Swinstead circular via Grimsthorpe Park, Edenham,Creeton

jWed, 2014 Nov 5 9:36 AM GMT

With Harry. Fine morning. Just over 10 miles. 

I'd been planning to walk in this area for a while, and found this walk on Christopher Somerville's website. The detailed instructions are excellent, but take a map too.  It uses the path through Grimsthorpe Park and makes a round trip of 11 miles or so.

Swinstead church - the sky is still grey

We left Swinstead along Park Road, behind the church, and followed a path into the Grimsthorpe estate. It is pretty clearly marked and easy to follow. It started spitting with rain, but not for long.

Grimsthorpe Castle just before the sun shines

 The lake and buildings make a fine view early in the walk. Grimsthorpe Castle belongs to Nancy Astor's grand-daughter.

Autumn trees

The sun comes out, just like the weather forecast promised. Autumn colours are mostly gentle not spectacular this year.

Here comes the sun

Seems to be a good year for berries 

We turn away from the lake and walk Past woodland, over fields and a disused railway, and finally paddocks with sheep before reachng the road into Edenham.

Jacobs sheep in paddock just before Edenham

At the road some vans are parked - workers have had to remove a fallen tree from the River East Glen. 

A tree has just been cleared from here

 This dramatic tree is hiding the restoration and repair work being done on Edenham church.  The time was 10:45 - too early for a coffee in the pub.

Edenham church

 We found a sheltered spot with a bench - a lovely village, but a lot of traffic on the main road through.

Well-wrapped up against the wind

We turned right to Scottlethorpe - a quiet road leading to a few houses, farms and agribusiness premises.  

A slightly bowdlerised David in Scottlesthorpe

Chinese lanterns

As the seagulls follow the tr . . .actor

About two  miles along the road we turned right into Grimsthorpe Estate property again, leading through woodland, and across Chestnut Avenue.

Chestnut Avenue leads back to the big house 

At the end of the path through the woods we turned left and walk along the field edges until we reached the quiet road into Creeton. The church was uphill to the left, our route downhill to the right.

Creeton Church

We turned left at the main road, then right towards Counthorpe. The road climbed uphill towards the mainline railway.  From the road we look back to Creeton.

and again, showing its position above and behind the village

 Just before the railway bridge, our route carried on ahead, while the road turned left.

Apples galore

we must walk through the arch near the railway outside Creeton

From here we walked along the track parallel to the mainline railway, before turning off on a footpath to the right, downhill over a field and a footbridge, then alongside a wood, on to the track past Creeton Farm to the road, where we turned left to walk to Swinstead.  The "proper" way was a little further on (see website link above). 

Map and details