Rutland Round 3 - Seaton - Morcott - Barrowden

4 miles almost. With Marta - a late start because of uncertain weather. Lunch in Barrowden - Exeter Arms.

One of those showery days with possible thunder forecast. Seemed like a good idea for a much shorter leg than usual - cue for a cartoon?

Seaton church

We left Seaton along the high road to Barrowden, where you get great views of the viaduct.

The footpath leaves the road on the left, via a stile and you quickly turn right, ignoring the stile straight ahead.  Once over the stile you follow the edge of the field and the waymarks down to the disused railway at the bottom of the field.

Culvert/bridge under the disused railway

From here the path was clearly marked across fields and up the hill to the A47.  It emerges opposite a minor road into Morcott.   We had to cross the A47.  The path goes to the right from the road opposite, soon after the junction.  We veered too far to the left as we approached the village, misled by a fance that looked like a gate.  If we'd consulted John Williams's  Rutland Round book (pub CPRE),  we would have done this:

Take the path aiming for the electricity pole to the left of the house in front. Continue across this field and, at the stile,  go down Mount Pleasant Road turning right along High Street to reach the White Horse Inn.

Once we were back on track,  we went past the White Horse Inn, and crossed the road to steps to a footpath into the field opposite. The path took us diagonally tot he left, then through a small wood back to the A47.  We had to cross this again, and take the road into Barrowden. The windmill is on the right hand side of the road. The view is obscured from this angle at this time of year.

We reached Barrowden and had lunch at the Exeter Arms - our plan to sit outside was scuppered by the rain.

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Saddington - Arnesby - Bruntingthorpe - Shearsby - Saddington

Just outside Saddington - not on our intended route

Saddington church

Arnesby village

Arnesby church (St Peter)

rolling the straw?
between Bruntingthorpe and Shearsby

Shearsby

So . . . write up to follow.

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Hartington to Dovedale ,via Thorpe Cloud

With Maureen, Barry and Gordon. Eddie, in spite of his back, climbed Thorpe Cloud, but not via the path. Glorious weather.  8.5 miles for the whole thing.

The start of the walk is in Hartington,  at the side of the public toilets, on the Hulme End side of, and across the road from, the Charles Cotton Hotel. 

The walk is clearly marked at the start, and once you arrive in Beresford Dale it is simply a matter of walking the well-worn path beside the river.
You go through a section of youngish woodland, Morson Wood, which was planted by Les Morson and family in 1994. The plaque with this information was presented by the 1998 Hartington Sports Committee in memory of Les.   My photo was out of focus, hence this paragraph.

As we walked along there were several footbridges over the Dove, some leading to footpaths, some to private land. Wonderful names like " Frank-i-th-rocks bridge" and "Gipsy Bank bridge". Scenery delightful - mainly wooded slopes and grassland.

Just before the villlage of Milldale we came to a bridge over the river - the road to Alstonfield goes uphill to the right and the Milldale road carries straight on.

We took the Milldale road, which has a footpath alongside, and goes closer to the river for a short time.  We decided to take a break at Milldale and support the local shop - always a welcome oasis for hungry and thirsty walkers.  Even after last night's meal, a couple of cheese and onion sandwiches went down rather well. Okay, we had had breakfast as well, but we had walked almost five miles and there were more ahead.

After Milldale, Dovedale begins to show its "little Switzerland" side, with the limestone rocks and more dramatic scenery.  The Dove Holes caves, Ilam Rock, Tissington Spires, Lion's Head Rock, Reynard's Cave, up a bit to Lovers Leap and down and onward to the Stepping Stones. 

A heron perched very high above the river

Decision time - who's up for Thorpe Cloud?  A trickier ascent than I remember, and worse going down.  A dreadful path but worth it for the sense of achievement and the views.

We conquer the Cloud

All that remained was an essential dipping of my bare feet into the river, a welcome cereal bar provided by Maureen,  and the half mile or so saunter to the car park.  One last ice-cream and we headed for home.

This poster is in fact of Millers Dale (not Dovedale or Milldale).

Map and details - the elevation profile of this walk is interesting. Compare to yesterday's walk as well. Even Thorpe Cloud summit is lower than the walk we did along the Tissington and High Peak Trails!

Dry stone Walls in Derbyshire - a brief history of the walls and enclosures in the county.

Tissington Trail short walk

Walk on 13 August late afternoon.

We walked from the Hartington Station car park north along the Tissington Trail as far as Parsley Hay, then we turned back, and took the High Peak Trail which goes off to the left.
We walked under the A515 and took a farm track to the right, which crosses the A515 before reaching the minor road a short distance from our starting point. 

The High Peak Trail follows the old Cromford and High Peak Railway, which was one of the earliest railways in the country, opening in 1830.  

A stone plaque inscribed with the crest of the C&HPR, a four-wheeled wagon on a shield with the motto "Davina Palladis Arte", the whole surrounded by a garter reading "Cromford & High Peak Railway Comp'y Incorporated 1825". Above this are the words "Jos.s Jessop,Esq.  Engineer".  There is a better picture in the link to the CPHR.

Back to the beginning

and by car to the Manifold Inn, Hulme End for Barry's Birthday meal!

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Broughton 4 spires

8 miles. With Maureen. Dry, warm sunny, but there was still some mud underfoot.

This walk was takne from a blog by The Broughton Bystander.  Unfortunately the link is no longer active.  it was very easy to follow - with a couple of checks of the map en route.

Varied - some woodland, Cransley reservoir, some village walking and just a couple of ploughed fields, which we could have avoided. 

The walk takes in the four spires of Broughton, Thorpe Malsor, Loddington and Great Cransley.  I can't improve on the description in the link above, but here are a few photos.

Cornflowers outside Broughton Church

Dandelion clock

some of several stone figures in Broughton

view of Cransley Reservoir from the road near White Hill Lodge

Thorpe Malsor church

A bit more of the church, and the green where we had a break

Loddington church

 We finished our outing with lunch in the beer garden of the Red Lion at Broughton.

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Rutland Round 2 - Uppingham to Seaton

With Marta - 10 miles in warm dry weather, though the path near Eyebrook reservoir was muddy. Lunch at Lyddington.

We set off from Uppingham, walking along the Stockerston Road out of the town and taking this footpath to the right.  It starts from a sort of lay-by on a bend in the road.

The sign's a bit hidden, but the map and instructions are clear here.

For the first time in quite a while we saw lots of tortoiseshell butterflies on the thistle flowers.

The path is clearly marked as it goes through the fields and along the ridge, past a building marked on the map as a meteorological station, and along to Kings Hill Lodge farm, where it turns left to join the Stockerston Road again.

Views towards Wardley Wood

At the road we turned left and after a hundred yards or so, opposite some houses, we turned right along a bridleway towards Stoke Dry Wood.  This goes up to the entrance to the wood, and continues just outside, so that we kept the wood edge on our right.

View of Eyebrook from corner of Stoke Wood

The path continues round the wood, with the occasional waymarker.  A footpath crossed our route  and led into the wood - ignore this one.   The track turns left, then in while right keeping to the high ground, eventually coming out by Manor Farm at the top of the hill in Stoke Dry.  Here we turned right and walked downhill to the church.

St Andrews church, Stoke Dry  with the window to the priest's room over the porch

Steps up to the parvise or priest's room -rumours about conspirators of the gunpowder plot using the room seem to be without foundation, and the story that a local witch was imprisoned and starved in here are also unconfirmed. 

Martyrdom of St Edmund. The painting shows men wearing feather headdresses shooting bows and arrows, and has been taken to support the theory that the Vikings discovered North America two centuries before Columbus.

For more discussion of this see this article.  
After the church we walked down the hill and took the footpath to the left just before the entrance to the woodland around Eyebrook reservoir.  The path hugs the fence, and was pretty muddy on this occasion.  

Snack break by the water

After the entrance gate to the Eyebrook area the path heads diagonally up hill through a field. There are great views of the water to the west from the gate in the opposite corner, and Stoke Dry can be seen in the distance to the north west.

Looking back towards Eye Brook Reservoir

Stoke Dry church behind us

The reservoir again

The route now takes us down to the A6003. We managed to miss a slight turn to the left at the top of this section, but our mistake soon became obvious.  At the road we turned right - the verge is fairly wide, and the road walk is only for a couple of hundred yards.  

The path turns left at the tarmac road to a gas pressure control station on the other side of the road.  A stile took us on to the path - mud again just here, and cows who did little more than lazily raise their heads and watch us. 

We followed the yellow-painted post waymarkers over stiles and fields.  There's a footbride into another field, which we crossed diagonally.  After whiles and stiles we headed fro the farm buildings, and followed the waymarks to reach the road and turned left into Lyddington.  Lovely lunch in the Old White Hart's garden before setting off on the final couple of miles.

Art in Lyddington

We crossed the village green and followed the track to a stile. The path goes along the left-hand hedge and leads to a gateway on the left. In this field are the traces of the fishponds which were once used by the bishop's palace (the Bede House).

The medieval fishponds of Lyddington

One of mine

The path goes through the gateway and into a narrow field. We walked along this and over another stile. Then we turned right and followed the path straight up the hill.  We continued to the end of field, then turned right and almost immediately left, walking with a ditch on the left and continuing until we reached the farm track by Grange farm. This leads up the hill and into Seaton, with glimpses of the Welland Valley viaduct to the right.


Map and details