Christopher Somerville

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


A grey and blowy day across the Dorset coast and the deep-sunk Vale of Marshwood. Up at Lambert’s Castle the beeches thrashed and hissed, shedding their leaves downwind like flocks of birds.

A steep path took me down the fields to Roughmoor, where a sow and her three pink-and-black piglets were blissfully crunching up the beechmast fallen from the trees. They snorted and grunted and raised their snouts hopefully as I leaned on their fence, but I had nothing in my pockets to add relish to their feast.

Marshwood gives the impression of great depth and remoteness, a green mosaic of woodland and sloping pastures that Thomas Hardy would recognise today. At Roughmoor Cottage a splashy ford led to a holloway rustling with bracken and hart’s tongue ferns.

Up at Higher Stonebarrow the wind roared in the beeches that held the hedge-banks together with the grip of their root tangles. A basso profundo moan came from the high tension cables that crossed the valley. But once down in the squelchy green lane beyond Sheepwash Farm I was walking far beneath the rumpus of the gale. At the ford below Little Coombe the swollen stream gushed freely among horsetails and filled my boots, one of the myriad waters that once filled the carp pools dug by medieval monks at Fishpond Bottom.

A network of old cart tracks threads through Marshwood Vale. I saw no-one as I followed the sunken path to Little Combe and Great Combe, isolated farmsteads on green slopes under the grey sky. A glimpse of the roofs of Charmouth lining their cliff gap to the south with a wedge of wind-whitened sea beyond. Then I turned up straggling Long Lane to cross the earthworks of Coney’s Castle.

Two Iron Age hill forts, orientated south-north, dominate the eastern flank of Fishpond Bottom – the modest rise of Coney’s Castle, and to the north the bigger stronghold of Lambert’s Castle on its long slim promontory.

I’d just finished re-reading Bernard Cornwell’s sword-slashing King Arthur trilogy, ‘The Warlord Chronicles’. Romantic fantasy was irresistible here on the windy ramparts. I strode them like a warrior, wolfskin cloak flying free, sword in hand, as I prepared to repel the Saxon hordes massing in Marshwood Vale below.

How hard is it? 5¼ miles; moderate. Some boggy green lanes, fords.

Start: Lambert’s Castle car park, near Lyme Regis EX13 5XL (OS ref SY 367987)

Getting there: Off B3165 between Marshwood and Raymond’s Hill (A35)

Walk (OS Explorer 116): Back along drive. In 100m, opposite gate on left, right down path. Cross B3165 (366988); down steps; kissing gate; half left down to gate (365989). Right down drive. At Roughmoor Cottage cross ford (363991); up holloway to Higher Stonebarrow. Left up drive; at start of road, left (357990; gate with red dog notice). Bridleway bounded by hedge, then walls to cross B3165 (360987). Stile. Down right edge of field to cables; follow them left to green lane (363983). Right; in 50m, left (stile); right along upper edge of woodland on right. In 250m at telephone pole (363980), sharp left down through trees to road (364981); right. 50m past Sheepwash Cottage, left (364977) along wet green lane to Little Coombe Farm. 100m beyond, right (369975) for ⅔ mile past Higher Coombe and Great Coombe farms to Long Lane road (373968). Left for ¾ mile to Peter’s Gore crossroads (371981). Ahead (‘Marshwood’); in 20m, right past Lambert’s Castle/Wessex Ridgeway signs. North across Lambert’s Castle for ½ mile; at northern edge (372991) turn back along western rim to car park.

Lunch/Accommodation: Hunter’s Lodge, Raymond’s Hill EX13 5SZ (01297-33286, hunterslodgeinn.co.uk)

Info: marshwoodvale.com

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


From the car park at the end of the bumpy farm road from Moffat, a group of young volunteers from the Borders Forest Trust were setting out with spades and crowbars to plant trees on the slopes above Corehead. Young rowans, alders and silver birch are already flourishing on these steep lumpy hills, part of a drive to regenerate the native forest that once flourished here. The blackface sheep have already been banned from the slopes, so the saplings can grow ungrazed.

It was a long, steady climb through bracken and heather, then among the young trees along the Tweedhope Burn. Rowan berries glowed a deep burnt orange, and the indigo berries on recently planted juniper bushes gave a spicy tang of gin when crushed and sniffed.

Near at the top we heard the chink-chink of a hammer and glimpsed the youngsters hard at work on a new plantation. At the watershed, soggy and boggy, a neat elliptical cairn stood at the turning point of the Annandale Way, a rollercoaster path along the backs of Chalk Rig Edge, Great Hill and Annanhead Hill. Here we perched on a handily placed bench, looking down into the plum-coloured shadows of the Devil’s Beef Tub, source of the River Annan.

A stranger to the area three hundred years ago would never have happened upon this remote, tight and formidably steep-sided hollow, some five hundred feet deep, nearly sheer from rim to bottom. Here the cattle-raiding Johnstone family would graze the beasts they had stolen, confident that no-one would ever find them.

The secluded hideaway was also a refuge for the 17th-century religious dissenters known as Covenanters. One of them, John Hunter, was chased up the slopes by dragoons in August 1686 and shot like a dog when caught. In 1745 a Jacobite prisoner managed to get free from his captors while crossing the rim of the Devil’s Beef Tub, and escaped by rolling like a barrel down the plunging braeside while wrapped in his plaid.

We descended from Annanhead Hill and crossed the rushy bump of Ericstane Hill. Following the homeward path in bright evening sunshine, we looked back toward the darkly shadowed Devil’s Beef Tub, picturing the tumbling Jacobite – and, a more contemporary story from 2002, the woman who swerved her van off the road and all the way down into the hollow to crash land at the bottom. She survived, with a broken arm; the van still lies where it fell, wheels in the air, landmark and legend in one.

How hard is it? 7½ miles; strenuous moorland walk, boggy in places.

Start: Car parking space (OS ref NT 073117) on farm road between Ericstane (077116) and Corehead (073124).

Getting there: North through Moffat on A701; fork right along Beechgrove, then follow Old Edinburgh Road (‘No Through Road’). In 3½ miles at Ericstane, left across river (073109). Rough farm road towards Corehead; in ⅔ mile, car parking space on right (072118) by Borders Forest Trust sign.

Walk (OS Explorer 330): Bear right along grassy track. Follow Annandale Way (AW waymarks) for 1⅔ miles, gaining height beside Tweedhope Burn to reach cairn at watershed (084138). AW turns left with fence; follow it over hills for 2 miles to descend to A701 (056127). Left; in 400m, right (059124, AW) across Ericstane Hill to cross A701 (061115). Follow field track; in ½ mile on right bend, left off AW through gateway (065110). Follow track down to Ericstane (072109); left to car.

Lunch: Hugo’s Restaurant, 4 Bath Place, Moffat DG10 9HJ (01683-221606, hugosmoffat.uk)

Accommodation: Annandale Arms Hotel, High Street, Moffat DG10 9HF (01683-220013, annandalearmshotel.co.uk)

Info: bordersforesttrust.org

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


With a brilliant blue flash of side feathers the jay we’d disturbed went screeching off among the trees of Sidney Wood. Raucous birds, jays: the sweary sentinels of the woods.

Squirrels had already stripped the hazels of their nuts, leaving eviscerated shells and rejected kernels all over the path. The wood was damp and green this afternoon under the cloudy skies stretched over south Surrey, and the abandoned channel of the Wey & Arun Canal exhaled a fine miasma of mud and stewed vegetation when we found it half-hidden under overarching oaks and wych elms.

The last of the three-petalled white flowers of arrowhead drooped among spearblade leaves in the damp old waterway. Greenery had triumphed in the cool shade of the wood, overwhelming the canal with reeds and grasses. All that stirred there today were late-hatching pearl bordered fritillaries, their large orange wings streaked with black like a jaguar’s coat.

It was hard to credit that this weed-choked waterway, fringed with spearmint, willow leaves carpeting its surface, was planned as a major route for goods travelling between the English Channel and London when war with Napoleonic France meant danger to cargo on the sea routes. Alas for the Wey & Arun – by the time it was opened in 1816 the war was over, and twenty years later the railways sneaked up and stole its trade away.

We followed the wide ditch of the canal through Sidney Wood, past the hollows and humps where in times past ‘forest glass’ was made using the local sand, chalk and timber. Glassworks, brickmakers, charcoal burners and potteries of these Wealden woods, the trees have advanced to swallow them all.

Five minutes munching apples on a fallen beech trunk dotted with tiny brilliant pink fungi, then we walked on out of the trees to Sidney Wood Farm where gangs of hens roamed their compound and a horse followed close at our heels as we crossed his paddock.

Soon we found ourselves rejoining the Wey & Arun once more – what a convoluted course it took! A last stretch of the old canal and we were treading the black earth of Sachelhill Lane, heading for home after this quiet afternoon’s walk through the Surrey woods and fields.

How hard is it? 4¾ miles, easy, woodland paths (can be muddy)

Start: Sidney Wood car park, near Alfold GU6 8HU (OS ref TQ 027350)

Getting there: From A271 (Guildford-Horsham), at Alfold Crossways follow ‘Dunsfold’. In ½ mile pass turning on bend, signed ‘Three Compasses’. In another ⅔ mile, just after sharp right bend, left (028352, unmarked; ‘Cobdens Farm’ sign visible immediately after turning). Fork left to car park.

Walk (OS Explorer 134): Return along drive. 20m from approach road entrance, hairpin left past ‘Sedgehurst’ sign (‘Wey South Path’/WSP). Keep ahead along drive (blue arrows/BA). In 250m, right (025349, fingerpost/FP, WSP). In ⅓ mile, pass metal gate, cross disused canal; left along right bank (021349). In 1 mile at road, WSP turns left (017338); but go straight over and on. In ½ mile, just past pond, left up gravel road (017331); at Sidneywood Farm gate, right down drive (021330). At Maple Farm, ahead (024326, FP) past cottage on right; through 2 gates; bear left along hedge. Across lane and on (025327, stiles) to meet WSP (027328, BA). In 200m, right over footbridge (026330). Ahead across 2 fields. Left by gate (031334, FP). In 500m cross Rosemary Lane (030337) on woodland path back to car park.

Lunch: Three Compasses PH, Dunsfold GU6 8HY (01483-279749)

Accommodation: Mucky Duck, Tisman’s Common, Rudgwick RH12 3BW (01403-822300, muckyduckinn.co.uk)

Info: Guildford TIC (01483-444333)

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


The white rails of Plumpton Racecourse curved away, pointing southward like skeletal fingers towards the olive-coloured rampart of the South Downs. A brisk cold wind blew from those hills, with a hint of silver underbelly on the clouds beyond from the gleam of the invisible sea.

A long straight path led between pasture and crops, crossing rain-swollen brooks in tangled dells, drawing ever nearer to the downs. This is horse country. A white mare poked her nose over a fence to have it stroked by a couple of passing girls. Suddenly she took a sly nip, provoking shrieks and cascades of giggles.

Cheerful chatter and tempting cooking smells came wafting from the Half Moon Inn as I crossed the Ditchling road and started up the steep downland track called Plumpton Bostal – a name reminiscent of fictional correspondents to Private Eye. The rubbly old track curved and climbed to the ridgeway along the crest of the hills. Wonderful views opened out, northwards across the wooded Sussex Weald toward the loom of the far-off North Downs, south across deep chalk valleys to the snub-nosed Seven Sisters cliffs and the ice-blue sea.

A kestrel rode the wind, head down, eyes fixed, sideslipping along above the almost imperceptible hummocks of Bronze Age bowl barrows. Soon another old holloway, Warningore Bostal, left the ridge track and slalomed down the hillside. The steady push of the south wind, now blocked by the wall of downland at my back, vanished as though a fan had been clicked off. I skittered down the rain-glazed chalk that floored the bostal, and set out north across pasture and arable ground once more.

At Warningore Farm the farmer was digging silage out of the clamp for his cattle. I passed the shed where they stood patiently in an emanation of sweet breath and a gentle rustle of movement.

On across the fields where horses in heavy tarpaulin raincoats were cropping the grass. A pint of delicious dark Bluebell Best in the Jolly Sportsman at East Chiltington, and then the homeward stretch by the hamlet’s ancient flint church, beautiful in its simplicity, too obscure even to have a dedication to its name.

How hard is it? 7¾ miles starting at station, 6½ miles starting at Plumpton; moderate.

Start: Train – Plumpton Station (NB no parking)
Road: Half Moon PH, Ditchling Road, Plumpton BN7 3AF (364132). Please ask permission, and give pub your custom! In addition, parking for 6-7 cars in lane above car park.

Getting there: Bus: 166 (Lewes-Haywards Heath)
Road: Plumpton is on B2116

Walk (OS Explorer 122): From station, path south besides racecourse. At south end, right (362153); in 40m, left down lane. In 1¼ miles, pass Agricultural College; 150m past last buildings, left (360133, gates); half right over field into trees. At B2116, left past Half Moon PH (364132). (NB Directions starting from PH begin here). Cross B2116; Plumpton Bostal (‘Bridleway’), steeply up. At top (357126), left; in 1 mile, through gate (370125); left down holloway. In ½ mile at path crossing, left (376127, arrow post). Cross B2116 (374130); bridleway opposite. Keep right of Warningore Farm Cottages (376137); on (north) along bridleway. In ¾ mile, gate into green lane (381147); in 50m, left (fingerpost, yellow arrow/YA) across 2 fields to lane (378150). Left; cross road by postbox (375150, stile, YA). Fork right across field to lane (373152). Left past Jolly Sportsman. At church, right down stony bridleway (371151). Cross Plumpton Lane (364153); in 150m, at racecourse entrance, right (362153) to Plumpton station.

Lunch: Half Moon, Plumpton (01273-890253, thehalfmoonplumpton.co.uk)

Accommodation: Jolly Sportsman, East Chiltington BN7 3BA (01273-890400, thejollysportsman.com)

Info: visitsoutheastengland.com

Walking the Bones of Britain – a 3 Billion Year Journey by Christopher Somerville is published by Doubleday.

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


I hadn’t been to Abbeycwmhir since 1979, the year I walked the newly opened Glyndŵr’s Way long-distance path with my Dad. The stages were long, the waymarking abysmal, the flies persistent. What a treat it was on that long-ago summer evening to trudge on sore feet up the long steep valley, past the abbey ruins and in at the door of the Happy Union Inn.

Nowadays Glyndŵr’s Way is a lot better waymarked. The Happy Union is open in the evenings only, and the tiny village tucked away in its forested cleft in the Radnorshire hills has a few new builds to add to its tally of old stone cottages. The Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust is very active, and has laid out a network of colour-coded walks based on the village. I chose the orange circuit, and set out under a windy sky that tossed grey and silver clouds about a field of china blue.

The Cistercian monks who built the abbey in the 1170s in this remote fastness picked a perfect site for the contemplative life – secluded, well wooded and watered, with beautiful hills on every hand. Today the valley road was edged with pink and white dog roses in hedges alive with noisy chaffinches.

I turned off the road onto a stony track that rose gradually to the crest of the hills – the Monks Way, an old highway from Abbeycwmhir to its sister abbey of Strata Florida away to the west. At the top I crossed a broad undulating upland of pastures where the sheep sprinted towards me in vain hopes of a hand-out.

Up in the spruce forest of Cefn-crin the air was hot, dark and heavy among the trees. The wind sighed among a million pine needles, and countless insects hummed their great discordant chorus. Coming out the other side of the trees I found myself on the crest of the hills with miles of rolling and tumbling green country ahead and behind.

Here I hooked up again with Glyndŵr’s Way and followed it back down to Abbeycwmhir, marvelling at the improvement in its waymarking and relishing the dip of the path among knee-high grasses and in among the trees again for a last cool mile into the village.

How hard is it? 7¼ miles; moderate; well waymarked paths

Start: Phillips Hall (village hall), Abbeycwmhir, Llandrindod Wells LD1 6PH (OS ref SO 054712)

Getting there: Abbeycwmhir is signed off A483 (Llandrindod Wells – Newtown) between Crossgates and Llandewi Ystradenni

Walk (OS Explorer 214; downloadable map/instructions at abbeycwmhir.org): From Phillips Hall, right along road. Left at fork (049708, orange arrow/OA, ‘Rhayader’). In ⅔ mile opposite red brick Cwmhir Cottages, fork right (039705, kissing gate/KG, fingerpost); follow track. By blue container keep ahead through gate (OA, yellow arrow/YA). At Upper Cwmhir house, track bears left, then through right-hand gate of two (031713, OA). In ½ mile at top of Monks Way lane, through gate (025716, OA), along fence; left-hand gate of two (OA); ahead over hill; stile into woodland (022717, OA). Path to forest road; dogleg right/left across (OA); path to road junction (018719). Fork right uphill for ½ mile (tarmac becoming gravel) into Cefn-crin forest (017728). At far edge of trees, on hairpin right bend, ahead (021734, gate, OA) on hillside track. 100m beyond next gate, right (025740, yellow topped post, ‘Glyndŵr’s Way’/GW) between tree clump (left) and fence (right). Follow well-marked GW for 3 miles back to Abbeycwmhir.

Lunch: Picnic

Accommodation: Ty Morgans, East Street, Rhayader LD6 5BH (01597-811666, croesogrwp.com)

Info: abbeycwmhir.org; visitwales.com

Walking the Bones of Britain – a 3 Billion Year Journey by Christopher Somerville is published by Doubleday.