Christopher Somerville

john

Byrness, Cottonshope & Raven’s Knowe, Northumberland

Apr 152023

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

The friendly and hospitable Forest View inn at Byrness lies in a wild corner of the Cheviot Hills. From the forestry hamlet I followed the Pennine Way up through the trees, and soon turned off on a forest byway that dipped to the lonely valley of Cottonshope.

By the road I found a red flag fluttering and a notice warning of live firing on the adjacent Otterburn Ranges. But a call to Range Control elicited a courteous ‘That’ll be ok today, they won’t be over your way at all.’ A rattle of machine gun fire and the pop of a rifle sounded occasionally from some far-off valley, interspersed every now and then with artillery fire much further away, a curiously feeble and hollow sound, like a giant punching an empty biscuit tin.

I walked up the road to the lonely farm of Cottonshope, where a faint path climbed through rough grass pastures, swerving in and out of the boundary of Otterburn Ranges, up to meet the Pennine Way on Raven’s Knowe.

What a splendid view from the cairn up here. To the northeast the rounded bulk of Cheviot lifting gently to the cloudy sky, the flanks rolling and tumbling down to where I stood. South and west, lower ground with hills and forests running to the Scottish border. To the east, the barely perceptible path up which I’d come falling away into the Cottonshope Valley. South from Raven’s Knowe it was all forest, great swathes of the coniferous cladding that has adhered to the Redesdale hills since the area was planted between the world wars of the last century.

I turned for home along the boardwalks and squelchy corners of the Pennine Way, accompanied by a flittering meadow pipit. Catcleugh Reservoir came into view, a wedge of steely water among the trees. The Pennine Way descended among tuffets of bilberry and sphagnum, before suddenly slanting precipitously down a staircase of rocks.

Down in Byrness the little Church of St Francis held a stained glass window in memory of those who died constructing Catcleugh Reservoir late in the 19th century. It depicted men labouring with pick, shovel and wheelbarrow, with a little girl seated at their feet. In the background a dark, ominous train bears down on them. A very poignant and touching memorial.

How hard is it? 7½ miles; moderate/strenuous; forest and moorland tracks on well-marked Pennine Way.
NB Between Cottonshope and Raven’s Knowe, path veers in and out of Otterburn Ranges boundary. Ranges may be closed if live firing; ring Range Control (01830-520569) before setting out.

Start: Otterburn Green, Byrness NE19 1TS (OS ref NT 764027)

Getting there: Bus 131 (Newcastle-Jedburgh), once a day – nexus.org.uk
Road – Byrness is on A68 Between Otterburn and Jedburgh.

Walk (OS Explorer OL16): From Forest View, right along Otterburn Green; past village hall and on. At A68, by church, left along cycleway (771023, ‘Pennine Way’/PW). In 50m cross A68 (take care!); left up path. In 100m, go through hedge (PW); on through gate into trees (769026); continue up PW. In ⅓ mile, at 3rd major crossing track, right off PW (773030). In ¾ mile, left along Cottonshope Road in valley bottom (773030). In 1½ miles, just past farm sheds, left up track beside range flagpole and notice (789049). Follow clearly seen route for 1¼ miles over moorland to cairn on Raven’s Knowe (781061). Left along Pennine Way for 2¾ miles back to A68; retrace steps to Byrness.

Lunch/Accommodation: Forest View Walkers Inn, Byrness NE19 1TS (07928-376677, fortestviewbyrness.co.uk) – open 12 April–8 October 2023

Info: Otterburn Ranges Range Control access info: 01830-520569;
gov.uk/government/publications/otterburn-firing-times

Cautley Spout, The Calf & Bowderdale, Cumbria

Walks No Responses »

Apr 012023

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

At noon under a blue sky, hens were clucking and sparrows chirping at the Cross Keys at Cautley. This old temperance inn is a pub with no beer (you’re welcome to bring your own), but it’s got just about everything else, including home cooking, enough books to stock an extremely erudite library, and that indefinable air of welcome and comfort that a weary walker dreams of finding.

But first we had to earn our ease. The Cross Keys backs onto a wonderful view of Cautley Spout, a waterfall that tumbles some 700 feet down a dark rock cleft in the eastern flank of the Howgill Fells. A track led through sheep pastures to the foot of the fall, and from here on it was a steep puff up a path of rocky steps. It was the first time I’d ever used a stick on a walk, and I certainly was glad of it.

Halfway up we sat to admire the eastward view, the white fall sluicing down beside us, the glacier-sculpted valley opening symmetrical scree slopes. Sun splashes and cloud shadows slid across the fells. The twisting stream of Cautley Holme Beck wriggled away far below towards the green valley of the River Rawthey, with the humps of Bluecaster and West Baugh Fell as an eastern wall.

At the top we crossed the fall, suddenly diminished to a trickle hardly wide enough to wet the boots. A stony track led off west beside Force Gill Beck into a silent upland, the heart of the Howgills. Green and gold carpets of opposite-leaved saxifrage grew close to the chattering beck. A lonely sheepfold had been nicely restored, and sheep had congregated there as though the shepherd might return at any moment.

Up on the skyline a tremendous westward view suddenly burst out, fold upon fold of east Cumbrian hills towards the Lake District. We turned along the ridge on the broad track of the Dales High Way, followed by a long descent to the secret valley of Bowderdale and the homeward path.

Few walkers come through Bowderdale. Few suspect its existence – a beautiful, wild valley between high fellsides, haunted by ravens, a fitting place to set the seal on this stunning hike into the Howgill Fells.

How hard is it? Moderate with one steep climb; 6 miles, ascent 500 m/1,650 ft; upland paths. Path beside waterfall very steep with rocky steps.

Start: Car parking bay on A683 at Cross Keys Inn, Cautley, near Sedbergh LA10 5NE (OS ref SD 698969)

Getting there: Bus 54, Sedbergh – Kirkby Stephen (Tues, Thurs, Fri)
Road: M6 Jct 37, A684 to Sedbergh; A683 towards Kirby Stephen.

Walk (OS Explorer OL19): Down steps; cross River Rawthey; left on path to Cautley Spout. Steeply up beside waterfall. At top, left across Swere Gill (680975); follow path on right bank of Red Gill Beck. In 600m, just beyond sheep fold ruin (676971), fork right up path beside Force Gill Beck, then up to meet Dales High Way/DHW on skyline (669967). Right; follow DHW to The Calf trig pillar (667970) and on. In 600m at tarn (671964), follow path as it bends right and descends into Bowderdale. Either follow it to bottom of dale, or in ⅔ mile turn right at small cairn (677980 approx) on grassy path short-cut to dale bottom (680982 approx). Right on path to foot of Cautley Spout (683975); return to Cross Keys.

Lunch: Picnic, or Cross Keys (check opening times)

Accommodation: Cross Keys, Cautley (01539-620284, cautleyspout.co.uk) – delightful, welcoming inn. Check opening times before visiting. Accommodation any time by prior arrangement. NB Temperance inn – no alcohol served – BYO!

Info: cautleyspout.co.uk

Stodmarsh NNR and Grove Ferry, Kent

Walks No Responses »

Mar 252023

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

‘Keep an eye out for the beavers,’ advised a man festooned with wildlife cameras whom we passed in the car park at Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve. ‘Lots of signs around – look for those toothmarks of theirs, eh?’

We didn’t see any of the recently reintroduced rodents on our walk round the East Kent reserve under cloudy winter skies. But evidence of their presence was widespread in the shape of young trees felled with a curious hinged effect, the severed parts gnawed white and smooth with fine patterns of chiselling by beaver incisors.

The first creature we did see was another species of aquatic rodent, a little grey-brown water vole scuttling along the bank of the Lampen Stream. We heard other voles too, plopping into ditches at our approach. So much of nature is secret, hidden or only momentarily glimpsed, especially in the ‘downtime’ of winter. But if you have an eye for the birds, Stodmarsh NNR is bursting with overt life, loud and proud.

In the still grey afternoon, perched in the Reedbed Hide, we looked out on a bay between enormous stretches of creamy-white reeds – the reserve has the largest area of reedbeds in the southeast of England. Shoveler drakes with snowy breasts and chestnut wings went dabbling beside their drab brown mates, their long spatulate bills giving them a solemn air of consequence. Among them swam teal with yellow flashes on their afterparts, and breasts very delicately patterned in ash-grey and black.

A sudden panic had them all dashing into mid-pool with agitated squawking and a might clatter of wings on water. What had caused the upheaval? ‘Probably a fox,’ grunted one of the twitchers from behind an immense telescopic lens. ‘Spooked ’em and scarpered’.

We followed a broad and muddy path north between reed pool, ditches and sodden green acres of freshwater marsh. Stodmarsh’s watery landscape was formed partly through subsidence of old mine workings below ground, a reminder of the now-vanished Kentish coalfield.

Seduction smells of Sunday roast emanated from the Grove Ferry Inn, where we turned back along the wide and muddy River Great Stour. An angler on the far bank hooked a roach and lifted it out, a wriggling strip of silver. We watched another hunter of the waterways, a big marsh harrier, cruising low above the reedbeds, looking for frogs or water voles.

The light began to seep out of the afternoon as we followed the homeward path, serenaded by the harsh pig-like screech and snuffle of a water rail creeping through the reeds, another winter sound of this magical place.

How hard is it? 4¾ miles; easy; flat walking, can be muddy. Bring binoculars!

Start: Stodmarsh NNR car park, near Canterbury CT3 4BB (OS ref TR 222609)

Getting there: Reserve is signed from A257 (Canterbury to Littlebourne).

Walk (OS Explorer 150): From bottom right corner of car park pass info board; follow track for ¼ mile to cross bridge to T-junction (223610). Left; follow ‘Reedbed Hide’ signs to hide (222612). Return to pass bridge (don’t cross); follow path (‘Footpath’, yellow arrows) past Undertrees Farm. In ¾ mile pass Marsh Hide (226618); in ½ mile dogleg right/left across track (233623, red arrow); follow ‘Grove Ferry car park’ signs for ⅔ mile to road (236630). Left (Grove Ferry Inn is opposite); in 40m, left (‘Stour Valley Walk’). Follow riverbank path. In 1½ miles path veers inland (221620); follow it past Tower Hide (222617), then follow signs to car park.

Lunch/Accommodation: Grove Ferry Inn, Upstreet, Canterbury CT3 4BP (01227-860302, groveferryinn.co.uk)

Info: Stodmarsh NNR – 0845-600-3078; explorekent.org

Glen Meavaig & the Eagle Observatory, Harris, Outer Hebrides

Walks No Responses »

Mar 182023

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

A windy spring morning in the Isle of Harris, cold and grey. Gunsmoke cloud drifted along the mountain ridges above Glen Meavaig, one of the prime locations in the Outer Hebrides for spotting a golden eagle.

Maybe it was beginners’ luck, but as soon as we set off up the glen we saw our first golden eagle, a big black shape cruising the air above the peak of Sròn Smearasmal, keeping close to the ridge before diving low beyond the skyline. As it turned out, we would not see another until the end of the walk, a splendid view of a bird gilded by evening sun as it glided out across Loch Meavaig.

The cold, clear Abhainn Mhiabhaig came rushing down among rocks spattered white with the droppings of dippers and wagtails. Deep purple violets and pale pink milkmaids grew among the pale wiry moor grass, insectivorous butterwort and fluffy white bog cotton like rabbits’ tails in the wet squelchy peat.

Boulders of coarse grey gneiss wore wigs of heather and peat. Grey knobbly outcrops of the three billion-year-old rock rose on either side to tall mountain slopes and craggy ridges.

The curve of the glen sheltered us from the worst of the wind as we came in sight of the dark rippling waters of Loch Scourst. Beside it stood the North Harris Eagle Observatory, a modest wooden hut with picture windows looking out across the loch to the crumpled flanks of Cathadal Granda.

Golden eagles nest close to Glen Meavaig, the actual locations of the nests kept secret to frustrate any selfish fool out to steal the eggs. Two are laid, hatching in early May. Of this pair, only one generally survives. An eagle chick can’t regulate its own temperature, so the female adult broods it while her partner searches for food, their roles reversing every so often. The chicks grow like billy-o; by the time the young eagle leaves the nest in late July at ten weeks old, it is the same size as its parents, and often heavier.

Eagles aren’t the only attractions of Glen Meavaig. Red-throated divers nest around Loch Scourst, merlin hunt the moorland. As we sat eating our sandwiches by the loch, a bird hidden among the rocks maintained a silvery trilling call – a ring ouzel, keeping its conspicuous white bib well out of view.

From the observatory we followed the stony track north up the glen, over a low pass and down past Lochan an Fheòir to the lonely shore of Loch Bhoisimid. Wind furrows raced across the steely water, and there was not a man-made sound to be heard.

How hard is it? 8½ miles there and back; easy; good 4X4 track all the way.
NB To avoid complications, main place names are given in Anglicised form. Maps and road signs also give Gaelic form.
Deer stalking season may stretch from 1 July to 15 February.

Start: Roadside car park at Meavaig, north Harris, Outer Hebrides HS3 3AW approx (OS ref NB 100062)

Getting there: Bus W12, Tarbert to Hushinish (schooldays and some summer days only – check with Lochs Motor Transport, 01851-860288, lochsmotortransport.co.uk)
Road – car park is on B887 (Bunavoneadar to Hushinish), signed from A859 Tarbert to Stornoway.

Walk (OS Explorer 456): From the car park walk up the track, past the hide at 100088 and on past Lochan an Fheòir to the south shore of Loch Bhoisimid (105127). Retrace steps to car park.

Lunch: Picnic

Accommodation: Hotel Hebrides, Pier Road, Tarbert, Harris HS3 3DG (01859-502364, hotel-hebrides.com)

North Harris Eagle Observatory: www.north-harris.org; visitouterhebrides.co.uk/see-and-do/wildlife/bird-of-prey-trail

Info: visitouterhebrides.co.uk; visitscotland.com

Bledington, Church Westcote & Icomb, Glos

Walks No Responses »

Mar 112023

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

If you were looking for a clutch of Cotswold villages that typified everything enticing about this part of the world, you could hardly do better than those that look into the Evenlode Valley between Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping Norton.

Bledington is the perfect place to start, a collection of fine large houses and thatched cottages in the beautiful local stone that weathers to a rich creamy gold. From here our path ran across the wide fields of the vale, ribboning across the corrugations of medieval ridge-and-furrow.

We passed Gawcombe Farm’s scrubby preserves and followed a muddy green lane up to the neighbouring villages of Nether and Church Westcote. A blackbird sang for nesting time in the hedge at Church Westcote, then gave a chakker of alarm and fell silent as we passed.

Dark slaty blocks of cloud were slashed across great pillows of white on a pure blue field of sky. We passed through a plantation of young oak and silver birch, where stacks of abandoned logs gave off a fruity savour of damp moss and rot. Dogwood twigs glowed a brilliant crimson as the low afternoon sun glanced across them.

The mellow walls and gables of ancient Icomb Place stood ahead on the ridge. Beyond them we came to St Mary’s Church at Icomb, its tower topped with a little pitched roof of stone, as though a tiny house had been plonked on top. Inside, exquisitely worked hassocks lay ready for the knees of worshippers. One was embellished with birds we’d seen or heard today – chaffinch, tree creeper, nuthatch, goldfinch and wren.

Sir John Blaket lay recumbent in effigy, stone sollerets pointed like winklepickers, moustaches overflowing his helm, a martial hero of Agincourt. Less honourable residents of Icomb were the Dunsden brothers, the original Tom, Dick and Harry, highwaymen of the 18th century who ended their careers behind bars and dancing the hangman’s jig.

Out in the open air we descended from the ridge into the vale once more. The first skylark of the year poured out a silvery song high and invisible over a turnip field, and a black horse cantered neighing around its sunlit paddock as though injected with pure essence of the oncoming spring.

How hard is it? 7¼ miles; easy; field paths

Start: The Green, Bledington, Oxon OX7 6XQ (OS ref SP244227)

Getting there: Bus 802 (Kingham to Bourton)
Road: Bledington is on B4450 between Stow and Chipping Norton

Walk (OS Explorer OL45): Follow Church Street. Right beside church; follow ‘Oxfordshire Way’/OW signs. In 1 mile, left across footbridge (235221, yellow arrow/YA). Follow path (‘Diamond Way/DW on map) across fields. In ½ mile meet green lane (230214); left for ¾ mile to road at Nether Westcote (227203). Right; in 100m fork right down path (226203, fingerpost). In 50m fork left on path to Church Westcote. Right at road (221204) past post-box. At ‘Middlemarch’, right down track (220207); in 100m, left over stile (YA). Follow DW. In 200m into plantation (218209); keep ahead at fork (YA) and on. In ½ mile cross OW (216216); in ½ mile pass reservoir on right; in 50m fork left uphill (215223). In 30m, right (gate, YA) to Icomb Church (214226). Return along path and on. Approaching Middle Farm, left (217226, fingerpost) on path across fields. In ½ mile cross Lower Farm drive (225227) and on; in ½ mile, right down driveway (233229). In ½ mile at right bend, left (234221, kissing gate) on OW/DW to Bledington.

Lunch/Accommodation: King’s Head, Bledington OX7 6XQ (01608-658365, kingsheadinn.net); Feathered Nest, Nether Westcote OX7 6SD (01993-833030, thefeatherednestinn.co.uk)

Info: Stow-on-the-Wold TIC (01451-870998)

Chobham Common, Surrey

Walks No Responses »

Mar 042023

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

The sixteen hundred acres of Chobham Common form a scrubby stretch of heathland across north Surrey. The track we were following south across the common was floored with sandy yellow soil. It was a grey winter’s day, still and cold. Pine trees, broom and dormant heather added to the sombre effect. But there were signs of spring, too. Pussy willow buds, soft and furry, were just appearing on their twigs, and the gorse bushes were spattered with yellow flowers.

Two young girls clopped past on ponies, one of the animals sporting dayglo pink ear warmers. It was hard to imagine the fear in which travellers in olden times ventured the crossing of the common, an expanse of wilderness notorious for its footpads and highwaymen. ‘A vast tract of land given up to barrenness,’ wrote Daniel Defoe in 1724 in A Tour thro’ the whole Island of Great Britain, ‘horrid and frightful to look upon, not only good for little, but good for nothing.’

Goldcrests went flitting through the bare treetops. We watched a treecreeper dropping down to the base of a silver birch to start another upward scuttle, looking and listening for insects hiding in interstices of the papery bark.

From Burrowhill Green we headed north along a skein of tracks, gravel and flint crunching underfoot and the seashore murmur of the M3 motorway growing louder. On through the underpass, and then a straight climb among gorse and birch to the summit of Ship Hill.

A stubby granite cross marks the spot where Queen Victoria reviewed her troops on a summer’s day in 1853. Eight thousand men and fifteen hundred horses took part in a mock battle, swirling their noise and colour among the hollows of the heath. Among the gallant participants were the officers and men of the Light Brigade, destined to be decimated in the Crimea the following year during their famous charge at the Battle of Balaclava.

Also present were great barrels of molasses, brought to sweeten the tea of the soldiers. Long after the Great Camp, a rumour persisted that the barrels had been buried to await the soldiers’ return; and locals who prospected for them rejoiced in the nickname of ‘treacle miners’.

How hard is it? 6½ miles; easy; heath tracks

Start: Longcross car park, Chobham, Surrey KT16 0ED (OS ref SU 979651)

Getting there: Off B386 (Chertsey-Bagshot) beside M3 at Longcross

Walk (OS Explorer 160): Path south. In 50m fork right. In ¾ mile pass post (blue arrow/BA); in 100m, dogleg right/left (975638) across track. On under power lines. In ⅓ mile (973632, house on left) dogleg right/left (BA) to Gorse Lane (972631). Right to Four Horseshoes PH (972628). Return up Gorse Lane. At right bend, ahead into wood (972631). Just past electricity substation, dogleg right/left (973632, BAs). In 200m, left (974633, BA). In 100m, right (BA on tree) with field on right. In 300m cross trackway (973637). At road, left; cross Staple Hill Road (970639, BA, fingerpost). Ahead for ⅔ mile via Chickabiddy Hill (968644), to cross M3 through subway (970647), then B386 (970650 – take care!). Ahead for ½ mile to memorial cross on Ship Hill (965655). Return to cross track (967656); ahead on track. In ½ mile round right bend; in ⅓ mile ahead at junction (974658, bench on left). At next junction, right (974655) for ½ mile to T-junction (969651). Left through underpass; left to cross Staple Hill road (973646); left for 800m to car park.

Lunch: Four Horseshoes, Burrowhill Green GU24 8QP (01276-856257, fourhorseshoeschobham.co.uk)

Accommodation: The Inn at West End, Woking GU24 9PW (01276-858652, baronspubs.com)

Info: surreywildlifetrust.org

Dorstone, Merbach Hill & Arthur’s Stone, Herefordshire

Walks No Responses »

Feb 252023

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

A glorious cold and sunny winter’s morning in Herefordshire. The sparrows were tuning up for mating season in the holly hedges around Dorstone in the Golden Valley, but the nip in the air said that winter was not yet quite over and done with.

The squat stone tower of St Faith’s Church, more suited to a fortified farmhouse than a house of God, recalled medieval times along the Welsh Borders when village folk at the mercy of Welsh or English marauders were often in need of such a refuge.

In the steep fields north of Dorstone the barns at Llan Farm were stuffed with hay bales, the shed packed with wintering cattle who stamped and blew as I went by. The ewes, heavy with unborn lambs, were still out in the pastures, their fleeces stained with the dusky red Herefordshire mud.

Up at the top of the climb the tangled bracken on Merbach Hill glowed fox brown in the sunlight. A tremendous view opened to all quarters, a patchwork of green farmlands running east to the distant Malvern Hills, south and west to the long ridgebacks of the Black Mountains, sailing against a streaky sky like Phoenician ships with outward-jutting prows.

You can’t just turn away from a view like that on a day like this. I sat on the summit and gazed my fill. Then I found a tangly path among the old quarry humps and thorn trees on the hill, leading to a skein of snowdrop-spattered tracks and lanes that landed me by the remarkable 5,000-year-old monument of Arthur’s Grave.

The split capstone of this ancient tomb, twenty-five tons of solid sandstone, was dimpled with hollows. Cup marks incised for inscrutable purposes by the tomb builders – or the dents made by the elbows of Giant Arthur as he fell in kingly combat here? I hoped the tiny boy I spied playing hide and seek in Arthur’s Grave was being told both tales, and many more, by his mother watching near the fence.

I hopped over the stile behind the monument and followed the old path down the hill to Dorstone, where the Pandy Inn had a log stove hot enough to warm a frozen giant, let alone a weary walker.

How hard is it? 5¾ miles; easy/moderate; field paths.

Start: Village car park, Dorstone, Hereford HR3 6AN (OS ref SO 315415)

Getting there: Bus T14 (Hereford); Sundays, Bus 39A
Road: Dorstone is on B4348 between Hereford and Hay-on-Wye

Walk (OS Explorer 201): Pass village green, phone box and church. Cross B4348 (315418); on beside recreation ground; cross brook, then old railway (315421). Far left corner of field; cross Spoon Lane (315424, yellow arrow/YA). Far left corner of field; left (315426) on Llan Farm drive. In 100m right (stile, arrow); bypass farmyard to cattle shed (314428). Right up track; cross Scar Lane (312433); on up fields (YAs, stiles) to Arthur’s Stone Lane (312437). Left; on right bend, ahead (310439) on stony track (hedge on left) for 900m to Merbach Hill trig pillar (304447). Right on path through bracken; in 150m at Wye Valley Walk post, ahead to gate (310448). Right along fence; in 250m, left (310445, gate, blue arrow) on green lane. In 500m, ahead down road (315443); in 400m at Hollybush Cottage, right (319441, fingerpost). Cross stream; up by wood; at gate on left (319440), right up slope to stile (319439). Ahead/south to Arthur’s Stone Lane (319431); left to Arthur’s Stone (319431); right (stiles) down field path to Dorstone.

Lunch: Pandy Inn, Dorstone HR3 6AN (01981-550273, thepandyinn.co.uk)

Accommodation: Zakopane House BG&B, adjacent to Pandy Inn (pandyinnbandb.co.uk)

Info: visitherefordshire.co.uk

Blackstone Edge & Green Withens Reservoir, Lancs/W. Yorks

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Feb 212023

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

Around Blackstone Edge the gritstone moors roll away, breezy uplands that are a godsend to anyone bent on getting out of the former manufacturing towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire for a good day in the open air.

From White House Inn we crossed the road and followed the broad stony track of the Pennine Way. The path surface had broken down under millions of footfalls into sand and quartz, a creamy, honeyed hue, the components of gritstone disassembled once more after three hundred million years of clinging together.

A short cobbled section of Roman road led up to the Aiggin Stone, a medieval waymark pillar set up to guide benighted or mist-beguiled travellers. From here the Pennine Way rose to Blackstone Edge, a classic gritstone ridge with cliffs jutting westward like ships’ prows. Wind-distorted boulders stood at the edge, weathered to resemble stacks of black pancakes or gossiping trolls, their rough sandy bodies studded with specks of white quartz like globules of fat in coarse salami.

The narrow, stumbly path headed south down a long slope into the rushy declivity of Redmires and Slippery Moss. ‘Standing knee deep in this filthy quagmire,’ Alfred Wainwright wrote with mordant humour in his 1967 Pennine Way Companion, ‘there is a distinct urge to give up the ghost and let life ebb away.’ But thing have changed since Wainwright’s day. Nowadays it’s a dry-shod walk on a path of flagstones salvaged from the floors of redundant textile mills.

Beyond Slippery Moss the M62 cuts the moor with a roar and rush. We turned away to follow a trickling leat of water across the peat and heather to Green Withens Reservoir, a classic of municipal sandstone architecture, built in the 1880s in the middle of nowhere to supply Wakefield with water. From here the path ascended the dimpled face of Green Withens Edge before meeting Rishworth Drain and curling back towards the Aiggin Stone.

As we came level with Rishworth Drain a big bird of prey, its pale wings tipped with black, came flapping easily along the waterway. ‘Hen harrier!’ we exclaimed on the same breath. We watched spellbound as it launched itself downwards and pounced into a grass tuffet, then resumed its flight having missed its grab. Hen harriers are wonderfully efficient hunters, but even they have their off days, it seems.

How hard is it? 7½ miles; moderate; moorland tracks. Pick a fine day.

Start: White House Inn, Blackstone Edge, Halifax Road, Littleborough OL15 0LG (OS ref SD 969178)

Getting there: Bus 587 (Rochdale-Halifax).
Road – White House Inn is on A58 (Littleborough-Sowerby Bridge)

Walk (OS Explorer OL21): Cross road; follow Pennine Way/PW, then path beside Broad Head Drain. In 800m, left through gate (970169); up cobbled road to Aiggin Stone (974170). Right on PW (gate, National Trail acorn), southward by Blackstone Edge and Redmires. In 1¾ miles PW turns right to cross M62 (984147); don’t cross, but keep ahead with motorway on your right; then follow path on right of leat (986148) to Green Withens Reservoir (991160). Right along two sides; 100m beyond far end, right beside leat (991165). In 150m, left across leat. Follow path across moor, up Green Withens Edge; near the top, left on crossing track (991169). In ½ mile at Rishworth Drain (986172), fingerpost points right (‘Baitings Reservoir’); but keep ahead here. In 700m left across footbridge by pool (982176); bear back left on rutted Old Packhorse Road to Aiggin Stone; retrace steps to White House Inn.

Lunch: White House Inn, Blackstone Edge (01706-378456, thewhitehousepub.co.uk)

Accommodation: Premier Inn, Newhey Road, Rochdale OL16 3SA (0333-321-8449, premierinn.com)

Info: moorsforthefuture.org.uk; yorkshire.com

Ham Hill & Montacute, Somerset

Walks No Responses »

Feb 112023

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

The Celtic tribe known as the Durotriges were expert builders of hilltop forts. The stronghold they dug and mounded on Ham Hill is a remarkable structure. It encompasses more than two hundred acres of south Somerset hilltop within a huge L-shaped enclosure of steep-sided double ramparts. On this windy winter morning the views were sensational, taking in dozens of miles of low-lying farmland bounded by blue and grey hill ranges – Mendip, Blackdown, Quantock and the Dorset downs. The local sandy limestone, known as hamstone, is a glorious deep gold, much prized by builders down the centuries.

A hungry buzzard wheeled and mewed overhead as I followed the brambly ramparts south off the hill through lumps and delvings of many centuries of quarrying. At the foot of the ridge lay the quiet green valley of Witcombe, where mown paths led north again past the grassy outlines of a medieval village, abandoned when sheep farming became more profitable to landlords than the arable husbandry of the peasants.

On the far side of the ridge I found a path edged with emerging daffodils. Last autumn’s beechmast crackled underfoot as I dropped downhill towards Montacute. The village lay below in clear wintry sunshine, a perfect composition, church tower, cottages and great Elizabethan mansion all glowing in golden hamstone.

A quick pint of Palmers and a bowl of leek-and-potato soup in the conversational, dog-friendly Phelips Arms, and I made for the tree-smothered tump of St Michael’s Hill beyond the handsome old Cluniac priory gatehouse on the western edge of Montacute.

‘Mons Acutus, Mont Aigu’ – the abrupt profile of the hill gave its name to the village. Legend says that the Devil appeared in a dream to Tostig, standard bearer to King Cnut, ordering him to dig on the hill. A blacksmith was told to get on with it, and promptly unearthed a life-size crucifix of pure black flint.

The Norman castle built on the summit was replaced by a chapel, itself supplanted in 1760 by a phallic folly tower of hamstone. I climbed the steep holloway to the summit and got a memorable prospect over sunlit lands where Blakean shafts of rain radiated out of the clouds as though to spotlight hidden treasure below in the gleaming floods of winter.

How hard is it? 5 miles; easy, but steep climb up St Michael’s Hill

Start: Ham Hill Country Park, near Stoke-sub-Hamdon TA14 6RL (OS ref. ST479168)

Getting there: Country Park signed from Stoke-sub-Hamdon (signed off A303 between Ilchester and Ilminster)

Walk (OS Explorer 129): Return to road. Left; pass right fork (478166); in 100m right to fingerpost (‘Monarch’s Way’/MW); left, following uppermost path (MW) for ¾ mile to T-junction (485159). Right downhill (‘Liberty Trail’). Near bottom, left (486154, ‘Witcombe Lane’); up valley; across road (492163). Follow footpath (fingerpost) above Hollow Lane; in 500m left along Hollow Lane (497166) into Montacute. Left down South Street (499168); at church and King’s Head PH, left (497169). Through gate; right (‘Hedgecock Hill’); follow MW up St Michael’s Hill. In 200m fork right (494168); in 50m right through gate; left up steep holloway, then path to summit tower (494169). Return down path; at purple arrow fork right; path descends to field. Ahead; in 100m sharp left (494170, purple arrows) downhill. Through gate; keep ahead; left beside stream. In 200m right (491169, stile, MW); in 30m left; follow track. In 250m, gate onto open ground (489169). Follow wood edge; in 700m right (481166, gate); right past circular stone; fork left on MW to car park.

Lunch/accommodation: Phelips Arms, Montacute TA15 6XB (01935-822557, phelipsarms.co.uk)

Info: friendsofhamhill.org; visitsouthsomerset.com; nationaltrust.org.uk/montacute

Adam’s Grave, Wansdyke & Knap Hill, Wiltshire

Walks No Responses »

Feb 042023

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

It was one of the mightiest winds I’d ever encountered, and it tore across the Wiltshire downs from the west like a mad thing. I was smashed in the face and shoved around as I climbed the flank of the Neolithic long barrow called Adam’s Grave, and when I got to the top the blast of the wind sent me staggering sideways.

Maybe it was the unquiet ghost of Giant Adam, mythical occupant of the 5,000-year-old tomb, or maybe the bellicose spirits of the Anglo-Saxon warrior slain in a great battle here in 592 AD; but something up here was stirring the air into a maelstrom. My eyes were so blurred with wind tears I could hardly take in the magnificent view across the Vale of Pewsey, its brilliant green pastures and glittering floodwater lit up by the low winter sun.

I turned full face into the wind and battled along the slope of Walkers Hill. People with their backs to the gale came scudding by, hair and coat tails flapping, cheeks beaten red, gasping and nodding their complicity in outfacing the weather.

A turn of the hill brought the Pewsey White Horse into view, a slender-legged beast 180 feet tall with an elongated nose and a cropped tail twitched high. Farmer Robert Pile of Alton Barnes down in the vale below cut it out of the turf in 1812, and his handiwork has survived the two intervening centuries pretty well.

A crowd of fifty starlings went rushing across the slope, wings rigid, surfing the wind as one entity. I turned uphill past hissing gorse bushes and went east along the old bank and ditch of Wansdyke, a great groove thirty feet deep in the landscape. Wansdyke runs for sixty miles between the Hampshire Downs and the British Channel, but no-one knows the purpose of the Dark Ages folk who built it so tall and strong.

A broad green trackway took me down into the shelter of the valley once more. Beyond stood Knap Hill with its ceremonial ramparts and dimpled crown. I let the wind propel me up to the crest. There I revolved, soaking up the view of sun-gilded downland, marvelling at the energy of our ancestors who made their mark so forcefully all over these chalk hills of the west.

How hard is it? 4¾ miles; easy; downland tracks.

Start: Pewsey Downs car park, near Alton Barnes, SN8 4LU approx (OS ref SU 116637)

Getting there: On minor road between Alton Barnes and East Kennett (signed off A4 near Avebury)

Walk (OS Explorer 157): Cross road; through gate; immediately left through gate; follow clear grass path to top of Adam’s Grave (113634). Turn back across dip; bear left on path, passing above White Horse (107637) and on (‘Mid Wilts Way’/MWW; ‘White Horse Trail’/WHT). In 500m pass gorse patch on right; beside lone tree on left (101638), bear right uphill past another lone tree. Bear right to gate (101639, MWW, WHT); on to next gate; bear left with fence on right. In 450m, right through gate (102645, MWW, WHT); follow fence on right. In 200m through gate (103646); right along Wansdyke for 1 mile to T-junction (118648). Right on rutted track for ¾ mile to Pewsey Downs car park. Through car park, past stones and barrier; in 100m, left (117636, gate, fingerpost); fork right up Knap Hill. Half left off summit (122636) down to gate (123639); sharp left back to gate and car park.

Lunch: Barge Inn, Honey Street, Pewsey SN9 5PS (01672-851222, thebargeinnhoneystreet.uk)

Accommodation: Circles Guest House, 15 High St, Pewsey SN9 5AF (07769-018643, circlesbandb.com)

Info: visitpewseyvale.co.uk

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