A huge milk-and-pearl sky arched over north Norfolk, with a strong wind blowing the smells of river water and stubble dust across the flat fen country south of Kings Lynn. First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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The swish and whine of lorries on the A10 soon faded as I set out from Setchey Bridge into a landscape that might have been made for a Dutch old master – the broad flood-banks of the River Nar, solitary willows and oaks breaking the disc of the skyline, fat cattle and sheep dewlap-deep in grass, the farms isolated, each with its sprawl of barns and dark scribble of shelter trees.
A haunting, roadless landscape with never a contour in it. The flood-bank path climbs just two metres in the five miles between Setchey and Pentney Abbey – a bit of a mountain, in Fenland terms. A flat land, but far from empty. Farmers dragged clouds of streaming gulls behind their ploughs, rooks by the hundred made crooked swirls over the corn stubbles. Big old willows, unpollarded for decades, hissed in the wind, their leaves turned inside out and flickering like so many white eyes. A swan with a broken wing drifted helplessly upriver before the wind, and I saw the black shape of a marsh harrier sailing over a wood with casual flaps of its long flexible wings.
Beyond a clattering sand and gravel pit the river shrank to a silver thread, meandering east towards the tall grey fortress of Pentney Abbey’s 14th-century gatehouse. This wide flat countryside was fat farmland for the Benedictine community at Pentney. Now the gatehouse stands alone, its battlements tottering, the elaborate tracery of its windows bricked up. Howling heads decorate the structure – a demon, a slyly smiling face, and a puff-cheeked king blinded by his own low-slung crown. An eerie stronghold carved with indecipherable admonitions out of the unfathomable past.
Below the gatehouse I crossed the Nar and followed Pentney Drove into a country of sandy soil and black peat. Shouldham Warren’s sandy rides led between loose stands of fir and silver birch, riddled with the rabbit burrows that gave the plantation its name. Out into the soft pearly light again, and back by the hamlet of Wormegay and the long-dry thistly ditch of Little River. Sheep cropped the rich grass, the willows seethed, and I walked with the energy you plug into on such a blustery, racing day.
Start: Setchey Bridge, Setchey, Norfolk PE33 0AZ (OS ref TF 636134)
Getting there: Setchey is on A10 (Downham Market – King’s Lynn). Park in layby just south of Setchey Bridge.
WALK (11 miles, easy, OS Explorer 236):
Right across bridge, right along north bank of River Nar for 4½ miles. Nearing Pentney Abbey gatehouse, pass footbridge (698121 – don’t cross!); on to gatehouse (703121). Return to cross footbridge. In 200 m, keep ahead away from river (698119, ‘Nar Valley Way’/NVW). In 300 m go round left bend; in another 100 m (695117) don’t bear right with paved track! but keep straight ahead on grass path by green electricity box, down left side of poplar plantation. In ⅔ mile cross drain (685113) with Mere Plot Farm visible on left; ahead on grass path into Shouldham Warren. In 125 m, left (684113, NVW); follow sandy ride ahead for ⅔ mile to car park (679104). Right past roofed noticeboard, up sandy ride (red/yellow, then red top posts) for ¾ mile. Leaving forest, cross Black Drain (674114); forward to Church Lane gravel road (670119). Right to St Michael’s Church (674120); return up Church Lane to road in Wormegay (664118). Left through village. On western edge, cross bridge (658118); right through gate (NVW). Follow NVW to River Nar (647134); left to Setchey. At garden wall near bridge, bear left, and follow wall to A10 and layby.
LUNCH: Picnic
ACCOMMODATION: Dial House, Railway Road, Downham Market PE38 9EB (01366-385775; dialhousebnb.com).
MORE INFO: King’s Lynn TIC (01553-763044); visitnorfolk.co.uk
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk