Fineshade - Kings Cliffe - Blatherwycke

With Maureen. 10 am Thursday 24 November. Dry but cold and cloudy. Just over 6 and a half miles. Surprisingly little mud or bog. The route is the same as this one.

From car park at Top Lodge, we walked through the cafe building and turned left, following the main track. Keep straight on past the Westhay Wood sign, ignoring all turns until you reach the wood yard above King's Cliffe.  We walked along the road downhill to the village, and crossed the main road. 

We took the path parallel to the main road, between it and the Willow Brook. It continues past allotments, and through a couple of fields and then to a footbridge over the brook. Keep the stream on your right until you reach Alders Farm - the path is clearly marked.  
We had to cross a ploughed field at this point, though it was pretty firm underfoot.  After this we kept along the hedge until the path divides. Follow the left-hand branch through the break in the hedge and along to Blatherwycke Lake.

We passed some young trees which should look good in autumn in a few years. The path continues, with clear signs. 

A rather fine building and the church lie to the left of the path.  The path itself leads to the southern end of the village of Blatherwycke.

We turned right along the road - in one of the gardens was this white peacock.

We had a fairly brief break on a seat on the far side of the bridge.

Our route continued along the road past Glebe Farm, and at the second turning to the left, the footpath leaves the junction and is clearly marked across three fields, then follows the edge of a fourth field round to the corner of Lynn Wood, where it joins the Jurassic Way from Wakerley Woods.

Fineshade Abbey stables came into view, and a field with Jacob's sheep.  We took the path uphill towards a small building, climbed the stile and followed the narrow path between two fences - with views of the ornamental lake. This path was a bit muddy.

The well-signed path heads across the meadow, into the woods and finally through a field until you reach the road from the A43 to Top Lodge.

We finished our outing with lunch at the Top Lodge cafe.