Christopher Somerville

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


I don’t walk with my geologist godson Andy Harrison as often as I’d like, but when I do it’s like opening a window onto a hidden but wonderful world. On this hot summer’s day in the White Peak it was all about limestone, that pale rock that accrued infinitely slowly as sediment in the warm tropical sea that covered this region some 350 million years ago.

A lung-busting flight of steps lifted us through the trees and out of Millers Dale into an upland of cattle grazing and stone walls. ‘Look at that,’ Andy said, pointing to the wall of Lydgate farmhouse. The edges of fossil shells stood slightly proud of the stone like dark straggles of string. ‘That’s a productid, a creature with a hinged shell that lived buried in the seabed mud and let its feeding tendrils trail out to grab any food that passed.’ I ran my fingers across the shell and tried to imagine the immensities of time and circumstance between that form of life and my own.

We crossed the walled fields to walk between the grassy jaws of High Dale, a little narrow valley between high folds of ground. Hawkbit, lady’s bedstraw and kidney vetch grew in profusion, and a butterfly hatch of small blues made the most of the sunny afternoon. What formed this deep cleft, Andy? ‘A stream underground excavated a cave in the porous limestone, digging away till the roof collapsed into the bottom.’

There were fan-shaped corals and masses of curved productid shells in the field walls of High Dale. Up beyond among the old lead mine workings of Priestcliffe Lees we found a songthrush searching for snails in a rock garden of fragrant orchids exuding scents of pepper and cloves.

A steep path led down to the old railway path in the shadows of Millers Dale. On a cutting wall I put my hand on an enormous dark stain splashing the red and white limestone. Andy traced its outline. ‘That’s what happens when giant land masses collide and the seabed gets ripped apart. Superheated magma came gushing out into the cold water and cooled instantly into this tongue of volcanic rock. It happened maybe 350 million years ago, and it’s still here.’

What a remarkable thought to carry away from this really magical walk.

How hard is it? 5 miles; moderate, with one steep climb on steps; field paths, old railway path

Start: Millers Dale car park, Wormhill, Buxton SK17 8SN (OS ref SK 138732)

Getting there: Bus 65 from Tideswell
Road: Millers Dale car park is on B6049, signed from A6 (Buxton-Taddington). NB At weekends, get there early – very popular!

Walk (OS Explorer 149): From car park entrance, right under railway bridge. Right on B6049; in 50m, left up path (137731, fingerpost); in 100m, right up steep steps to gate at top (138728). Across fields; walled lane (139726) to Lydgate Farm (140721). Left (‘Brushfield); in 40m, fork right by cottage (gate). At T-junction left (142721); in 100m, right (wall stile, yellow arrow/YA) across fields and through High Dale. In 1 mile at southeast end of dale, through gate (156715); fork left uphill on road. At Brushfield follow ‘Priestcliffe’ and ‘Millers Dale’. Follow stony lane for ¾ mile to T-junction (152724); right (‘Priestcliffe Lees Nature Reserve’, YA). Across field; bear left down steep path into Millers Dale. Left along Monsal Trail (158729). In 1 mile, just before viaduct, fingerpost (142732, ‘Lime kilns’) points to lime kilns. Return to Monsal Trail; left across viaduct to car park.

Lunch/Accommodation: Anglers Rest, Millers Dale SK17 8SN (01298-871323, anglersrestmillersdale.co.uk)

Info: visitpeakdistrict.com

Walking the Bones of Britain – A 3 Billion Year Journey from Outer Hebrides to Thames Estuary by Christopher Somerville (£25, Doubleday) is out on 24 August

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


A spatter of rain and a good strong wind over Edinburgh, but that wasn’t going to spoil our fun. Nor was the closure of Radical Road below the iconic ramparts of Salisbury Crags. ‘There’ll be another route up Arthur’s Seat,’ said Dave Richardson, botanist, musician and long-time friend. We put away the mandolins on which we’d been bashing through ‘The Steamboat’ hornpipe at his kitchen table, donned the boots and set out for Holyrood Park.

Lucky citizens of Edinburgh, to have this great wild upthrust in their midst, more of a wedge of unspoiled highland and wildlife than anything resembling a city park. Rock falls in 2018 saw Radical Road closed off to the public, and it hasn’t reopened since. But we found a stony path that led up along the rim of Salisbury Crags and gave memorable if head-spinning views down and along this volcanic curtain of dolerite that was squeezed up and out of the depths some 325 million year ago.

‘Wood sage, heath bedstraw, bloody cranesbill,’ enumerated Dave as we passed scatters of wild flowers in white and purple. At the apex of the crags the main spectacle of the park rose ahead, a double hump of high ground composing the striking miniature mountain of Arthur’s Seat. We dipped down into a saddle of ground where many paths met, then set our faces and feet to the steep and rocky climb. Greenfinches gave out their sneezy calls from scrub bushes beside the path, whose slippery rock steps had been polished green and red by countless footfalls.

Arthur’s Seat itself is a pluton, the top of a column of basalt that punched up from below into the crater of a massive volcano, long eroded away. Standing up there in the blasting wind we were lords of one of the world’s most remarkable cityscapes – Edinburgh Castle and the jumble of monuments on Calton Hill riding their volcanic crags, petrified lava flows shaping the nearby slopes. the Pentland Hills away to the south, and northwards a glimpse of the red cantilevers of the famous railway bridge stepping across the Firth of Forth towards the hills of Fife.

How we ended up sliding on our backsides down Whinny Hill’s prickly slopes is another tale entirely. But we landed back at Dave’s in time to give ‘The Steamboat’ another run-around.

How hard is it? 3½ miles; strenuous; cliff-top path, some slippery rock underfoot, short steep climb.

Start: Holyrood car park, Queen’s Drive, Edinburgh EH8 8AZ (OS ref NT 271737)

Getting there: Train to Waverley Station; right on Princes Street; first right (Calton Road); in 800m, right on Horse Wynd, then Queen’s Drive.

Walk (OS Explorer 350; many route maps online, e.g. travelswithakilt.com/arthurs-seat-walk-map): From roundabout next to car park, left along Queen’s Drive. In 50m, fork right uphill; in 100m, right again up stony path along top of Salisbury Crags (unguarded edge). In ¾ mile, opposite Arthur’s Seat, descend to meeting of paths in valley on left (273728). Bear left uphill under Arthur’s Seat; steeply up rock steps to saddle below peak (276731). Sharp right and follow path to foot of stone steps (277730) up to summit. Return to foot of steps; ahead, down and then up across Whinny Hill, bearing north for ⅔ mile, down to Queen’s Drive (279740). Left to St Margaret’s Loch (277739); clockwise along shore to south end (275737), then path along Queen’s Drive to car park.

Lunch: The Pakora Bar, 111 Holyrood Road EH8 8AU (0131-202-5200, thepakorabar.co.uk)

Accommodation: The Scott, 18 Holyrood Park Road EH16 5AY (0131-651-2007, uoecollection.com)

Info: ‘Discovering Edinburgh’s Volcano’ (edinburghgeolsoc.org);
geowalks.co.uk/arthurs-seat/arthurs-seat-self-guided-walks;
visitscotland.com

Walking the Bones of Britain – A 3 Billion Year Journey from Outer Hebrides to Thames Estuary by Christopher Somerville (£25, Doubleday) is out on 24 August

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


The blackcap that scribbled out its song from an ash tree by the South Downs Way was singing for a perfect summer’s day. I couldn’t believe the profusion of wild flowers and blue butterflies that bordered the ancient ridgeway as it climbed towards the roof of the West Sussex downs.

Wild marjoram, thyme and spearmint scented my fingers. Kidney vetch and knapweed vied for the attention of common and chalkhill blue butterflies that had congregated after a spectacular hatch. Yellow froth of lady’s bedstraw, nail-polish pink of centaury, harebells and hawkbit, St John’s Wort and yellowwort, and the rich blue globular flowerheads of round-headed rampion, the ‘Pride of Sussex’, a nationally scarce flower of this chalk grassland habitat.

The South Downs Way rose as the view opened northwards across a patchwork of pale gold, unharvested cornfields and dark summer woods, south to where the bird’s beak of the Isle of Wight dipped to the sea. Soon another flinty track swung off southwest, a long and gradual descent between fields of wheat and barley, flanked by brilliant yellow sprigs of wild parsnip. Out of the crop fields ahead rose the multiple ramparts of Cissbury Ring, one of the Iron Age hill forts that command this countryside.

Down in the valley bottom I passed the Pest House, a modest cottage of brick and flint with an ominous name. In this lonely place in medieval times stood an isolation house where sufferers from plague, cholera, smallpox and other deadly communicable diseases were banged up to recover or die, one or the other.

A grassy track led up the wooded valley of Buddington Bottom, to reach the South Downs Way. Just west the early Iron Age hill fort of Chanctonbury Ring topped the hill, the circular rampart reinforced with a fine double circle of beech trees. The space under them is as dark as night. This is a place with enormous atmosphere, the world spread out at your feet from the sea to the Sussex Weald.

The Ring was made by the Devil, local stories say, and he will appear to you if you run thrice widdershins around the rampart. There’s a fiendish bargain on offer, of course: a bowl of demonic soup in exchange for your soul. Don’t run round the Ring when you’re feeling hungry, is my advice.

How hard is it? 5½ miles, easy, downland tracks.

Start: Chanctonbury car park, near Washington BN44 3DR (OS ref TQ 125121)

Getting there: Bus 23 (Worthing – Crawley)
Road: At Washington Roundabout on A24 (Worthing-Horsham), take A283. Right down Washington Bostal past Frankland Arms. In ¾ mile, just before A24, sharp left up rough road to car park.

Walk (OS Explorer 121): Uphill on South Downs Way/SDW. In ¾ mile at large grass triangle, right (130117, ‘Restricted Byway’) downhill. In 1 mile at cross-tracks, left (121104, 4-finger post, ‘Wiston Estate Winery’ notice). In ⅔ mile, opposite barns at New Barn, fork left, then immediately right (130100). In 150 m, where track meets lane, fork left through gate (fingerpost, blue arrow/BA); immediately left (BA). In 400m at far corner of vineyard, through gate (133104); on up path through Buddington Bottom valley for 1 mile. At top of climb, left on SDW (145113) past Chanctonbury Ring (139120). In 500m at cattle grid, fork right (134119, gate, BA) on path past dewpond. In 500m descend to gate (129121); down through old chalk pit (slippery!) to rejoin SDW (125121); right to car park.

Lunch: Frankland Arms, Washington RH20 4AL (01903-891405, thefranklandarms.com)

Accommodation: Village House Coaching Inn, Findon BN14 0TE (01903-873350, villagehousefindon.co.uk)

Info: westsussex.info

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


The Brecon Beacons may have changed their name to Bannau Brycheiniog, ‘the peaks of Brychan’s Kingdom’, but the allure of these sharply profiled Welsh mountain remains, as it always was, irresistible to walkers. The wedge-shaped summit of Pen y fan, tallest of the range, was bristling with tiny figures on this warm summer afternoon. Nearer at hand, the gentle green dome of Pen y Bryn, a north-easterly outlier, held only a scattered flock of Welsh mountain ewes and lambs, very wary of intruders onto their hill.

The church of St Meugan stood among trees in a dip of ground above the village of Pencelli. In the cool, musty interior a wall plaque commemorated John Jones (1875-1942), a much-travelled cleric, ‘priest and missionary to the Natives of Australia’. Outside, the windowless north wall of the tower was used in times past as a goal by Pencelli’s handball players. Other locals would gather round the nearby cockpit, nowadays a bushy dingle, to wager and bicker as their game birds battled it out.

Beyond the church we crossed fields where the hazel hedges sheltered lines of sheep as yet unshorn, all panting in the heat. A green lane led away uphill, a grassy track indented in the ground that steepened past twisted thorn trees.

On the southwest skyline the canted top of Pen y fan stood tall and shadowed, lord of steep ridges and valleys. Below the path a stream was flowing underground, its subterranean trickling a guide for our footsteps as we neared the top of Pen y Bryn. A side turning over trackless ground and we were standing by the summit cairn with a magnificent panorama opening north and east, the long snouts of the Black Mountain ridges descending to green patchwork farmlands.

With views like these, who would ever want to take the downward path? Eventually we did, scooting down across a long grass upland towards the oakwoods of Allt Feigan, where cuckoos were calling. A shady track beside a mossy wall; then a long descent on a dusty red cart road under enormous, bulbous old oaks, looking out across newly mown meadows where the River Usk glinted and curved in extravagant bends like a monster eel caught in a trap.

How hard is it? 6 miles; moderate hill walk; some upland paths faintly marked on ground. Avoid in mist.

Start: Pencelli, near Talybont-on-Usk LD3 7LX (OS ref SO 092250)

Getting there: Signed from Talybont-on-Usk (A40, Crickhowell-Brecon). At entrance to village, left (‘Plas Pencelli’) to parking place by canal bridge.

Walk (OS Explorer OL12): Up lane opposite (‘Llanfeigan Church’). In ½ mile at parking place, fork right for church (087245), left to continue walk. Right at Ty’r Eglwys; steps down to footbridge (086245); up under trees, then across 2 fields (yellow arrows/YAs) to road (083246). Left; in 300m, right up green lane (081244, YAs, yellow-topped post). In ½ mile, where ground levels off (074238 approx), fork left off stony path onto grassy one. Continue climb on clear path for ¾ miles till ground levels again at top of climb (070227 approx). Left over open ground to summit cairn of Pen y Bryn (073227). From here descend ENE for 1½ miles on clear path across open grassland, at first aiming for left edge of forestry, then for angle where coniferous and broadleaved woodlands meet. Left here over stile (094237); follow track beside wall. In 500m fork left downhill (099237), following Usk Valley Walk back to Pencelli.

Lunch: Royal Oak, Pencelli (01874-665396, theroyaloakpencelli.com)

Accommodation: Peterstone Court, Llanhamlach, Brecon LD3 7YB (01874-665387, peterstone-court.com) – comfortable, friendly stopover

Info: visitwales.com

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