Northants Round 3 - Castle Ashby to Salcey Forest

Wed, 2013 Oct 30 10.45 AM GMT

With Marta. Beautiful day, cool but very bright and sunny. Some muddy patches. Altogether about 10.5 miles.

We set off from Castle Ashby, and rejoin the Northants Round route at Chadstone, where we take the footpath across a field, and stray slightly as it isn't clearly marked. We manage to find our way and follow the path across the longest widest avenue of trees I've seen. It leads to Castle Ashby House.

The gateway to the avenue

From the far side of the avenue our path is easy to follow into the village of Yardley Hastings.

We cross the main road opposite the shop and the village sign, and walk along Chase Park Road, past some splendid houses.  The road bends to the right towards Chase Park Farm, and turns left just before the farm buildings. We walk past two large friendly pigs in an enclosure.

The bridleway takes us more or less southwest, over a disused railway,  and we are soon walking with woodland on our right. We follow the woodland edge round to the south. At the end we turn right, over a disused railway line. We turn right at the track leading to Manor Farm, then follow the road Past the Manor House, the Arches and into Horton.

The Arches

Fine tree near Ravenstone Road, Horton.

We walk through Horton,  then take a track leading towards Piddington - we emerge near Church Farm, and join the path labelled on the map as Midshires Way. This takes us to Salcey Forest and we make our way to the Cafe, where we have soup for lunch.

Sunset sky from Castle Ashby, just before the drive home.

Map and details