Search Results : berkshire berks

Dec 202008
 

It was a beautiful winter morning, shortly before Christmas – one of those crisp, smoky mornings with ice skinning the puddles and a sky of unbroken blue over the leafless woods.

Nature calls you imperiously out of doors, then smacks you in the face when it has got you there. Setting off from The Swan Inn in the West Berkshire hamlet of Lower Green, eyes running with chilly tears, breath pluming out like a leaky locomotive, I gasped with cold. Five days ago I had been basking in 35°C heat in tropical north Australia, and this thermometer plunge into the minus zone was a shock to the system.

Out in the fields rooks strutted the stubble rows, their fat feathery thighs making them roll like drunken sailors. My boots cracked milky panes of ice in the ruts; brambles hung whitened and stiff in the hedges, each spiny leaf tipped with a droplet of half-melted frost. All the pleasures of walking in the English countryside in winter suddenly came flooding in on me. After weeks of energy-sapping heat on baking Queensland beaches I welcomed the rough embrace of winter stinging my cheeks, a brisk exhortation to stride out and get the blood coursing round the body.

Up the steep breast of Inkpen Hill I slogged, puffing out steam, stripping off scarf and then woolly hat as the interior radiators were turned on full by the hard exercise. Up at the top there was time to pause, pour a cup of coffee from the flask and take in the quite stupendous view. I gazed north, 20 or 30 miles across the plains of Berkshire and Wiltshire towards the White Horse Downs and the distant Cotswolds. The windows of country houses flashed among spinneys and copses that in the full leaf of summer would shield them from sight. Sheep moved slowly along the crest of the down, their fleeces turned to gold in the sunlight.

The black T-bar of sinister Combe Gibbet, by contrast, stood stark on the humped back of a Neolithic burial mound. The original hanging scaffold, set here on the skyline so that everyone for miles around would see it, was used only once. In 1676 the bodies of George Broomham of Combe and his lover, Dorothy Newman of Inkpen, were suspended from each cross-piece and left to rot as a grim warning, after the pair had been hanged for murdering Broomham's wife Martha and his son, Robert. It was Mad Thomas, a barefoot village idiot, who blurted out that he'd seen the victims being drowned in a pond. They had stumbled by chance across the lovers, in flagrante delicto, on the down.

Beyond Combe Gibbet rose the green inverted bowl of Walbury Hill, bisected by the ancient trackway I was following. The works of our distant ancestors litter the long ridge of the downs hereabouts: burial mounds, ditches, rutted tracks and the high-piled ramparts of Walbury Camp. It is easy to see why Iron Age men fortified this hilltop – at 974ft above sea level, Walbury is the highest chalk hill in Britain. Anyone commanding this site would be able to see strangers, friendly or otherwise, approaching from any direction in plenty of time to prepare an appropriate reception.

From the old hilltop stronghold I dropped down into the sheltered valley where Combe hamlet sits. In the south wall of the flint-built Church of St Swithun, shadowed by yews, I found a tiny stone head carved by some humorous-minded medieval mason, an imp-like homunculid with crazed feline eyes and the cheekiest of smiles. The narrow interior with its fine Victorian glass and elaborate Georgian graveslabs of black marble breathed peace and stability, a fixed point in a whirling world.

Up on the back of the downs once more, I faced into the wind and forged northwards. Pheasants exploded out of the hedge roots, and meadow pipits flew swooping and squeaking across the track. Back at the crest of Inkpen Hill I took a deep breath and went half-running down the slope, through a tunnel of pale elder suckers and back into Lower Green, heading for the door of the The Swan Inn.

There are certain pubs that you'd cheerfully take root in. The Swan is one of them: a firelit winter pub par excellence that brews its own bitter and serves its own organic beef. Cheerful barman Tomas, a Prague boy very much at home in the Berkshire countryside, pulled me a pint of the sort Australians will never understand. I sat by the log fire, feet well out in front of me, fingers a-tingle as they thawed; I felt my cheeks reddening and my grin widening. It was good to be home.

 

 Posted by at 00:00
Mar 092024
 


First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
Georgian folly designed by James Wyatt on Temple Island 1 Hambleden Weirs rushing and roaring serenity at Mill End Georgian folly designed by James Wyatt on Temple Island 2 Warm and characterful Flower Pot hotel at Aston Tranquillity on the banks of the Thames opposite Aston

A cold cloudy morning where the Chiltern Hills meet the boundaries of Bucks, Berks and Oxon. Not that the red kites were inclined to respect the county borders – they soared and wheeled indifferently over the bare woods and rain-sodden fields.

At Mill End the River Thames had forsaken its measured pace through the green meadows. The river, swollen by a whole night’s rainfall, came rushing and roaring, pushing a solid skein of sinewy grey-green water through the sluices. ‘She’s risen six inches higher than we expected,’ said the lock keeper as he pulled the sluice gate cable. ‘In for some flooding tomorrow, I should think.’

How did Thomas Caleb Gould, lock keeper here from 1777-1832, cope in similar conditions with no modern technology to help him? Gould was a celebrity in his day, famous for his many-buttoned coat and his daily diet of onion porridge. What his wife thought of that went unrecorded, but it kept him in good fettle till the age of ninety-two.

Heads reeling with the sound and energy of the seething water, we turned along the river bank and were instantly doused in peace and plenty. The Thames formed a broad, graceful bend, the water slow and wind-stippled as it slid smoothly past riverfront villas and their ornate wooden boathouses. Kempt lawns studded with fine cedars sloped up to Greenlands, a white wedding cake of a residence, built in 1853 for stationery mogul WH Smith.

A great crested grebe bobbed in the midriver flow, cautiously observing a nearby tufted duck with straggly crest and brilliant golden eyes. Black-headed gulls still sporting their white winter hoods screamed and squabbled over titbits, and a grey heron emitted a mournful shriek as it skimmed the water like a ragged umbrella on the loose.

At Upper Thames Rowing Club’s handsome premises we left the river and followed a snowdrop-spattered path to join up with the Chiltern Way that led across the winter wheatfields to Aston. From this elevated stance the Thames lay hidden by a fold of ground as though it had ceased to exist.

The Flower Pot Hotel at Aston exuded good smells of log fires. A venison pie (with juniper berries) and a golden pint of Boondoggle bitter here; then the final stroll beside the racing Thames towards the rumble and tumult of Hambleden weirs.

How hard is it? 6 miles; easy; riverbank and field paths

Start: Mill End car park, Hambleden, Bucks RG9 6TL (OS ref SU 786854)

Getting there: Bus 800 (High Wycombe – Reading)
Road: Follow ‘Hambleden’ from A4155 (Henley-on-Thames to Marlow) at Mill End. In ¼ mile, left into car park.

Walk (OS Explorer 171): Right along road (pavement). Dogleg right/left across A4155 (786850); follow footpath signs (‘Wokingham Way’) across River Thames via Hambleden Weirs. Cross Hambleden Lock (783851); right on riverbank Thames Path for 1¾ miles. Beside flagpole of Upper Thames Rowing Club (767836), left through car park to Remenham Lane. Right; in 50m, fork left (768835, fingerpost). In 50m, left (fingerpost, ‘Permitted Path); in 150m, left on Chiltern Way, Berkshire Loop (770834, fingerpost). In 400m left on Remenham Church Lane (774837); in 200m, right (773839, kissing gate, fingerpost) on Chiltern Way. In ½ mile, just before wooden gate across path, left (782840, ‘Permitted Path’) down to road (783842). Right into Aston. At Flower Pot Hotel (785842), left down Ferry Lane. At river, left (787845, ‘Thames Path’) to recross Hambleden Weirs and return to car park.

Lunch/Accommodation: Flower Pot Hotel, Aston RG9 3DG (01491-574721, flowerpothotel.com)

Info: Henley-on-Thames TIC (01491-576982)

 Posted by at 05:57
Feb 122022
 


First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
looking north across Colebrook Lake path among the heathland of Finchampstead Ridges 1 bracken and pines on Finchampstead Ridges path among the heathland of Finchampstead Ridges 2 path among the heathland of Finchampstead Ridges 3 frozen leaves in the bracken of Finchampstead Ridges path among the heathland of Finchampstead Ridges 4 winter sunlight on the paddock fencing reedbeds of Grove Lake Grove Lake 1 wintry glints on the Blackwater River Grove Lake 2

A cold morning nipping at the nose and fingertips, and a clear blue sky fitted like a bowl over East Berkshire. The paths between Moor Green Lakes were a stodge of dark mud, but the open fleets of water winked and glittered in the low winter sun.

Wintering wildfowl love these flooded gravel pits, packed with food and secure from disturbance. A dozen cormorants stretched their wings to dry on the stony ridge of Plover Island. Chestnut-headed wigeon with ginger foreheads sailed together in a silent company, while the white flanks of tufted duck showed up bravely in the sunlight, the brilliant gold of their eyes only revealed in our binocular lenses.

We followed the chuckle and swish of the fast-flowing River Blackwater past contorted willows and leafless hazel whips where catkins were dangling. Soon we had left behind the eternal background screeching of black-headed gulls on the lakes, and were headed north past a paddock where a horse in a quilted winter jacket patterned with zebras snorted out twin jets of steamy breath as it gave us the sideways eye.

Among rhododendrons, berried hollies and tall pines in the tangled grounds of Ambarrow Court we passed a frosty hollow where a huge Victorian mansion once stood. During the Second World War the Royal Aircraft Establishment took over the house and conducted top secret research here into early forms of radar.

The railway line from Reading to Aldershot runs dead straight through the pinewoods beyond, and we followed a trackside footpath up to the station at Crowthorne, its windows extravagantly gabled like a Bavarian hunting lodge.

Beyond Crowthorne a byway led through more coniferous woodland, before cutting south in a beeline for the heathy heights and hollows of Finchampstead Ridge. Here on sandy soil glinting with mica chips we stood under the tall pines of a spinney at the edge of the ridge, looking out over thickly wooded country.

Here was the place to breathe in the cold air of a winter afternoon scented with pine resin, the landscape before us a blur of bright sun striking through the misty exhalations of the forest.

How hard is it? 5¾ miles; easy; lakeside and woodland tracks

Start: Moor Green Lakes car park, Finchampstead, RG40 3TF (OS ref SU 806628)

Getting there: Train to Crowthorne
Road – car park is 1 mile southwest of Crowthorne (A321 Sandhurst-Wokingham)

Walk (OS Explorer 160): Head towards lakes. In 700m, left (806621), following Blackwater Valley Path/BVP). In 1 mile just before road, left through barrier (819619). In 450m cross road (821623). At next road, right (822627); ahead on path (‘Ambarrow Court’). Cross A371 (824627, take care!). Through car park; ahead between metal bollards. At path T-junction, left; in 50m, left (red marker). In 50m, right at fingerpost to railway (827627). Don’t cross; left beside line; in 250m, right across railway (825630). Left beside line to road at Crowthorne Station (823638). Left to roundabout (821637); take Restrictive Byway/RB opposite. In 800m, left at 6-finger post (814641, RB). In 200m, left (813641, RB) for 700m to road (811634). Right; on bend, head past NT notice (‘FPC’). Follow path to left; head for bench at spinney viewpoint (809633). Descend path on right to track crossing (808632), left. In 400m pass metal barrier (810630); right down lane to road (809627); right to car park.

Lunch: Tally Ho, Fleet Hill, Eversley, RG27 0RR (0118-973-2134. brunningandprice.co.uk/tallyho)

Accommodation: The Kingsley at Eversley, Reading Road, Eversley RG27 0NB (0118-907-6322, thekingsley.co.uk)

Info: Moor Green Lakes Group (mglg.org.uk)

 Posted by at 01:26
Nov 262016
 


First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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The blowy blue afternoon sky over Berkshire was patchworked with vast silvery clouds backlit by the sun. Along the hedges in the broad valley of the River Pang wind-dried umbellifers stood as tall as a man, each papery seedpod holding the blood-red streak of a single seed.

This is understated countryside, with a faint dip and roll to it. The sun put a glossy green polish on the wooded ridges of the valley. A jay, disturbed by our passing, swore like a trooper from its hideout in a thicket, and high overhead a stunting plane growled among the clouds.

We trod a carpet of gold and silver willow leaves beside the slow-flowing Pang. The water rippled as clear as gin over a gravelly bed. An angler had snagged his line in an elder bush; with great patience and dexterity he freed it and drew a flapping brown trout from the water. Then he lay prone, cradling the fish in a wetted palm, and slipped it very carefully back into the river.

Bradfield was a gorgeous dream of mellow red brick houses, the shaven playing fields of its college still smelling faintly of cut grass. Here we crossed the Pang and climbed the gentle slope to the north, into woods where horse chestnuts shone a rich mahogany in the leaf litter, as though freshly polished.

At a point where the sigh of wind in the treetops was overlaid by the seashore roar of the M4, we turned away through the silver birch and tall pines of The Gravels. This is sand and gravel country, a place of old heathy commons now overgrown with woodland, from which we looked out across the Pang valley to a rainstorm gathering in the south.

A tawny owl hooted among the hazels at Nightingale Green as we dropped down to recross the Pang and take the path through sedgy pastures back to Stanford Dingley. In St Denys’s Church we found red ochre frescoes 800 years old, and a medieval tile on which the Lamb of God gambolled with shaggy legs as unco-ordinated as a puppy’s – an image that bridged the centuries with charm and humour.

Start: Bull Inn, Stanford Dingley, Berks RG7 6LS (OS ref SU 576716)

Getting there: Stanford Dingley is 2 miles north of Chapel Row, west of Theale (between Jcts 12 and 13, M4)

Walk (7½ miles, easy, OS Explorer 159): From Bull Inn, left along road. At junction, left (fingerpost) on footpath (yellow arrows/YA) for nearly 1 mile to road (591719). Dogleg right/left across, and on (YAs) for 1 mile to road in Bradfield (604727).

Left; in 200m, left past ‘Private Road’ notice (603728; white arrow/WA; ‘Recreational Route’/RR). In 150m, right through gate (fingerpost). Aim half left across field to corner of hedge (599728); same line to gate through hedge, and on to cross road (596728). Up Greathouse Walk track (‘Bridleway’/BW). In ½ mile pass entrance to Great House Cottages (590734); in another 150m, at crossing of tracks, follow main track round to left (BW). In ⅓ mile, halfway up slope, left (585736, YA, RR) through ‘The Gravels’ wood. In 700m leave wood; forward to cross Scratchface Lane (577733).

Take path opposite (WA, RR); in 100m, right (WA, ‘Permitted Footpath’). Follow this path, ignoring side turnings. In 350m, at T-junction by post, left (574732, YA). Follow path (YAs) for ¼ mile; at wood bottom bear right (YA) to cross stile (574728). Down long field to lane (571727). Right; in 200m, opposite Mazelands Farm, left up track. In ¼ mile at 3 gates, right (567725; WA, RR, BW). In 200m, left through KG (YA), up fence and into House Leas wood (563725). Left (WA, RR), following wood edge south (‘Restrictive Byway’/RB) for ½ mile to Pangfield Farm (564719).

Skirt clockwise round buildings on marked ‘Preferred Pathway’, before turning left down drive. Cross road (566716); down track opposite. In ¼ mile, left at gate (569713, RB). Immediately left through gate (YA); half left across field to gate (571713, YA). Through trees; aim across field for St Denys’s Church; at road (575717), right to Bull Inn.

Lunch/Accommodation: Bull Inn, Stanford Dingley (0118-974-4582, thebullinnstanforddingley.co.uk) – cosy, stylish and friendly

Info: Newbury TIC (01635-30267);
visitengland.com; satmap.com; ramblers.org.uk

Britain’s Best Walks: 200 Classic Walks from The Times by Christopher Somerville (HarperCollins, £30). To receive 30 per cent off plus free p&p visit harpercollins.co.uk and enter code TIMES30, or call 0844 5768122

 Posted by at 01:51
Jan 012011
 

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

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'It was a cold still afternoon with a hard steely sky overhead, when he slipped out of the warm parlour into the open air. The country lay bare and entirely leafless around him, and he thought that he had never seen so far and so intimately into the insides of things.'
Crunching through the snowy fields to Cookham Dean, I caught myself looking out for the short, intent figure of Mole scurrying along in his newly bought goloshes. Kenneth Grahame was living in the Berkshire village at the turn of the 20th century when he wrote The Wind In The Willows for his son Mouse. That story immortalised the landscape of the River Thames, its fine houses and meadows – and especially its woods. How thrilling to my childish imagination were the adventures of Mole and Ratty in the depths of the Wild Wood! Now, leaving Cookham Dean’s whitened village green and entering snow-bound Quarry Wood, I found myself in the thick of that sinister forest.

A sunken cart track led down to the bottom of the wood. I turned back along a path between bushes of spindle whose brilliant orange seeds pushed through splits in bright pink fruit cases, the brightest colours in the sombre wood. With the muted winter sun already setting and shadows lying long on the snow under the trees, I was visited by a frisson from childhood, the thing that Rat had tried to shield poor Mole from – ‘the Terror of the Wild Wood!’

A stunning panorama from Winter Hill over the graceful curves of the Thames; then a peaceful stretch under frozen willows along the river bank in the half light of dusk. I got into Cookham just in time to catch the Stanley Spencer Gallery, a treasure-house of the fabulous art of another celebrated Cookham resident. What an odd, complicated and ecstatic vision this kind-of-naïf painter brought to his work, most of it rooted in his beloved native village. And how strange to walk from the black hollows and snow-crusted trees of Grahame’s Wild Wood into Spencer’s summery Cookham of picnickers in short sleeves, girls in bathing dresses, and the figure of Christ in a black straw boater preaching with fiery fury from a punt at Cookham Regatta.

 

Start & finish: Cookham station, Berks SL6 9BP (OS ref SU 886850)

Getting there: Train (www.thetrainline.com; www.railcard.co.uk) to Cookham. Bus: Arriva (www.arrivabus.co.uk) Service 37 (Maidenhead-High Wycombe). Road: M40 Jct 4; A404 Marlow; A4155, A4095 to Cookham; B4447 to Cookham Rise. Park near station.

 

Walk (7½ miles, easy/moderate, OS Explorer 172): From station, left; 1st left along High Road; pass school, then Stanley Spencer’s house Clievden View (corner of Worster Road); follow High Road to T-jct (879851). Ignore path opposite; right for 75m; cross road; path through fields (yellow arrows/YA) for ⅓ mile to road in Cookham Dean (874853). Left round S-bend; right across green to pub sign; left here (‘Chiltern Way/CW; Berkshire Loop’). Down right side of Sanctum on the Green Inn (871853). Through trees for 100m; right over stile (YA, CW). Down slope; cross path at bottom; forward (fingerpost) up to road (864853). Left for 50m; right (‘bridleway’, blue arrow) on path inside wood edge. In ⅓ mile, fields on your left give way to trees; just beyond, at 4-way path crossing (859851), ignore paths crossing through barriers and YA, and take right-hand of 2 paths ahead, following sunken trackway downhill.

In 300m keep ahead across a path crossing (856850); in 250m, hairpin right (854849; ‘Restricted Byway’) along bottom edge of wood for ⅔ mile to cross Quarry Wood Road (861857). Immediately right up path between fences, steeply up for 300m to road (864857). Don’t cross; left along path beside road, then through wood for ⅓ mile to road at Dial Close (870860). Left along grass verge by road for ⅓ mile; left down Stonehouse Lane (874863); in 20m, right along path (YA) follow CW. After going through metal gate (marked ‘donated by East Berks Ramblers’), in 200m CW forks right; but keep ahead on downward track. At foot of slope, left (882867, fingerpost) through kissing gate; track across fields, bearing right along River Thames. Follow river for 1½ miles to Cookham Bridge (898856). Right along Ferry Lane past church; right up Cookham High Street, past Stanley Spencer Gallery (896853) and Bel & Dragon Inn; follow footpath by road for ¾ mile to station.

NB – Online maps, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Lunch: Sanctum on the Green, Cookham Dean (01628-482638, www.sanctumonthegreen.com); Bel & The Dragon, Cookham (01628-521263; www.belandthedragon-cookham.co.uk)

Stanley Spencer Gallery: Winter opening Thurs-Sun, 11-4.30; 01628-471885; www.stanleyspencer.org.uk

www.satmap.co.uk; www.ramblers.org.uk

 

 

 Posted by at 00:00
Jan 152022
 


First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
Bright sky across the Lambourn Downs The Ridgeway on the Oxfordshire Downs 1 The Ridgeway on the Oxfordshire Downs 2 view from the Ridgeway over Childrey Warren 1 The Ridgeway on the Oxfordshire Downs 3 old trackway near Stancombe Farm 1 The Ridgeway on the Oxfordshire Downs 4 view from the Ridgeway over Childrey Warren 2 old trackway near Stancombe Farm 2 old trackway near Stancombe Farm 3 old trackway near Stancombe Farm 4 looking west from the track near Sheepdrove Farm

A cold and blowy midwinter’s morning over the chalk downs where Oxfordshire meets Berkshire. The racehorses exercising near Sparsholt Firs blew steamy breaths, and a brisk south-westerly wind shook the hawthorns and shivered the puddles along the upland tracks.

We squelched through mud as pale and glutinous as pancake batter to reach the grassy track of the ancient Ridgeway across Hackpen Hill. Long views opened across downland fields clipped and stubbled for winter, with leafless beech spinneys, rounded by the wind, standing along the ridges.

A redwing flew up into a bush and then straight and level across the stubble, displaying a dusky red flash along its flanks. Berries not yet plucked by the birds hung wrinkling in the thorn trees through which the strong breeze came whistling.

The roll of the land hid the depths of the dry chalk valley to the north. Down there at Childrey Warren archaeologists recently made an extraordinary discovery. Among the remains of 26 people, buried some two thousand years ago, they found the skeleton of a woman placed in a bizarre ritual position, legs splayed, hands on head, feet amputated and placed beside her. Beneath her body lay another, that of a new-born baby.

We walked on along the Ridgeway, speculating on all the births, deaths and ceremonies this 5,000-year-old track must have seen. Bygone travellers took their lives in their hands when they set out in winter along the Ridgeway, where after prolonged rain the mud could lie deep enough to trap or even drown the unwary. Today a spattered trouser leg was the worst inconvenience we faced.

Down in the vale the clustered houses of Letcombe Bassett lay below chalk slopes corrugated and hollowed by the storms and floods of millennia. The Ridgeway dipped and rose, a broad green ribbon, to reach Gramp’s Hill. Here we turned down a farm road, southward into a sheltered valley where the wind dropped to a gentle sigh in the sycamores.

A flock of fieldfares, slim grey cousins of the redwings, flew purposefully across the way with cackling cries. Beside the path pale green catkins jigged on hazel twigs and dried heads of cow parsley nodded stiffly, animated by the wind.

The rutted track snaked up again to pass the rusty barns and sheds at Stancombe Farm. Opposite, by contrast, lay the organically farmed, immaculately kept domain of Sheepdrove Farm – a dewpond with a duck house, tree plantations with permissive paths, new hedges, wildlife corridors. An agricultural landscape ahead of the curve, as wildlife-friendly farming begins its journey to becoming the norm across our countryside.

We turned for home through the Sheepdrove fields. Jackdaws congregated raucously in the trees, and half a dozen red kites went sideslipping over a beanfield, their chestnut backs glowing in the low winter sun.

How hard is it? 6½ miles; easy; clear downland tracks

Start: Sparsholt Firs car park, near Lambourn, OX12 9XB (OS ref SU 344851)

Getting there: Sparsholt Firs is on B4001 between Lambourn and Wantage

Walk (OS Explorer 170): Walk east along Ridgeway. In 1¾ miles on Gramp’s Hill, right along road (370840). Beyond Parsonage Hill Barn keep ahead on grassy track (367834). In ¼ mile, at ‘Ridgeway closed to motor vehicles’ sign, fork right (367830). In nearly 1 mile pass Stancombe Farm entrance on right (356820); in ½ mile at red barn, right (349816, ‘Byway, No Through Road’). In 700m by houses (346823), keep left on grassy byway; in 1½ miles at B4001 (341845), right to car park.

Lunch/Accommodation: Greyhound Inn, Letcombe Regis, Wantage OX12 9JL (01235-771969, thegreyhoundletcombe.co.uk

Info: nationaltrail.co.uk, sheepdrove.com

 Posted by at 01:15
Feb 162013
 

We’d been longing for a day like this – bright cold sunlight, wall-to-wall blue sky across the Hampshire/Berkshire border, the recently rain-sodden ground frozen hard underfoot on Silchester Common.First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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The low sun struck glitters out of the frost crusts in the red bracken clumps. We descended towards a wooded stream valley, watching squirrels playing kiss-chase in the birch tops, and turned along a bridleway that threaded the edge of Pamber Forest.

The ancient woodland, a fragment of the once-mighty Royal Forest of Windsor, lay faintly whispering, its leafless limbs still a month or two short of any hint of leaf-break. Distant cars murmured like waves on a beach. We followed a ruler-straight old woodbank, and went on out of the forest to the frost-sparkled lane at Latchmere Green where the daffodil buds were just beginning to swell. In the fields beyond, hoof pocks left by cattle in the mud were skinned over with white ice. The animals themselves, Highland beasts munching at a rich-smelling hay feeder, looked round at us through thick ginger fringes that completely hid their eyes.

The woodland boundary near beautiful old Clapper’s Farm was labelled ‘Park Pale’ on our Explorer map. Back at the beginning of the 13th century the Lord of Silchester Manor gave King John a palfrey in exchange for the right to create a deer park inside a pale, an earthen bank topped by a fence. It was cunningly designed so that wild deer could get in but couldn’t jump back out. Opposite Clapper’s we made out the medieval fishponds and the moated site where the Parker or keeper of the park had his fine residence. What status the Parker enjoyed back then – far more than any of today’s gamekeepers.

Field paths brought us back to Silchester by way of the remarkably complete flint walls of the Roman settlement of Calleva Atrebatum. Gridded streets, houses, shops, baths, an ancient Christian basilica and a steep-sided amphitheatre that could hold 3,500 seated spectators have all been excavated here. Stories say that Aelle, Saxon King of Sussex, sacked the place around 500BC, sending sparrows with flaming tails to set fire to the town. There were no sparrows in Calleva today, but we stopped by an oak to watch a treecreeper with curved back and beak picked hibernating insects from their refuge in the bark cracks – a fate perhaps as terrifying for today’s spider as a roaring Saxon warrior’s axe-blow for a cowering Callevite 1,500 years ago.

Start & finish: Calleva Arms, Silchester, Hants RG7 2PH (OS ref SU 627621)
Getting there: Bus 14 (stagecoachbus.com) Basingstoke-Tadley. Road: M4 Jct 11; A33 (‘Basingstoke’); in 300m, B3349 to Spencers Wood. Left to Beech Hill, Stratfield Mortimer and Silchester. Car park on village green.
Walk (6½ miles, easy, OS Explorer 159): Leaving Calleva Arms, left along Dukes Ride. In 150m, ahead (‘Brenda Parker Way’) along footpath. In ½ mile at foot of slope (618616), left for 700m to path crossing (621610; Pamber Forest noticeboard through gate opposite). Left across footbridge; ahead on bridleway for ⅓ mile to cross road (624607). Over stile opposite and on. In 250m path follows forest edge. Cross footbridge and keep ahead (yellow arrow) beside young plantation. At far end (630603), right down hedge; left at bottom to cross stile onto road in Latchmere Green (632600). Left to T-junction (634601); left up Ash Lane; in 150m, right over stile (fingerpost). Grass track for 500m to edge of Bramley Frith Wood (640603). Cross stile/gate into wood; in 30m, left across plank footbridge and follow field edge with ditch on left. In ½ mile, through gate and onto road (647608).

Right to T-junction (650610); left along Clapper’s Farm Road for ½ mile (NB gate into moated site on left). Pass Clapper’s farmhouse; at next right bend, ahead through kissing gate (651616, fingerpost). Cross footbridge; follow edge of north Copse, then ‘permissive path’ and ‘Silchester Trail’/ST signs through fields for ⅔ mile to road at St Mary’s church (643622). Right past pond; left through churchyard and 2 successive kissing gates (yellow arrows). Right (644624, ST); in 150m, left through 2 kissing gates (ST). (NB To view Roman amphitheatre, go through kissing gate/ST in 100m). Walk anti-clockwise half-circuit of Calleva Atrebatum Roman walls. On far side, cross end of track that bisects the site (637625) and keep ahead. In another 100m, right through gate (636624); on for ½ mile to cross road (629623). Ahead for 100m to cross another road; ahead for 50m; left to Silchester car park.

Lunch: Calleva Arms, Silchester (0118-970-0305; thecalleva.com) – popular, cosy, friendly; last orders 2pm.
Silchester Trail: hants.gov.uk/rh/walking/silchester-trail
Pamber Forest: hwt.org.uk
Silchester Roman Town: reading.ac.uk/silchester/

Tourist Information: visit-hampshire.co.uk
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk
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 Posted by at 04:17
Feb 192011
 

It was a bleak and blowy winter’s day over north-west Berkshire, with a sky full of those bruised-looking clouds that foretell a hell of a lot of rain before you’re much older.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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Even the charms of Cuddington – thatched houses of silver-gold stone, an excellent village shop and a gorgeous church on a knoll – couldn’t hold us. We longed to be out in the subtle, low-rolling landscape, walking off sloth, that insidious old enemy, before the Clerk of the Weather should spy us.

The River Thame was bubbling full of snowmelt floods. It raced under its flimsy footbridge and lapped into the fields around Old Mill. Out along the Thame Valley path swans paddled in the flooded aspen groves, and a big red kite went balancing over them, adjusting crooked wings and forked tail to each nuance of the wind.

The whole land lay muted, still and beautiful. This was a countryside swept and sailed through by winter. Giant old oaks stood stark and bare in the fields of winter wheat. The close-shaven hedges guarded ditches brimming with brown water. The field paths clogged and bogged us so that we wore two pairs of boots apiece, our Brasher Supalites encased in huge clown boots of mud and flood-scattered straw.

Up at Eythrope Park the river surged with a soft roar under the bridge beside a fabulous fantasy house of carved wood, fishtail tiles and Tudor chimneys. The splendidly individualistic Alice de Rothschild had it built in the 1870s as the lodge for her nearby country house, The Pavilion. She laid her hand decisively on the stable block along the drive, too, with lashings of half-timbering, bright red brick and candlesnuffer roofs.

Long paths through parkland and fields brought us up to the church and manor house at Upper Winchendon, down again over ridges and silent little dells to church and manor at Nether Winchendon. What a contrast to the garish gloriosities of Eythrope, these settled and graceful old compositions of house, church, gardens and trees. If you wanted to show visitors from Xiaoquandong the essence of England, you’d probably show them Nether Winchendon.

Back across the eddying, still rising Thame; back over the fields to beat the rain into Cuddington by a short head, with the lights of the Crown shining through the dusk like welcoming beacons at the harbour mouth.

Fact File

Start: Crown Inn, Cuddington, Bucks HP18 0BB (OS ref SP 738111)

Travel: Rail (www.thetrainline.com;www.railcard.co.uk) to Haddenham (2 miles)

Bus: Service 110 (www.arrivabus.co.uk), Aylesbury-Thame

Road: Cuddington is signed off A418 between Aylesbury and Thame

Walk (9 miles, easy grade, OS Explorer 181): From Crown Inn,
down Upper Church Street. By church, left down Tibby’s Lane. Past
cottage, left (yellow arrow/YA), then right along hedge. Cross River
Thame (737120). Right by Old Mill; follow Thame Valley Walk for 2
miles to Bridge Lodge (767135). Left up drive (‘Bernwood Jubilee
Way/BJW’; blue arrow/BA). Right by Beachendon Cottages (‘Swan’s
Way’); left by Eythrope Park gate (770140; fingerpost). Follow
Swan’s Way for 1 mile to North Lodge (760151). Left (BA) for ½
mile. At post 100 m before drive, right (754148; no arrow) up bank;
YAs to cross road (752150; fingerpost). Though trees; right along
drive, and follow it for ½ mile. On right bend, left through gate
(745156); YAs across 3 fields, heading south for ⅓ mile to newly
planted avenue (744150). Left up avenue. Pass pond on right; in 50 m,
aim right of church to bottom right corner of wood (745145). Through
gate; left and over stile; right across field (YA) to cross road in
Upper Winchendon (744141; fingerpost). Pass to right of cottage; over
stile; along top of bank to stile/YA (746139); bear half right across
field; follow stiles/YAs for 1¼ miles across fields (743133 –
742129 – 741125) to Old Mill. Right along drive (BJW) to road
opposite church in Nether Winchendon (733122). Left past Manor Farm;
in 50 m, left (731120; fingerpost) on paved footpath for ¾ mile to
Cuddington.

NB: Online maps, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk.

Refreshments: Crown Inn, Cuddington (01844-292222;
www.thecrowncuddington.co.uk) – warm, friendly, welcoming.

Information: Aylesbury TIC, off Market Square (01296-330559);
www.visitbuckinghamshire.org

www.ramblers.org.uk;
www.satmap.co.uk.

 Posted by at 05:31
Dec 182010
 

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1. Lanlivery and Helman’s Tor, Cornwall

Lanlivery lies lost among its high-banked lanes to the west of Lostwithiel, a tiny hamlet sprinkled around the nucleus of St Brevita’s Church and the ancient Crown Inn. The pub – cosy and welcoming – dates back to Norman times. In fact it predates the church; the masons who built St Brevita’s with its tower of striped granite were put up there. As for Brevita: rather charmingly, absolutely nothing whatever is known about her – or him. There’s certainly a Saints Road or Saints Way that runs past the village, a former droving track (now a waymarked long-distance path) whose slanting course across the Cornish peninsula is dotted with ancient crosses, wells, standing stones and burial sites. It’s this path you follow between high hedges, a secret lane that smuggles you through the fields until you come out at the foot of Helman’s Tor. Up at the summit among the granite boulders you’ll find a logan or rocking stone – see if you can discover the subtle pressure needed to make it rock, while admiring the sensational views across the rolling Cornish farmlands.

Start: Crown Inn, Lanlivery, near Lostwithiel PL30 5BT (OS ref SX 079591)

Walk symbol: 4 miles, 2 hours, OS Explorer 107

Route: From Crown Inn, take Luxulyan road. At chapel, straight on (‘Lanivet’). In a quarter of a mile, right up green lane (‘Saints Way’) for 1 and a quarter miles to car park under Helman’s Tor. Climb Tor; return same way.

Lunch symbol: Crown Inn, Lanlivery (01208-8727071; www.wagtailinns.com).

Grade: 2/5 boots. Gentle ascent of tor. Green lane can be muddy!

Info: Lostwithiel TIC (01208-872207); www.visitcornwall.com

 

2. Stourhead and Alfred’s Tower, Wiltshire

Superb 18th-century Palladian grounds and park created by the Hoares – father Henry ‘The Good’, son Henry ‘The Magnificent’. Stroll a circuit of the lake and its temples, follies and grottoes, or step out up the valley to the wonderful Rapunzel-like Alfred’s Tower on the ridge above. Then cosy up to a cockle-warming casserole in the Spread Eagle Inn at the park gates, or plump for cake and cuppa in the tearooms.

Start: Stourhead car park, BA12 6QD (OS ref SX 778340) – signed from B3092 Zeals-Maiden Bradley road, off A303 at Mere

Walk symbol: 1 and a half miles round lake (1 hour) or 5 and a half miles Alfred’s Tower circuit (2-3 hours), OS Explorer 142 (grounds map available at Visitor Centre)

Route: From Visitor Centre. down path. Don’t cross bridge to gardens and house; turn left to Spread Eagle Inn and Lower Garden entrance (pay/show NT card). Anti-clockwise round lake. For Alfred’s Tower circuit: At Pantheon, don’t turn left across Iron Bridge; continue through trees to gate and gravel roadway. Right (‘Alfred’s Tower’); follow blue arrows up valley for 1 and a half miles. At top, left to Alfred’s Tower. From tower, retrace steps 100 yards; right into woods (yellow arrow/YA). In 300 yards YA points right, but keep ahead on main track. In 500 yards at crossroads, main track swings left (YA); but take downhill path. In 200 yards near foot of slope, left (YA) past shed; follow YA back to Pantheon; cross Iron Bridge; complete lake circuit.

Lunch symbol: Spread Eagle Inn (01747-840587; www.spreadeagleinn.com)

Tea symbol:

Grade: Lake 2/5 boots; Alfred’s Tower 3/5.

Stourhead (National Trust): 01747-841152; http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-stourhead

 

3. Chidham Peninsula, West Sussex

The Chidham peninsula hangs like a skate’s wing in the middle of Chichester Harbour’s vast flats of marsh and mud. At any time of year you’ll get a tang of green countryside and a salty smack of the sea here. In winter there’s the added thrill of big crowds of over-wintering seabirds.

From the friendly Old House At Home pub in Chidham village, grass paths lead to the eastern shore of the peninsula. There’s a fine view across water, mud flats and saltmarsh to the squat grey spire of Bosham church above a cluster of waterfront houses – every chocolate-box artist’s dream of delight. The sea wall path runs south around Cobnor Point with its wonderfully gnarly and contorted old oaks, and on up the edge of Nutbourne Marshes where wildfowl spend the winter in their tens of thousands. A new sea bank has been built inland here, against the day when the old one is washed away by the never-satisfied, ever-hungry sea.

Start: Old House At Home PH, Chidham PO18 8SU (OS ref SV 786040)

Walk symbol: 5 miles, 2 hours, OS Explorer 120

Route: From pub, right along road. Just before church, right along grassy path (fingerpost), past Chidmere Pond to road. Right for 100 yards; right (fingerpost) through car park; left along hedge to shore (797034). Right (clockwise) round peninsula for 3 miles to pass Chidham Point (779042). In a quarter of a mile, right (781045) on footpath along field edges to road; right to Old House At Home.

Lunch symbol: Old House At Home PH, Chidham (01243-572477; www.theoldhouseathome.co.uk)

Grade: 1/5 boots. Flat seawall path.

Info: Chichester TIC (01243-775888; www.visitchichester.org); Chichester Harbour Conservancy (www.conservancy.co.uk)

4. Shoreham and Eynsford, Kent

A really delightful walk in north Kent’s wide Darent Valley. The rood screen and organ casing in Shoreham’s church boast fabulous carving. Just down the road, Water House (private) was a 19th-century haven for artists including William Blake and Samuel Palmer. The Darent Valley Path takes you north in lovely river scenery to pass Lullingstone Castle, a gorgeous Tudor country house, and Lullingstone Roman Villa – 30 rooms, several frescoes, and a magnificent mosaic floor. At the turn of the walk, Eynsford is a photogenic old village with a fine tumbledown Norman castle. From here you follow a quiet road up a secret valley, then climb over the ridge through the woods to return to Shoreham.

Start: Shoreham station, Shoreham, Kent TN14 7RT (OS ref TQ 526615)

Walk symbol: 8 miles, 3-4 hours, OS Explorers 147, 162

Route: Shoreham station – Shoreham church (523616) – Water House (521616) – Darent Valley Path (signed) north for 3 and a half miles via Lullingstone Castle (530644) and Lullingstone Roman Villa (530651) to Eynsford. Left along A225 to Eynsford Castle (542658); return through village. Just before railway bridge, left past Eynsford station; follow Upper Austin Lodge Road for 1½ miles. Before Upper Austin Lodge, fork right past golf clubhouse; footpath south-west through woods for 1 mile to cross A225 and railway (526618); dogleg left to Station Road – Shoreham station.

Lunch symbol: Olde George Inn, Shoreham (01959-522017); teashops and pubs in Eynsford

Grade: 2/5 boots. Field and woodland paths (muddy!).

Info: Lullingstone Castle and gardens (www.lullingstonecastle.co.uk) closed till April; Lullingstone Roman Villa and Eynsford Castle (EH; www.english-heritage.org.uk) open Wed-Sun till 31 Jan (closed 24-26 Dec, 1 Jan); open daily thereafter.

 

5. Regent’s Canal, Victoria Park and Thames Path

To get you going on this exploration of east London’s waterways and markets, a gentle blur of reggae among the earring and shawl stalls in the covered shed of Old Spitalfields Market. Next, Brick Lane’s street market – curry, chilli, salsa, roasting beef and goat; titfers and tomatoes, fish and fascinators, bread and chairs, sandwiches, socks and sun-specs in more colours than the good Lord ever made. A pause to commune with the animals in the city farm; then you follow Regent’s Canal’s towpath towards the Thames in company with tinies in pushchairs, runners, strollers and the dog walkers of wide green Victoria Park. Approaching the river, the colossi of Canary Wharf and the space-rocket nose of the Gherkin rise pale and ghostly. There’s the smack of tidal waves and a tang of the sea as you swap the stillness of the canal for the salty vigour of the Thames, to stroll upriver into the cosmopolitan heart of the city once again.

Start: Liverpool Street station (Central/Circle/Metropolitan/Hammersmith & City)

Walk symbol: 8 miles, 3-4 hours, OS Explorer 173, London A-Z pp 40-2, 54-6

Route: Liverpool Street Station –- Old Spitalfields Market – Brick Lane – Bethnal Green Road – City Farm – Haggerston Park. Regent’s Canal to Limehouse Basin. Thames Path to St Katharine Docks. North via Mansell Street and Commercial Road to Liverpool Street.

Lunch symbol: Beigel Bake, Brick Lane (0207-729-0616) – salt beef, cream cheese, fish: you name it, it’s here in a fresh-baked bagel

Grade: 1/5 boots.

More info: Old Spitalfields Market www.visitspitalfields.com; Brick Lane Market www.visitbricklane.org; Regent’s Canal http://www.bertuchi.co.uk/regentscanal.php; Thames Path www.walklondon.org.uk

Reading: London Adventure Walks for Families by Becky Jones and Clare Lewis ( Frances Lincoln)

 

6. Ingatestone and Mountnessing Hall, Essex

Here’s a beautiful ramble in easy country (but muddy!) out in mid-Essex, a much-overlooked walking county. Ingatestone Hall is a superb Elizabethan mansion with ranks of mullioned and latticed windows, acres of tiled roofs, crowstepped gables and castellated turrets. Cross the fields to Buttsbury church on its ridge; then head south through old field lanes and horse paddocks to the outskirts of Billericay. A stumpy spire beckons you west across the River Wid to where St Giles’s Church and handsome Mountnessing Hall with its tall chimneys stand companionably side by side. From here field paths lead north past Tilehurst, a Victorian mansion out of a Gothic fable, and on back to Ingatestone.

Start: Ingatestone station, Essex CM4 0BS (OS ref TQ 650992)

Walk symbol: 7 miles, 3 hours, OS Explorer 175

Route: From station, left on path; left to cross railway; Hall Lane to Ingatestone Hall. Field path (yellow arrows/YAs) to St Mary’s Church, Buttsbury (664986). Buttsbury road – footpath south for 1 and three quarter miles (YAs) via Little Farm and Buckwyns Farm to road on west edge of Billericay (661977). Left for 150 yards to right bend; ahead here on footpath for 1 mile to Mountnessing Hall and church. Field path north (YAs) for three quarters of a mile to road (648975) and Westlands Farm. Path via Kitchen Wood to Tilehurst; road to Ingatestone Hall and station.

Lunch symbol: Star Inn, Ingatestone (01277-353618)

Grade: 2/5 boots. Gentle farmland paths. Can be very muddy!

Info: Ingatestone Hall (01277-353010; www.ingatestonehall.com) open Easter-Sept; guided tours at other times by arrangement

Chelmsford TIC (01245 283400; www.visitessex.com)

 

7. Little Chalfont and the Chess Valley, Buckinghamshire

As soon as you get into the woods that lie north of Chalfont & Latimer tube station, you’re immersed in proper countryside. The Buckinghamshire landscape slopes to cross the winding River Chess and reach the charming small village of Latimer, where the heart and harness of Lord Chesham’s bold charger Villebois are buried in the village green. From here the Chess Valley Walk leads by the river. Out in the fields you pass the brick-built tomb of ‘Mr William Liberty of Chorleywood, Brickmaker, 1777’, and follow the beautiful River Chess up to Church End (Christmas-themed 14th-century church frescoes, and delightful Cock Inn). The main feature of the homeward walk is Chenies village with its vast church monuments and grand Tudor manor – the house is haunted by the ghost of King Henry VIII.

Start: Chalfont & Latimer tube station, Metropolitan line, HP7 9PR (OS ref SU 997975)

Walk symbol: 7 miles, 3 hours, OS Explorer 172

Route: From station follow Chess Valley Walk across River Chess to Latimer; then east for 2 miles along River Chess valley, passing William Liberty’s tomb (009987), Valley Farm (026090) and Sarratt Bottom. At 034984, opposite footbridge over Chess, left on footpath to Church End (Holy Cross Church; Cock Inn), Return to cross 2 footbridges; in 100 yards fork right (032984) – path via Mountwood Farm (024984) to Chenies. Bridleway west via Walk Wood, Stony Lane (005982) and West Wood to Chess Valley Walk (997981) and station.

Lunch symbol: Cock Inn, Church End (01923-282908; www.cockinn.net)

Grade: 2/5 boots. Field and woodland paths.

Info: Chenies Manor (01494-762888; www.cheniesmanorhouse.co.uk) open April-Oct.

High Wycombe TIC (01494-421892); www.visitbuckinghamshire.org

 

8. Goring to Pangbourne, Oxfordshire/Berkshire

This is one of the most appealing sections of the Thames Path, linking two classically attractive Thames-side pairs of towns by way of a lovely wooded path. Descending the hill from Goring’s railway station, you turn left along the river bank and are swallowed in a tunnel of trees. Here the Thames snakes through the Goring Gap, a cleavage between the thickly wooded Berkshire Downs and the more open and bare Chiltern Hills.

Soon you are out in wide grazing meadows, passing under the stained and weatherbeaten brick railway bridge that carries Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western Railway line across the river. Now the Thames Path enters woodland of beech, yew, alder and willow; soon it climbs to the rolling downs, before striking into a farm track and then the road down into Whitchurch-on-Thames. Cross the Thames into Pangbourne. Kenneth Grahame, author of The Wind In The Willows, lived in Pangbourne for the last eight years of his life, and is buried in the churchyard just up the street. It was at Pangbourne that the soaked and miserable heroes of Three Men In A Boat abandoned their craft and caught the train back to London.

Start: Goring & Streatley station, RG8 0EP (OS ref SU 603806)

Walk symbol: 5 miles, 2 hours, OS Explorer 171

Route: From Goring station, left and left again to River Thames; left on Thames Path to Whitchurch; cross river to Pangbourne station; return to Goring.

Lunch symbol: Ferryboat Inn, Whitchurch (0118-984-2161; www.theferryboat.eu)

Grade: 3/5 boots. Flat path by river; some ascents in woodland.

Info: Wallingford TIC (01491-826972); www.nationaltrail.co.uk/thamespath

 

9. Apperley, Deerhurst and the River Severn, Gloucestershire

A gorgeous half-day’s walk in classic River Severn country – rolling, green, gentle, bucolic. From the Severnside village of Apperley you follow field paths north to climb a ridge with wonderful views, before dipping down to the river at Lower Lode. Tewkesbury’s Abbey and half-timbered houses are just up the river-bank; but the walk heads south, with the wide Severn at your elbow. Make time to explore Odda’s Chapel and St Mary’s Church at Deerhurst with their rare and beautiful Saxon stonework and angel carvings, before heading back downriver to the Coal House Inn for ‘steak on a stone’ – a hungry walker’s delight.

Start: Coal House Inn, Gabb Lane, Apperley GL19 4DN (OS ref SO 855284)

Walk symbol: 6 and a half miles, 3 hours, OS Explorers 190, 179

Route: From Coal House Inn, up lane; in 50 yards, footpath (fingerpost) to road (862282). Left through Apperley; follow ‘Tewkesbury, Cheltenham’; left past village hall (867285; fingerpost). Footpath for 1 mile by Wrightfield Manor, passing Deerhurst Vicarage (872293), to cross road (873298; 3-way fingerpost). Cross stile (not gateway!); north for a third of a mile to pond (874303); north along ridge for 1 mile to River Severn at Lower Lode Lane (881317). Left along Severn Way for 1⅓ miles to Deerhurst; detour left to Odda’s Chapel (869299) and Church of St Mary (870300). Return to Severn Way; continue for 1⅓ miles to Coal House Inn

Lunch symbol: Coal House Inn, Apperley ((01452-780211)

Grade: 3/5 boots. Field and riverside paths. Can be muddy!

Info: Tewkesbury TIC (01684-855040);

http://www.enjoyengland.com/destinations/find/south-west/gloucestershire/dg.aspx

 

10. Ysgyryd Fawr (‘The Skirrid’), Abergavenny, Gwent

Ysgyryd Fawr, the Holy Mountain, rises in a beautiful and striking whaleback above the neat farming landscape on the eastern edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park. To see it is to want to climb it, whether you’re a hill-walker, country rambler or active youngster. The climb from car park to summit is just under a thousand feet, and once up there (a really superb spot for mince-pies and hot coffee) you are monarch of a huge view around the Welsh Border country. Traces of earthen ramparts show where Iron Age tribesmen fortified the hilltop, and a scatter of stones marks the site of St Michael’s Church, where the Catholic faithful attended the outlawed Mass during the 17th century.

Start: Car park on B4521, 2 and a half miles east of Abergavenny (OS ref SO 328164). NB – Please don’t leave valuables on show!

Walk symbol: 3 and a half miles round base, 2 and a half miles to summit and back (both 1 and a half – 2 hours), OS Explorer OL13

Route: From car park, follow pass across fields, up through Caer Wood, through gate (327172). Left to make clockwise circuit of base of hill; otherwise right. In 300 yards, either keep ahead for anti-clockwise circuit, or fork left. Steep climb, then levelling out for half a mile to reach summit (330182). Retrace steps; or continue, forking left or right to descend steep north slope to bottom; left or right to return to car park via round-base path.

Lunch symbol: Walnut Tree Restaurant, Llanddewi Skirrid (01873-852797; www.thewalnuttreeinn.com)

Grade: 3/5 boots round base; 5/5 to summit (steep). Wrap up warm!

Info: Abergavenny TIC (01873-857588); www.brecon-beacons.com

 

11. The Stiperstones, Long Mynd, Shropshire

It’s tough, but you’ve got to do it … tear yourself away from the warm welcome and fabulous home baking at the Bog Centre, and venture out up the stony path among the extraordinary quartzite outcrops of the Stiperstones. Cranberry Rock, Manstone Rock, the Devil’s Chair, Shepherd’s Rock – they poke up out of the beautifully restored heathland along their ridge like craggy spines on a stegosaurus back. Legends of warlocks and witches hang thickly round the Stiperstones. Lady Godiva rides naked there still. When the mist is down, the Devil himself sits brooding in his great rock Chair.

From the ridge you descend steeply to the Stiperstones Inn. It’s a stiff climb afterwards, and a stony lane home.

 

Start: The Bog Centre, Stiperstones, SY5 0NG (OS ref SO 355979)

Walk symbol: 5 miles, 2-3 hours, OS Explorer 216

Route: From Bog Centre, footpath/road to south end of Stiperstones ridge (362976). Follow Shropshire Way past Cranberry Rock (365981), Manstone Rock (367986) and Devil’s Chair (368991). From cairn just before Shepherd’s Rock (374000), bear left on steep descent between Perkins Beach and Green Hill to road in Stiperstones village (363004). Left past Stiperstones Inn for 400 yards; left across stile (361002; fingerpost, arrows); steep climb for half a mile (arrows), up past National Nature Reserve board to reach stony lane (36294). Follow it south, parallel to Stiperstones for ¾ mile. At Black Ditch opposite Cranberry Rock, through gate (361983); footpath down to road and Bog Centre.

Lunch symbol: The Bog Centre; or Stiperstones Inn, Stiperstones village (01743-791327; www.stiperstonesinn.co.uk)

Grade: 4/5 boots. Rough and stony around Stiperstones; steep descent to road; steep ascent to lane.

Info: Bog Centre (01743-792484; www.bogcentre.co.uk)

 

12. Thetford Forest, Suffolk/Norfolk border

Thetford Forest covers some 80 square miles of the sandy Breckland country along the Norfolk/Suffolk border; and as it’s largely composed of conifers, you might think it’s a gloomy old place for a winter walk. In fact low winter light lends mystery to the dark forest. Walking is sheltered and easy. Well-waymarked Yellow and Red Trails circle out from High Lodge and Thetford Warren Lodge respectively; combining the two gives you an excellent morning’s stroll. Children love clambering on the huge squirrel, spider, woodpecker and chum along the Giant Play Sculpture Trail (wheelchair and buggy friendly). Towards the end of winter there will be a night-time spectacular as the trees are transformed into the Electric Forest, with stunning light and sound effects.

Start: High Lodge Forest Centre, IP27 0AF – signed off B1107 Thetford-Brandon road (OS ref TL 809850)

Walk symbol: Red Route, 3 and a half miles; Yellow Route, 3 miles; Red/Yellow combined 7 miles; Giant Play Sculpture Trail (Easy Access), 1 mile. Map online (see below); OS Explorer 229

Lunch symbol: High Lodge café.

Grade: 1/5 boots. NB Parts of trails may be closed for forestry operations; diversions signposted.

Info: High Lodge Forest Centre (01842-815434; http://www.forestry.gov.uk/highlodge)

Electric Forest (www.theelectricforest.co.uk) – over February half-term 2011 (19 to 27 February), plus 3 to 6 March. Book your slot (5-9 pm) online or tel 01842-814012; £15.50 adult, £10 concessions, £41 family. 1 and a half mile self-guided walk by night; spectacular lights, effects; food and drink

13. Robin Hood and the Royal Forest, Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire

This Sherwood Forest walk follows the newly-opened ‘Robin Hood and the Royal Forest’ trail from the Visitor Centre near Edwinstowe. It passes two massive and venerable trees, the Major Oak and the Centre Tree – the philanthropic outlaw’s hideout and rendezvous, according to legend. From here the trail curves through the forest to reach King Edwin’s Cross, marking the spot where Edwin, King of Northumbria, was buried after his death in battle in 633AD. A track on the edge of the forest brings you to Edwinstowe and the Norman church of St Mary. Were Robin Hood and Maid Marian married here? Anyone with an ounce of romance thinks so.

Christmas-flavoured celebrities at Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre include St Nicholas, who will be manning his grotto till 19 December (11-4), and the Dukeries Singers who belt out their Christmas songs on 19th (2-3 pm).

Start: Sherwood Forest Country Park Visitor Centre car park, Edwinstowe, Notts NG21 9QA (OS ref SK 627676)

Walk symbol: 6 miles, 3 hours, OS Explorer 270

Route: From Visitor Centre follow Blue Trail to Major Oak 621679); on along Robin Hood Way to the Centre Tree (606676); ahead, keeping same direction, for three quarters of a mile; left (595672) along ride for a third of a mile; left (591667) past King Edwin’s Cross (594666) to meet A6075. Left along verge for 300 yards; left (north) for half a mile; right (607671) for nearly a mile towards Visitor Centre. Right (621676) on bridleway to Edwinstowe and St Mary’s Church. Return to Visitor Centre.

Lunch symbol: Visitor Centre

Grade: 2/5 boots. Forest tracks.

Info: Sherwood Forest Country Park Visitor Centre (01623-823202); www.sherwoodforest.org.uk

 

14. Beverley and Westwood, East Yorkshire

A cosy, friendly town, some truly astonishing medieval artwork, a wide green common and a (very) characterful pub with coal fires and great food – what more could you ask of a winter walk? Beverley Minster and St Mary’s Church between them boast some of the finest stone carvings in Britain – merry musicians, gurning demons, Green Men spewing foliage, forest monsters and improbable animals. Gaze and marvel your fill; then stroll through the town, every vista packed with nice old buildings. Walk across the racecourse and out over the wide open spaces of Westwood Common, carefully preserved from development by Beverley’s vigilant Pasture Masters. From the Black Mill high on its ridge there’s time for a lingering prospect over the town, before making for the warmth, good cheer and bright fires of the White Horse in Hengate – know to all as Nellie’s.

Start: Beverley station, HU17 0AS (OS ref TA 038396))

Walk symbol: 5 miles, 2-3 hours, OS Explorer 293

Route: Beverley Minster – Wednesday Market – Saturday Market – St Mary’s Church. Through North Bar – along North Bar Without – left down Norfolk Street onto Westwood Common (025401). Ahead across racecourse, then A1174 (019397). Ahead through Burton Bushes, to exit stile at far side (010392). Aim for Black Mill on hill (021390). From mill, aim for St Mary’s tower; through Newbegin Pits dell to footpath on far side (027395). Right past Westwood Hospital; left along Lovers Lane (027394 – kissing gate, lamp post) to St Mary’s Church and town centre.

Lunch symbol: White Horse, Hengate, Beverley (01482-861973; www.nellies.co.uk)

Grade: 2/5 boots. Town pavements, grass paths

Info: Beverley TIC (01482-391672; www.realyorkshire.co.uk)

15. Whitby and Hawsker, North Yorkshire

Whitby is a great winter town, full of museums, teashops and odd nooks and crannies. It’s also where Bram Stoker based Dracula, and the walk starts up the steps, through the clifftop churchyard and by the towering abbey ruins haunted by the toothy Transylvanian. Then a wonderful, wind-blown three miles along the cliffs where Victorian miners dug shards of fossilised monkey-puzzle trees. Polished and shaped by craftsmen, the fragments became shiny black jet, to be turned into ornaments that made many Whitby fortunes. Inland over the fields, and then a smooth stretch of the old Whitby & Scarborough Railway, a hop over the River Esk across mighty Larpool Viaduct, and a bun and cup of tea in Elizabeth Botham’s iconic and excellent teashop.

Start: Whitby harbour bridge (OS ref NZ 900111).

Walk symbol: 8 miles, 4 hours, OS Explorer OL27

Route: Church Street – 199 Steps – St Mary’s Church (902113) – Whitby Abbey – Cleveland Way coast path east for 3 miles. Near Gnipe Howe farm, cross stream (934091); in another third of a mile, right (936086; arrow, ‘Hawsker’ fingerpost) to Gnipe Howe (934085). Farm drive for two thirds of a mile – right on Scarborough-Whitby Railway Path for 2 and a half miles. Cross Larpool Viaduct (896097); in 250 yards, right (arrow; Esk Valley Walk ‘leaping fish’ fingerpost) – cross A171 (898102). Right for 100 yards; left (fingerpost), descending to west quayside – ahead along River Esk to bridge.

Lunch symbol: Windmill Inn, Stainsacre (01947-602671, closed Tues and Thurs lunchtime; Elizabeth Botham’s Teashop, 35-9 Skinner Street, Whitby (01947-602823; www.botham.co.uk)

Grade: 3/5 boots. Coast and field paths (muddy round Gnipe Howe Farm); cycleway

Info: Whitby TIC, Langborne Road (01723-383637); www.yorkshire.com

 

16. Keld and Tan Hill, North Yorkshire

A long morning’s or afternoon’s walk in a very beautiful location, this moorland hike is an absolute peach, especially if the sun’s out and it’s a crisp winter day. You start from Keld Lodge Hotel, a great conversion job on the old youth hostel, and walk through the pretty stone-built village of Keld before crossing the River Swale by some fine waterfalls. The well-marked Pennine Way National leads you north across open, rolling moorland, with the Tan Hill Inn beckoning– a classic walker’s inn, very lively and warm. The return walk is down a ribbon-like moorland road; then you retrace your steps along a mile of the Pennine Way before taking the footpath down lovely Stonesdale to the rushing waterfall of Currack Force on the outskirts of Keld.

Start: Keld Lodge Hotel, Keld, N. Yorks DL11 6LL (OS ref NY 110839)

Walk symbol: 9 miles, 4 hours, OS Explorer OL30

Route: Right along road; left into Keld. Right (893012; ‘footpath to Muker’). In 300 yards, left downhill (‘Pennine Way/PW’). Cross River Swale footbridge; follow PW for 4 miles to Tan Hill Inn (897067). Left along road for 100 yards; left on moor road for 1 and three quarter miles. Just before Stonesdale Bridge, left on bridleway for 200 yards (884043); right on PW for 1 mile. Just beyond Frith Lodge drive, right on footpath (890030), south for three quarters of a mile to meet bridleway near Currack Force on Stonesdale Beck (888016). Left to PW and Keld.

Lunch symbol: Keld Lodge Hotel (01748-886259; www.keldlodge.com); Tan Hill Inn (01833-628246; www.tanhillinn.co.uk)

Grade: 3/5 boots. No steep ascents, but rough moorland paths. Hillwalking gear, boots.

Info: Richmond TIC (01748-828742); www.yorkshire.com

 

17. Askham and Heughscar Hill, Cumbria

Alfred Wainwright wrote his walking guidebook Outlying Fells Of Lakeland (Frances Lincoln) for ‘old age pensioners and others who can no longer climb high fells’. That makes his Heughscar Hill walk perfect for those with a bellyful of Christmas grub. A farm lane winds west from Askham village on the eastern edge of the Lake District, bringing you gently up to the ‘heights’ of Heughscar. This modest green ridge of limestone pavement gives stunning views west over Ullswater to the Helvellyn range, and east to the upthrust of Cross Fell on the Pennine spine. The old Roman Road of High Street carries you to The Cockpit, an ancient circle of knee-high stones on a wide moor. From here green paths and farm tracks return you to Askham.

Start: Queen’s Head Inn, Askham CA10 2PF (OS ref NY 514237)

Walk symbol: 5 and a half miles, 2-3 hours, OS Explorer OL5

Route: Follow wide tree-lined street uphill. West out of village past Town Head Farm (508236). Over cattle grid; ignore tarred road branching left; keep ahead with wall on right for three quarters of a mile, passing barn (502232). At Rigginleys Top (498230), through gate; aim for corner of wood half a mile ahead. Along wood edge. At far corner (489229), aim a little right on path past boundary stone (488230) to Heughscar Hill summit (tiny cairn, 488232). On for a third of a mile to Heugh Scar crags (486237). Descend left; left along broad track of High Street. In two thirds of a mile descend to pass cairn (483227); on to stone circle (482222 – ‘The Cockpit’ on map). Aim for wood edge uphill on left (491229); return to Askham.

Lunch symbol: Queen’s Head, Askham (01931-712225; www.queensheadaskham.com)

Grade: 3/5 boots. Farm tracks, moorland paths.

Info: Penrith TIC (01768-867466); www.golakes.co.uk

 

18. Gilsland and Birdoswald Fort, Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland

This fascinating ramble is one of the Hadrian’s Wall Linked Walks – short, circular, family-friendly walks that take in a glimpse of the Wall and some of its countryside. Start from Gilsland, following Hadrian’s Wall Path beside the monument. At Willowford Farm there’s a fine section of Wall. In the 1,600 years since the Romans left Britain, these handy stones have built houses, barn and walls all along the line of the Wall. Willowford Farm is full of them. One barn wall incorporates a stone with an inscription, the lettering all but faded: ‘The Fifth Cohort of the Century of Gellius Philippus (built this)’.

Beyond the farm, the river and its steep bank offered the Romans a natural defence. Here are the massive abutments of Hadrian’s great bridge across the river. Before a footbridge was built here in the 1960s, children walking to school in Gilsland would cross the river by aerial ropeway – what a thrill that must have been.

Beyond lies Birdoswald fort with its fine gateways, its drill hall and its pair of stone-paved granaries big enough to feed a garrison of up to a thousand men. Here you leave Hadrian’s wall and descend through hazel and oak wood to cross Harrow’s Beck, before a stretch of country road back into Gilsland.

 

Start: Samson Inn, Gilsland, Northumberland CA8 7DR (OS ref NY 636663)

Walk symbol: 3 and a half miles, 2 hours, OS Explorer OL43

Route: Gilsland – Hadrian’s Wall Path to Birdoswald Fort – lane towards Breckney Bed Bridge. Path (616665) – cross Harrow’s Beck to road (622669) at The Hill – right to Gilsland.

Lunch symbol: Samson Inn, Gilsland (01697-747220)

Grade: 2/5 boots. Good paths.

Info: Walk – http://www.eccp.org.uk/images/great-days-out/BirdO-Gilsland2.pdf

Birdoswald Roman Fort (01697-747602; www.english-heritage.org.uk/birdoswald); www.hadrians-wall.org

 

19. Old Military Road, Creetown to Gatehouse-of-Fleet, Dumfries & Galloway

Following the chaotic troop movements of the ’45 Jacobite Rebellion, the Old Military Road from Creetown to Gatehouse-of-Fleet was built in 1763 to allow soldiers an easy march through to Stranraer, port of embarkation for Ireland. You get a flavour of its military straightness and purpose as you follow it out of Creetown, a narrow tarmac ribbon running through woods and past a fine old stone circle, climbing over wild moors, to shed its surface and run as a stony green lane down to the poignant ruin of Anwoth Old Kirk with its tombs and inscriptions. Climb to the heights of the lumpy Boreland Hills (wonderful views), before descending into neat and charming Gatehouse of Fleet.

Start: Creetown clock tower, High Street/St John Street DG8 7JF (OS ref NX 476589)

Walk symbol: 9 miles, 4 hours, OS Explorers 311, 312

Route: Uphill up High Street (‘Gem Rock Museum’). In 150 yards, right (‘Glenquicken Farm’). Follow road for 5 miles, crossing Billy Diamond’s Bridge (508585) and stone circle beyond (far side of field on right; 509582) then past Cambret and Stronach Hills. Where road bend sharp right (548582) keep ahead (‘Lorry restriction’ sign) across Glen Bridge. 300 yards past Lauchentyre cottage, ahead over crossroads (561574); on for 3 miles to Anwoth. Up right side of Old Kirk (582562; ‘public path Gatehouse’); yellow arrows/YAs to gate into wood (584562). Steeply up; leave wood; left (YA). At next YA post bear left; follow YAs through hollows of Boreland Hills; down to Gatehouse-of-Fleet.

Return to Creetown: bus service 431 or 500/X75

Lunch symbol: Ship Inn, Gatehouse of Fleet (01557-814217; www.theshipinngatehouse.co.uk)

Grade: 2/5 boots. Easy all the way.

Info: Gatehouse TIC, Mill on the Fleet (01557-814212); www.visitdumfriesandgalloway.co.uk

 

20. Castle Archdale, Co Fermanagh

During the Second World War, Lower Lough Erne’s huge sheet of water was perfectly placed (once a secret deal over airspace had been struck with the Republic) for Sunderland and Catalina flying boats, based on the wooded peninsula of Castle Archdale, to hunt U-boats out in the Atlantic. Follow the waymarked World War II heritage trail as it loops round the headland, past fuel and ammunition stores as overgrown and ancient-looking as Stone Age huts, down to the marina with its big white beacon and memorial stone to wartime crash victims, and out along the ‘Burma Road’, a jungly path cut through the forest to reach the isolated explosives dumps. The lake views are superb, too.

Start: Castle Archdale Visitor Centre, near Lisnarick, BT94 1PP

Walk symbol: 2 and a half miles, 1-2 hours, OS of NI Discoverer 17; downloadable maps/instructions at www.walkni.com

Route: (World War 2 Heritage Trail marked with numbered posts): From Courtyard Centre car park, sharp left past ‘No Entry’ sign on path through trees. Follow ‘Woodland Walk’ signs to roadway. Left for 30 yards; right to marina. Left to beacon; left along shore path; bear right at yellow marker, continue on cycle track. At another yellow marker, right to shore path. Follow it through Skunk Hole car park. Follow ‘Butterfly Garden’ past pond, butterfly garden and deer enclosure. Dogleg right and left to gate at drive (don’t go through!). Left along path; right to castle gardens.

Lunch symbol: Tullana on the Green, Lisnarick (028-6862-8713; www.tullanaonthegreen.co.uk); Molly’s Bar, Irvinestown (028-6862-8777; www.mollysbarirvinestown.com)

Grade: 1/5 boots. Surfaced paths

Info: Castle Archdale Visitor Centre (028-6862-1588;

www.ni-environment.gov.uk/places_to_visit…/parks/archdale.htm) – winter opening Sundays, 12-4

www.discovernorthernireland.com

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