Christopher Somerville

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


The font in the Church of St John the Baptist at Ebbesbourne Wake has its drain hole stopped with a champagne cork. What fun christenings must be in this little Wiltshire village.

Outside, pyramidal orchids grew in the unmown churchyard. Slowly moving elephantine clouds jostled each other 20,000 feet above the chalk downs that cradle Ebbesbourne Wake.

Skylarks sang at full tilt over the blue-green wheat fields where flints rattled under my boots as I gained height above the village. A young roe deer stared, then turned tail. As she cantered off, two tiny fawns rose from where they had been crouching stock-still and bobbed away after her.

Yellow rattle, lady’s bedstraw and big clumps of wild thyme grew on the slopes of the steep dry chalk valley of Church Bottom. Frisky bullocks were playing follow-my-leader, and I was glad to leave them behind and walk up onto the roof of the downs.

The views were sensational all round the compass: a long procession of folded downland country, the chalk foundations smoothed and sculpted by millennia of weathering, their thin skin of agriculture a patchwork of white plough, yellow mown grass, green corn and dun scrub. The downs looked as elastic and bouncy in their rounded forms as the cumulus clouds piling up overhead.

Two hares sat beside the track, ears erect, on half-alert. One lolloped slowly away, and the other yawned and stayed put. Humans? I can take ’em or leave ’em, quite frankly.

The path led across a field of barley, the bearded heads sinuating in silky waves at every gust of wind. Beyond ran Old Shaftesbury Drove, an ancient ridgeway, once the chief coach road between Salisbury and Shaftesbury, nowadays a fine rutted trackway between hedges as thick and species-rich as linear slices of woodland.

I followed the old drove for a mile or so, then cut back from the ridge along a green lane. Down in the valley, late sunlight lit houses and hill slopes. There was time for one more surprise – a beautiful old traction engine that went clattering and panting up the hill and away, leaving behind the evocative smell of coal smoke to cense the evening lanes.

How hard is it? 5 miles; easy; field and downland tracks.

Start: Church car park, Hay Lane, Ebbesbourne Wake SP5 5JJ approx (OS ref ST 991241)

Getting there: Bus 29 (Shaftesbury – Salisbury)
Road: A30 (Salisbury-Shaftesbury); at Fovant, minor road to Fifield Bavant; Ebbesbourne Wake signed from here.

Walk (OS Explorer 118): From corner of car park follow path past church, and through lych gate. Left on path to road (991242). Right; in 50m left (fingerpost) on path. In 75m left over stile; along valley to cross road (989243). Up bank; left up field edge. In 100m fork right across field (988245) and on. In 400m through gate (991247, ‘Bridleway’), down to valley bottom. Half right to gate by wood (992249). On up Church Bottom. In 800m at water trough, up through gate on right (993257). Woodland path; cross track; on across field. At far side, gate (995259); on (blue arrow) across field. Pass gate, left along drove road (998263). In 1 mile watch for crossing track (982257). Left here, down for 1 mile to valley road at West End. Right at bus shelter (984242); at top of hill, left (983240, ‘Bridleway’) up drive. Pass gate; round left bend; immediately left (983238) on grass path back to car park.

Lunch: Horseshoe Inn, Ebbesbourne Wake SP5 5JF (01722-780474, thehorseshoe-inn.co.uk)

Accommodation: Queen’s Head, Broad Chalke SP5 5EN (01722-780344, queensheadbroadchalke.co.uk)

Info: Chalke Valley History Festival, 26 June-2 July – 01722-781133, cvhf.org.uk

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


Half of Norfolk seemed to have descended on Hunstanton this glorious afternoon. Corny old tunes blared from the seafront bandstand, chip vinegar scented the breeze, and holidaymakers in their thousands strolled the dusky red sands and revelled in the unbroken blue of the sky.

It feels weird that Hunstanton, a Norfolk coastal resort, faces west rather than east. The town sits on the eastern flank of The Wash, a mighty tidal basin into which drain four great rivers – Nene, Welland, Great Ouse and Witham. Looking seaward from the promenade today we saw long banks of purple sand, scars of red rock, and paddlers far out in the shallows of the receding tide.

The cliffs to the north of Hunstanton are remarkable to behold. They form a striped sandwich of rock, the white of chalk on top separated from the rusty orange carrstone below by a thin crumbly band of red chalky limestone. It looks as though a giant carrot cake with white icing has been neatly sliced and left at the back of the beach.

We walked the sands and clambered among the rounded and thickly barnacled boulders on the beach. At the feet of the cliffs a litter of big chalk slabs showed how unstable and prone to falls the structure is. Stretched out among the rocks we found the cast-iron skeleton of the steam trawler Sheraton, wrecked in 1947, now slowly rusting into dissolution.

The muddy shore was scribbled with wormcasts. A gang of turnstone chicks pattered among them, quite unafraid as we passed. In cracks of the cliffs on the boundary line between red and white, fulmars stared out from their nests with sooty panda eyes.

At Old Hunstanton the cliffs dipped. The orange carrstone disappeared beneath the shoreline, the white chalk followed suit, and a line of sandhills took over the north-eastern march of the coastline. Soon the kaleidoscopic jumble of brilliantly coloured beach tents and swimming costumes filtered out to an empty beach and a dune system rich in birds and flowers.

The coast path ran between dunes and grassy hinterland. Sea holly showed its blue-green prickles, stonecrop pushed up sulphur-yellow stars from fleshy stems. Everything that can withstand salty winds and retain rainwater flourishes here – solid southern marsh orchids and spindly twayblades, deep blue curls of viper’s bugloss and white trumpets of sea campion.

Beyond Holme Dunes we emerged from the sandhills to find the sea suddenly close inshore, a fan of sand spreading beyond an apron of creek-cut saltmarsh to the east. Linnets with rose-coloured breasts flitted among the sea buckthorn bushes, and a reed bunting with white collar and black bill swayed and squeaked on a twig like a tiny impassioned preacher.

We turned inland along a zigzag of flood banks guarding grazing marshes reclaimed from the sea, and made for the red roofs of Thornham across the fields as evening began to close in.

How hard is it? 6½ miles; easy; level walking on beach and coast path

Start: Hunstanton seafront, PE36 5BQ (OS ref TF 672409)

Getting there: Bus – Norfolk Coastliner from Thornham (on A149 Hunstanton-Cromer)
Road – Hunstanton is on A149 between Heacham and Brancaster

Walk (OS Explorer 250): From Hunstanton seafront, turn right along beach (low tide) or Norfolk Coast Path along cliffs, to Old Hunstanton. Continue along Coast Path (waymarked) to Thornham. Opposite Orange Tree Inn (733432), take Norfolk Coastliner bus back to Hunstanton.

Lunch/Accommodation: Orange Tree Inn, Thornham PE36 6LY (01485-512213, theorangetreethornham.co.uk) – excellent village inn, perfectly placed at walk’s end.

Info: Holme Dunes – norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk
Coastliner bus timetable – lovenorfolk.co.uk/norfolk-coastliner

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


Bridgnorth hangs over the River Severn, crowned by a pinnacled church tower, its buildings piled one above another like an Italian hill town. But there the resemblance ends. These three-storey red brick river warehouses, gable-end advertisements for ancient seed merchants and beamy pubs belong to England alone.

The old Shropshire river port is chock full of character. It was hard to tear ourselves away from the tangled hilly streets packed high with houses, but as the clock chimed midday we set out along the Severn Way footpath that clings closely to the west bank of the river.

There was a strength and power to the Severn today, the water gleaming with a bronzy sheen and exuding that unmistakable riverine smell of muddy vegetation. Tender new green leaves poked out on weeping willows, and bushes of comfrey along the bank were hung with white and pink flower bells.

A man in a yellow singlet sculled a long racing shell upriver, easily overtaking us with powerful strokes against the current. We threaded a golf course margin past the ochre and grey sandstone cliff of High Rock, then followed the path at the edge of clover leys and ploughed fields of dark red earth scattered with last year’s wrinkled remnants of beets and potatoes.

A goldfinch skimmed away with a swooping flight. A dozen swallows perched chirping in a hawthorn, and a gang of blue tits tinkled and bounced from branch to branch of a sycamore half in and half out of the river. Floods had pulled some trees down to water level; others tottered precariously, barely clinging to the bank with roots exposed.

Two men were building a flight of steps for fishermen into the bank. ‘Hard work,’ one grunted. ‘See them molehills? Can you tell the moles to come down here and give us a hand?’

We crossed a stile and turned along the line of the old Severn Valley Railway, now the Mercian Way multi-user path. On a rise of ground above the far bank, the enormous Gothic Revival façade of Apley Hall looked out over the Severn. Thomas Whitmore, owner of the Apley Estate, bitterly opposed the building of the railway across his land and through his sightline in the 1850s. He was appeased with a payoff of £14,000 – about £2 million today – and the building of a special station at Linley (now a private house) where he could hail up trains for a personal pick-up.

We passed Linley Station’s flowery platform and walked on through mossy sandstone cuttings lined with cowslips and wild garlic, the Severn never more than a field away, till railway and river reconnected for the last mile into Jackfield.

How hard is it? 8½ miles; easy; riverside and railway path

Start: Riverside car park, Bridgnorth WV16 4BH (OS ref SO 719931). Limited parking; other all-day car parks available in Bridgnorth.

Getting there: Bus 8 (Telford – Bridgnorth)
Road: Bridgnorth is on A442 from Telford (M54 Jct 4)

Walk (OS Explorer 218, 242): Follow road upstream beside river, then Severn Way to Jackfield.
Alternative: in 3 miles, where Severn Way and old railway run close together (721974), left over stile onto Mercian Way multi-user path and turn right. In 1¼ miles, just past Linley Station (705983), pass notice forbidding traffic and cycles, and continue. In another 2¾ miles at Coalport Station (702019), sharp right along road; opposite Woodbridge Inn, left along Severn Valley Way to Jackfield.
Return to Bridgnorth by Bus 8, Telford-Bridgnorth.

Lunch: Woodbridge Inn, Coalport TF8 7JF (01952-882054, brunningandprice.co.uk) – very friendly, welcoming pub.

Accommodation: Falcon Hotel, St John’s Street, Bridgnorth WV15 6AG (01746-763134)

Info: visitshropshire.co.uk, ironbridge.org.uk

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


A cool morning above the Leicestershire Wolds, and neighbourly conversations developing over the garden fences of Hoby. The village, perched on a ridge overlooking the valley of the River Wreake, trails its mellow red brick buildings along a street as bendy as the snaking meanders of the river through the meadows below.

I followed a path beside the Wreake. A family picnicking by one of the river bends watched their children splashing in the shallows. I passed the handsome square tower of All Saints church at Rotherby, and then the crocketed spire of Brooksby’s Church of St Michael – just two of the dozens of churches on the Leicestershire Wolds built and embellished by medieval wool wealth.

This is long rolling country, with shallow descents to gravelly rivers and gradual climb to the next ridge. The stony track of the Midshires Way ran south past a sand and gravel quarry, the conveyors and elevators dribbling their loads onto ever-growing cones of pinkish diggings. On the opposite side of the track an old quarry flooded for nature conservation showed the other side of the extraction coin with its sailing mallards and reedbeds a-chatter with warblers.

From the ridge we had long views over mile upon mile of cornfields, the farms isolated like cargo ships in these seas of wheat and barley. A patch of sky blue linseed among the green acres made a striking contrast, the delicate five-petalled flowers gently stirring in the wind.

At Gaddesby we detoured to St Luke’s Church, where a line of gurning little faces looked down from the wall, some medieval stone-carver’s humour that spanned the ages. An apple and a bit of chocolate underneath a spreading chestnut tree, and we were heading north over the undulating corn fields on the Leicestershire Round footpath. Skylarks ascended and poured out song, yellowhammers wheezed in the hedges, and little black spiders ran for shelter into the cracks of the sun-baked clay soil.

In Frisby-on-the-Wreake we passed the stump of the old preaching cross and found the homeward path across the ridge and furrow pasture. In the willows by the river cattle sheltered from the hot afternoon sun, and a cream-coloured bull exchanged loving nose-licks with his dappled grey bride-of-the-moment.

How hard is it? 8½ miles; easy; well-marked field paths

Start: Blue Bell Inn, Hoby, Melton Mowbray LE14 3DT (OS ref SK 670175)

Getting there: Bus 128 (Melton Mowbray-Leicester)
Road – Hoby is signed off A607, Melton Mowbray-Leicester

Walk (OS Explorer 246): From Blue Bell, left along village street. In 200m, right (‘Brooksby’); in 50m, left (kissing gate, ‘Rotherby’). Path between cottages and river; cross river (671169); cross railway to road at Rotherby church (675165). Right to Brooksby; left at road (672161). Cross A607 (671359) and on, following Midshires Way (yellow arrows /YAs and yellow topped posts/YTPs). In 1½ miles, approaching Carlton Lodge Farm, right (686141, stile, YTP) across fields to road (689135). Cross into Pasture Lane. In 300m, just beyond Rose Cottage driveway, left through hedge (692135, ‘Frisby on the Wreake’, YTP). Follow Leicestershire Round/LR for 2¾ miles to road in Frisby-on-the-Wreake (694175). Right; fork left to corner of Main Street and Water Lane (694177). Right; follow LR for nearly 1 mile to corner of Rotherby Lane (682171). Fork right off LR, on path aiming for Hoby Church. Cross railway (677133), then river; follow LR into Hoby.

Lunch: Blue Bell Inn, Hoby (01664-434247, sites.google.com/site/bluebellhoby

Accommodation: Star Inn, The Green, Thrussington, LE7 4UH (01664-424220, thestarinn1744.co.uk)

Info: Melton Mowbray TIC (01664-480992)

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


A brisk day on the east Devon coast, with a grey and blue sky racing over the white houses of Sidmouth. From the coast path just east of the town the sea gave the impression of inexorable power as it picked at the sandstone cliffs, staining its shallows a dusky red.

All the flowers of spring were out along the cliff path – primroses, daffodils, celandines, coconut-scented gorse, a feast of yellows. The strong west wind whistled in the blackberry scrub, the waves sighed gently on the shore far below. Beyond the deep cleft of Salcombe Mouth, Higher Duncombe Cliff stood tall, capped with rock faces of orange and yellow exposed by recent falls.

A long flight of steps led down to the valley bottom, handing over there to a slog of a climb by zigzags to the cliff top once more. An oil beetle hauled its shiny carapace up the path among clumps of violets and just-emerging speedwell. Over in the valley of Lincombe we heard the first chiffchaff of the year broadcasting its two-tone claim to ownership of a few square metres of ash saplings and briar bushes: tzip-tzap, tzip-tzap, a proclamation of spring.

Robin and wren contested bragging rights nearby. A pair of jackdaws jousted in the wind, their playfulness contrasting with the furious cries of two herring gulls as they divebombed a circling buzzard.

Down at Weston Mouth we passed the old market gardens of Weston Plats, overgrown and neglected since the days when famous early spuds were grown in these sheltered cliff nooks. A steep path led inland to Slade House Farm where donkeys of all ages and stages find sanctuary. Oldsters trotted and brayed, foals raised their angelic little faces to the visiting children.

In snug little Salcombe Regis daffodils were out in the churchyard. Here lie two eminent scientists who loved this delectable spot – Sir Norman Lockyer (1836-1920), discoverer of helium; and Sir Ambrose Fleming (1849-1945), designer of the radio transmitter with which radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi made the first transatlantic transmission in 1901. Marconi took the credit; Fleming nursed his wounded pride in dignified silence. One hopes the beautiful little village where he chose to be buried soothed his spirit.

How hard is it? 5 miles; moderate/strenuous; clifftop and field paths.
NB: steep climbs and descents; many steps, slippery paths, several stiles.

Start: Salcombe Hill car park, near Sidmouth EX10 0NY (OS ref SY 139881). NT car park – £3, card only (members free).

Getting there: Car park is opposite Norman Lockyer Observatory, Salcombe Hill, between Sidmouth and Salcombe Regis (signed off A3052, Sidmouth-Seaton).

Walk (OS Explorer 115): Past NT payment sign; left on tarmac path; in 150m ahead on stony path to Coast Path (139876). Left; follow Coast Path for 2 miles to Weston Mouth (163880). Left inland (fingerpost/FP, ‘Dunscombe’). In 250m path rises to gate, then FP (162884). Fork right (‘Donkey Sanctuary’). In ½ mile at top of rise by sanctuary buildings, left (161892, 2 stiles, FP ‘Salcombe Regis’). Through sanctuary grounds to road (159851). Dogleg left/right (FP ‘Trow, Salcombe Regis’) and on. In 5th field (153889) half left to stile into road (152888). Right into Salcombe Regis. At road, left (149888), fork left past church; at Southcombe House fork right (148886, ‘South Combe Farm, Coast Path’). In ¼ mile fork right uphill through trees (145883, FP ‘Sidmouth’); at top of climb cross track (143882, FP ‘Salcombe Hill, Car Park); ahead to car park.

Lunch: Donkey Sanctuary, EX10 0NU (01395-578222, thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk)

Accommodation: Blue Ball Inn, Stevens Cross, Sidford EX10 9QL (01395-514062, blueballsidford.co.uk)

Info: visitdevon.co.uk