Christopher Somerville

The houses of Southstoke, built of the same pale silver and cream oolitic limestone as their Big Brother city of Bath just over the hill, were lightly dusted with powder snow on this cold winter’s morning.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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Over the porch of the Church of St James the Great, a Millennium carving of the much-travelled Apostle showed him staring with seer’s eyes from the shelter of a pilgrim’s scallop shell. With one shoulder bare and a crust of last night’s snow for a collar, the hero of Santiago looked a little under-dressed for the weather. Not so the two young girls busy making snow pancakes outside the Packhorse Inn – they were kitted out like crimson-cheeked polar explorers.

From the ridge beyond Southstoke a wonderful vista opened out southwards over deeply cut valleys frosted to lemon yellow and ice green. A smoky grey sky hung low, telling of more snow on the way. I pushed my hands deeper into my pockets and went crunching down the slopes of Horsecombe Vale. The cattle in the fields moved gingerly, sensing the ankle-breaking hollows concealed below the ice lids over their own hoofpocks. Warmed by their sweet, cloudy breath, I skittered down through the woods to Tucking Mill.

The tree-knotted trackbed of the former Somerset & Dorset Railway led south to Midford. The clanking steam engines of the S&D had carried me to school in the long ago, and I used to look out as we passed over Midford Viaduct to see the abandoned tracks of the Somerset Coal Canal and the Cam Valley Railway snaking away below. Although the canal was killed off when the railway opened before the First World War, it is the graceful structures of the old waterway that claim attention as one walks the Cam Valley today – a packhorse bridge isolated in a field, and three long, narrow lock basins of beautiful silvery Bath stone, empty and ivy-strangled along a hedge. The bigger, blunter instrument of the abandoned railway eventually came striding in on a tall embankment, shouldering the canal aside into the woods and hurrying me on to Combe Hay.

A proper old lane, stony and tree-lined, led up behind the Wheatsheaf Inn to the crest of the ridge and the field path back to Southstoke. I looked out over whitened fields and blackened woods, a Breughelian scene already half obscured by newly falling snow.

Start & finish: Pack Horse Inn, Southstoke, Bath BA2 7DU (OS ref ST 747612). NB Very limited parking at Pack Horse Inn; please park considerately, elsewhere.

Getting there: Southstoke is signed from B3110 between Combe Down and Midford

Walk (5 ½ miles, moderate grade, OS Explorer 155): From Pack Horse, uphill for 50 yards; right along road. Just past Southstoke House, left through kissing gate (fingerpost) across field. Cross B3110. Descend fields of Horsecombe Vale (yellow arrows/YA); cross brook; follow path to Wessex Water plant. Right; just beyond Tucking Mill viaduct, right up steps (fingerpost); follow old railway to Midford station. Right to road; left through viaduct; cross B3110 (take care!); descend steps opposite Hope & Anchor PH (fingerpost); right along Cam Valley old railway and canal path for 2 miles to Wheatsheaf Inn, Combe Hay. Right beside inn, up lane for 3/4 of a mile to road; right on path (fingerpost) to Southstoke.

Online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Lunch: Pack Horse Inn, Southstoke (832060; www.packhorseinn.com) – sheer rural delight.

More info: Bath TIC (0906-711-2000 – 50p./min);

www.visitbath.co.uk; www.ramblers.org.uk

Christopher Somerville will be talking about his latest book, Somerville’s Travels, at Topping’s Bookshop, The Paragon, Bath (01225-428111), on Thursday 7 January at 7.45 p.m.

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 golden day on the North Downs, the kind you dream of in the murks of miserable winter, with a bright sun whirling in a silver sky and a light dusting of frost across the Surrey hills. Why kick against such delightful pricks? I downed tools and got the boots on.

The air stung and snapped at my nose as I stepped off the train at Gomshall station – a familiar place to me, hub of many a fabulous North Downs ramble. Today’s was going to be an old favourite, up the escarpment for a treading of the oldest road in Britain, then a return along the hollow way beaten out though the centuries by pilgrims travelling to and from the shrine of St Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. Medieval religiosity often tipped into outlandishness. In the stop-and-gawp-gorgeous village of Shere I found the little quatrefoil window in St James’s Church through which the 14^th-century anchoress Christine Carpenter, incarcerated of her own will, viewed the Mass from her tiny cramped cell. Christine let herself out on one occasion and ‘ran about, being torn to pieces by attacks of the Tempter’, before being shut up again to continue her purgatorial imprisonment.

Up above Shere I was grateful to breathe the free air of the Downs. Under the bushy dark yews and leafless beeches the light fell cold and shadowed. The rutted track of the North Downs Way led west, a deep scar in the woods where men and beasts have been travelling, keeping high and safe from the dangers of the valley mires, since time out of mind – perhaps as long as eight thousand years. At the open gap of Newlands Corner I stopped to take in the prospect over carefully managed woodlands and a broad patchwork of hedged fields. What would the ancients have made of such neatness, such order and discipline, imposed on a landscape they negotiated as wild, tangled and full of hidden hazards?

At the chalky funnel of White Lane I went down the slope and into old coppice woods to meet the Pilgrim’s Way, broad and purposeful under the hazels. I followed it up a knoll to the dark ironstone church dedicated to St Martha – or perhaps originally to the ‘sainted Martyr’ St Thomas – and then let the old pilgrim path carry me back east. Before reaching Shere and the crackling fire in the White Horse, I turned aside to Silent Pool among its trees, to stand and dream of Emma, the woodcutter’s beautiful daughter, who bathed here and drowned while being spied upon by wicked Prince John. Just one of a million tales spun and woven along our ancient ways.

Start & finish: Gomshall station (OS ref TQ 089478)

Getting there: Train (www.thetrainline.com; www.railcard.co.uk) to Gomshall. Road: M25 (Jct 10); A3; A247, A25

Walk (10 ½ miles, moderate, OS Explorer 145): From Gomshall Station cross A25; under railway; right down Wonham Way. In 250 yards (250 m), right (087475) at bend. Under railway; left along lane to crossroads (082476); down Gravelpits Lane. In 100 yards (100 m), right by Gravelpits Farmhouse; follow lane across fields. In ⅓ mile (0.6 km), left through gate (076477) to St James’s Church, Shere (074478).

From church, forward; right opposite White Horse PH. Left at T-junction (073479); in 20 yards (20 m) right up recreation ground. Under A25; immediately left up zigzag path, then right up left side of Netley Plantation for ½ mile (0.75 km) to Hollister Farm (073490). Ahead here to road (072494). Right for 10 yards (10 m); left along North Downs Way/NDW (fingerpost) for 1 ¾ miles (2.75 km) to Newlands Corner (044492).

Continue along NDW for ¾ mile (1.2 km) to cross White Lane (033490). Left downhill on path alongside lane. Ahead by Keeper’s Cottage (034486) through wood (NDW); right at NDW junction with Pilgrim’s Way/PW (032484; ‘chapel’ waymarks) to St Martha’s Chapel on hilltop (028483).

Return to NDW/PW junction; ahead along PW for ¼ mile to cross Guildford Lane, ⅔ mile to cross Water Lane (047484), almost a mile to reach A248 (060482).

Left up A248 (footpath on right of hedge) to A25; left for 100 yards (100 m); cross A25 (take great care!) into car park. Follow path to Sherbourne Pond and Silent Pool (061486).

Return to PW. Cross A248; continue across field, through Silver Wood; on across field to cross lane (069478). Follow path for ⅓ mile (0.5 km) to White Horse in Shere; on to Gomshall Station.

Lunch: White Horse, Shere (01483-202518) – log fires; characterful and popular, especially at weekends

More info: Sittingbourne TIC (01483-444333); www.visitsurrey.com; www.ramblers.org.uk

NB – Detailed directions, online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

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

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You can’t spend long in Inverness without realising that the heart of this fine city at the mouth of the River Ness is an island – heart-shaped too, formed by the river snaking seaward to the east, and the equal and opposite windings of the Caledonian Canal on the west. It offers a superb waterside walk by river, canal and sea.

I set off upstream along the River Ness on a blowy afternoon, walking south from Ness Bridge under tossing lime trees. Behind me the drum towers and battlements of the castle stood in rose-coloured sandstone on their bank above the river. ‘Hi, how are ye?’ boomed a kilted gentleman, as cheery as hell. ‘Good, thanks,’ I nodded back, and I meant it. The Ness sparkled under a succession of pretty lattice footbridges, which swooped me across the river with tree-hung islands as stepping stones, until I landed on the banks of the Caledonian Canal and turned my steps seaward.

This was no thin thread of water, but a proper commercial waterway fifty feet wide. Walking its towpath was like strolling a country lane thick with broom, still a-bloom in startling yellow. In contrast to the living, oxygenated rush of the Ness, the Canal lay flat, calm and mirror-still until flecks of rain began to pock it. I strode on through the shower, past the crane and flight of locks at Muirtown, out to where the tip of the canal thrust into the broad tidal shore at Clachnaharry Sea Lock. Tumbled hills across the firth lay half obliterated under shining rainbursts, and the air was thick with iodine smells and the piping of oystercatchers.

Estuarine paths led me on to the old ferry slip at South Kessock, sadly abandoned and forlorn since its rival for trade, the mighty Kessock road bridge, was built across the narrows where the Firth of Beauly melts into the greater Moray Firth. Out at Carnac Point I sat by the old green-painted light, watching a tug making slowly seaward beneath the immense span of the Kessock Bridge where cars hurried north, half way up a slate-black sky. I gazed until the rain had hidden both tug and bridge, then turned inland with a cup of tea on my mind, and made for the cosy old city along the sea-going Ness.

Start & finish: Inverness railway station (OS ref NH668455)

Getting there: Rail (www.thetrainline.com) or coach (www.nationalexpress.co.uk); A9 to Inverness and city centre car parks.

Walk (8 miles, easy; OS Explorer 416, or city centre map from Inverness TIC): From railway station cross Academy Street, down Union Street, left up Church Street to Bridge Street and TIC. At bottom of Bridge Street, right along east bank of River Ness for 1¼ miles, following Great Glen Way/GGW signs across footbridges and islands. At ‘Whin Park’ sign (660435) turn left away from GGW, through Whin Island. At foot of island, left across wooden bridge (654433); right along edge of playing field to steps (652433), right along Caledonian Canal.

In ⅓ mile cross Tomnahurich Bridge (655438); right along west bank for 2 miles to Clachnaharry Sea Lock (645467). Return across railway, in 200 yards, left to South Kessock Pier (655472). Right along road; in ¼ mile, left to Carnac Point (660472). Return to road; follow west bank of River Ness for a mile. Left across lattice footbridge (664454); up Church Lane, cross Church Street, up School Lane, right along Academy Street to station.

NB: Online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Accommodation: An Grianan, 11 Crown Drive, Inverness IV2 3NN (01463-250530; www.angrianan.co.uk): welcoming, comfortable B&B close to city centre.

More info: Inverness TIC, Castle Wynd (01463-234353; www.visithighlands.com; www.visitscotland.com).

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

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A beautiful blue sky over Upper Teesdale, and a darkly forested Pennine skyline heavy with bruised cloud. The two weathers were due to come to blows later in the day, with foul slated to triumph over fair. This early in the morning, though, autumn sunshine was spreading itself across the creamy grey stone houses of Romaldkirk and soaking the beeches about the village green with translucent splashes of lime and butterscotch.

In the chilly gloom of St Romald’s Church I found Sir Hugh Fitz Henry recumbent in the north chapel, his grey face smoothed and flattened by the patting hands of seven centuries. The Lord of Bedale, Ravensworth and Cotherstone had been felled by wounds inflicted by Scottish foes. Now he lay in chainmail and surcoat, right hand frozen in the act of drawing his long (and slightly bent) stone sword. No noble knight expected to die in his bed in these wild regions back at the turn of the 14^th century, especially not a participant in King Edward Longshanks’s vicious campaigns against the turbulent Scots.

The Teesdale Way footpath led from Romaldkirk over the fields towards the River Tees. Down near the river I skirted the handsome old Dales longhouse of Low Garth, half dwelling and half byre, deadly silent in an overgrown farmyard, windows blanked out and chimneys cold. In the woods the path ran carpeted with fallen oak leaves. I walked mesmerised by the sigh and rush of the bottle-brown Tees as it crashed down its flights of rapids, exuding that tingling, exhilarating smell of a river newly off the moors, stained with peat and rammed full of oxygen.

The Lord of Cotherstone, when he fancied a bit of something savoury after the roast heron and neat’s foot jelly, would have tucked into cheeses of ewe’s milk. But today there are milk cows in Teesdale, and beautiful crumbly Cotherstone cheese. At the post office in Cotherstone village I bought a fat truckle to take home, and an extra slice for pure greed’s sake. With a full mouth and an eye on the rainclouds, I turned home along the Tees Railway Walk, a footpath that threads the trackbed of the former Tees Valley Railway by way of the mighty Baldersdale Viaduct. How would Hugh Fitz Henry have reacted to a sight of the iron horse? It made a great one-reeler for the skull cinema as I walked – the warrior astride his caparisoned destrier, charging the smoke-belching monster at full and reckless tilt.

Start & finish: Rose & Crown, Romaldkirk, Co. Durham, DL12 9EB (OS ref NY995221)

Getting there: Bus (www.arrivabus.co.uk) service 95/96 from Barnard Castle. Road: A1 to Scotch Corner; A66 to Barnard Castle, B6277

Walk (5 miles, easy, OS Explorer OL31): From Rose & Crown cross road and grass; left along lane. Right by Rose Stile Cottage (‘Teesdale Way/TW’ fingerpost). In ¼ mile, go through left-hand of 2 gates (998216); path crosses 3 fields to Low Garth (003216). Cross stile (TW); left down bank, stile into wood. Follow TW beside Tees, then up to gate. Left end of barn; in front of Woden Croft houses (008208), then through gate. Left down fence, through gate (009207); cross field, down to Tees. In ¼ mile pass footbridge over Tees (013202); in 100 yards cross River Balder; right into Cotherstone.

Up lane by left side of Fox & Hounds (011198); cross stile and field; stile onto Tees Railway Walk (009194). Right for 2 miles to Romaldkirk.

NB – Online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Lunch/Accommodation: Rose & Crown, Romaldkirk (01833-650213; www.rose-and-crown.co.uk); Fox & Hounds, Cotherstone (01833-650241; www.cotherstonefox.co.uk)

Info: Barnard Castle TIC (01833-690909); www.visitnortheastengland.com; www.visitcountydurham.com; www.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 three brick oast houses beside the A20 at Harrietsham looked like a trio of square-built Kentish women going a-marketing in russet coloured cloaks. Each was capped by a hood like a nun’s coif, a slender white cone upheld against the windy autumn sky.

It was a leafy path from the railway station up towards the North Downs, an avenue of golden field maple and thorn trees heavy with crimson haws. Winter wheat was beginning to spring in the pale grey clay fields that lay knobby with greeny-white chalk lumps. The breast of the downs billowed like sheets on a washing line, a succession of curved slopes of beet where every individual leaf was pearled with last night’s raindrops. I didn’t turn round until I was properly up there, 200 feet above the plain, lord of a prospect of fine houses peeping among red and gold trees, and long misty miles towards the Kentish Weald.

Near Ringlestone I passed through a field of ewes, perhaps 150 of them. Every woolly rump had been smeared with colour. The three rams responsible – Mr Blue, Mr Green and Mr Red – limped after the flock wearing chest holsters of raddle, wearied beyond measure by their tupping duties. The passage of a hot air balloon over the field caused the ewes to flee in a panicking crowd, but the three Reservoir Rams couldn’t even raise a shamble.

Little Ringlestone Cottage stood under crooked chimneys and a camel-backed roof. Its owner leaned contentedly on the pond fence. A fine afternoon for walking! Nice quiet spot, this. How old’s the house? Oh, about five hundred. A little creaky, but a wonderful place to live. Beyond the cottage, spiky sweet chestnut pods had fallen from their parent trees to lie across the footpath. I crushed one underfoot and popped the triangular glossy nut into my mouth. Kritziturken! Like munching blotting paper steeped in sal volatile. I spat it out in fragments – lesson learned.

There were deneholes in the flanks of the dry valleys – pits dug in medieval times to win the alkaline chalk that sweetened the acid clay. I walked south again by timeless trackways with thick hedges and wide verges, under the yews, hornbeams and oaks of High Wood. The ancient Pilgrim’s Way carried me for a stretch; then it handed me on to paths through huge open fields swirled by plough and harrow into milky whorls, down past Goddington Oast and into Harrietsham, with the low autumn sun lighting the pale Kentish fields and the long roll of the Downs above them.

Start & finish: Harrietsham station, Harrietsham, Kent ME17 (OS ref TQ 866529).

Travel: Rail (www.thetrainline.com; www.railcard.co.uk) to Harrietsham. Road: M20 to Jct 8, A20 to Harrietsham.

Walk Directions (8 miles, easy grade, OS Explorer 148): At Harrietsham station, Platform 2 (866529), pass footbridge and take path beside railway. It swings north to cross a road (OS ref TQ 870532) and continues. At gate (873535), bear left (footpath marker) to cross North Downs Way/Pilgrim’s Way (NDW/PW). Climb path, following footpath signs, to road at Lower Deans farm (872546). Right for 10 yards; left over stile (fingerpost). Diagonally across field to yellow arrow (YA); left along field edges to cross road near Merlewood Farm (874552). Follow left-hand field edge for half a mile to road and Ringlestone Inn (879558).

Right for 30 yards; left up track. Pass Little Ringlestone cottage; cross stile. Follow fence on left; in 30 yards cross stile (880560;YA). Aim across field, left of pylon; follow YAs for ⅓ mile to cross lane by Park Farm (880565). Diagonally left; follow hedge to road at Yew Tree farm, Wormshill (878569). Right for 150 yards (Blacksmiths Arms is 100 yards further along road); then left over stile. Aim diagonally right down slope to valley bottom; uphill through gap (874569); across field and through shank of wood (871569). Climb slope to left of old quarry; over stile; turn left (869569) across field to join clear trackway of Drake Lane on edge of wood (866568). Follow it for ¾ mile to Ringlestone Road (865558).

Left for 40 yards; right past barrier; on along lane for ¾ mile, descending through High Wood to edge of trees (856549). Ahead downhill; left along Pilgrim’s Way (854546) for ⅔ mile. Turn right down third hedgerow on right (863542 – at top of slight rise) for ¼ mile to meet track by waymark post (861538). Left for 300 yards; right where track doglegs (red ‘Byway’ arrow) for ¼ mile to tarmac road at Goddington. Forward under railway; immediately left (860532; fingerpost) on path beside railway. In 350 yards, cross stile, diverge from railway over ridge to meet gravel path (864529). Left with fence on right, through kissing gate to reach station.

Lunch: Roebuck, Harrietsham (01622-858951/858388); Ringlestone Inn (01622-859900, www.theringlestoneinn.co.uk); Blacksmith’s Arms, Wormshill (01622-884386)

Accommodation: Black Horse Inn, Thurnham, Kent ME14 3LD (01622-737185; www.wellieboot.net) – characterful and welcoming

More Information: Maidstone TIC (01622-602169); www.enjoyengland.com