Northamptonshire Round 5 - Ashton circular catch-up

Tue, 15 Apr 2014 10:15 BST

With Marta, around 8-9 miles. Beautiful weather, took it easy. Ate in Ashton.

We set off from near the pub inAshton (the Old Crown - who do a decent ciabatta+ salad +juice drink for £8). Follow the road towards Stoke Bruerne and take a path between two houses, to the left, near Vale Farm. 

Cross several fields past a stables, cross a track and some woodland, and follow the path southwest, then south until you reach the Grand Union Canal, at Lower Lock Farm.

water boatman in a trough

Turn right, north west, along the canal past three locks, then after a bigger gap a fourth one, and you are at Stoke Bruerne with its pubs, cafés and canal museum.

We stopped for a coffee, and unusually some chocolate cake, before leaving the canal. Cross the bridge and head towards Stoke Bruerne church.

The NR footpath goes right, just before the church. Or you can walk through the churchyard and join the path on the other side. It passes some houses and leads west towards Shutlanger. It crosses a minor road, goes through fields, one with what looks like an allotment in the middle of it, the next one full of sheep today, then past the monastery.

When you reach the junction of a road and a bridleway, opposite a private road, turn right towards the main road through the village.

Twitch Hill or High Street in Shutlanger lead on to Showsley Road, which you follow for half a mile past a dismantled railway, turning right along a bridleway where the road bends left. The path goes alongside a belt of woodland, and then past Nun Wood.

Female orange tip?

The signpost at the south end of Nun Wood is misleading - we turn right, then realise our mistake. Mr Garmin confirms this!

At the north end of the wood  the NR goes off ot the left, but our route today is to the right and we soon join the Midshires Way, then cross another footpath. Soon after this, at the end of the field, we turn left, and head pretty well east toward the road from Blisworth. We hear and then see a light plane taking off.

At one point we catch sight of the air shaft from the tunnel.

We turn right at the road  walk along for a hundred yards or so, then take the woodland path back to the canal. It joins the towpath just past the south end of Blisworth Tunnel.  

A short walk leads us to Stoke Bruerne again, but on a fine day close to Easter the waiting time for food is 40 minutes, so we plod on to Ashton, by road this time. It's a bout a mile and a half. Luckily for us the pub here is serving food, so we can have something more substantial than our emergency ration cereal bars!

We may try some more circular walks as we complete the NR walks.

Map and details