St Arvans; left (516969) to Piercefield PH.

NB: 365 Steps have handrails but are steep, slippery, uneven!

Lunch: The Piercefield, St Arvans (01291-622614; piercefieldgwent.co.uk)

Info: Chepstow TIC (01291-623772)
visitengland.com; www.satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk; LogMyTrip.co.uk