and occasionally rides a bike.
A word of warning. The walk descriptions are not detailed enough to guide you - please take a map. The batteries never run out, and you always have a signal. Oh, And don't take left or right as gospel!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Ketton Circular

Barry led this walk, and Gordon, Eddie and I followed.  Just over 8 miles, fine weather, apart from a few spots of the wet stuff,  and relatively dry underfoot for a change. 


We set off from Ketton, parking near the phone box, in a lay-by beside the A6121.


We turned left, following the Macmillan Way, past Hibbins House, once the home of a family of stone and memorial masons.  The house has several carved decorations.
We walked along the Green, turned right at Manor Green and on past the Coach House to where the path led along a grassy lane and eventually on to a quarry track with a wide bridge above the moonscape of the quarry - used for extracting limestone which is used in the local cement.

The track is pretty clear, and we followed the joint MacMillan Way/Hereward Way northwest for a couple of miles, across various arable fields. There's a lot of rapeseed at the moment.  We turned to the north near a minor road, and followed the path across the A606 and downhill.  Empingham church can be seen to the left.

Towards the bottom of the slope a path crosses the main route, and we took a right turn, up to a stile in the hedge and then across a couple of fields.  There was a horse near Shacklewell Cottage, and we found a reasonable spot for our snack break.
Barry and friend


The path took us back up to the A6121. We walked alongside this on a wide verge for about a third of a mile, before crossing over and taking the footpath to the right.  When we emerged on to another wider track we turned right, and then left, at Shacklewell Spinney.  The path took us back to the Macmillan/Hereward Way, where we turned left and retraced our steps for a mile or so into Ketton.

Map and details

Ketton Quarry Wildlife Reserve
SSSI

For future reference a wander through the Wildlife Reserve could be added on to future walks from Ketton.

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