Rumination: Summer Jollies (with Trains, Birds & the Night Skies)

Featuring: Ruswarp to Whitby - 1.5 miles, via the Rail & Riverside Path. 07/09/23

Esk View cottage might be the
 best letting we've scored so far!

Back in May, I pontificated some on the real value of a holiday break away from home, having let the disappointing opening of the year pass away and getting the spirits lifted with a warm week away on the Yorkshire Coast to get my walking year going properly, and three months on from the revivifying benefits of my Spring Jollies, I can tell you that exactly the same benefit can be felt at the End Of Summer, having endured two of the most frustrating months of poor weather, low energy and lacking motivation, heading away from the persistent gloom and changeability that has blighted July and August to be rewarded with the bright and warm week and the universe knew I spiritually needed. It’s another Friday-Friday let that we’re taking, going back to the coastal edge of the North York Moors after Mum expressed an interest in staying in the vicinity of Whitby, and I pulled up a very plausible pair of walks on the moors that got plotted when I was first seeking out rail trails at the start of my walking escapades in 2012, having managed to find a cottage at a significant reduction in price for the week after the end of the schools Summer break, just outside the town in the village of Ruswarp (which is pronounced Ruh-sup, if you were wondering), in a peaceful little idyll of its own, away from the tight streets and general throng of visitors that comes with this most beloved of coastal settlements. Even arriving having passed over moors under the heaviest of damp palls hanging in the air via the A169 does not do anything to temper our enthusiasm that we feel for Esk View cottage, and even on arrival we know that we’ve scored ourselves a gem that will be absolutely ideal for our rest and relaxation needs, amply sized and quietly out of the way at the end of its close, right on the north bank of the river Esk, with its own terrace and directly across from the railway bridge, which means that there will be entertainment to be had, even when settled in at our holiday base, be it on the rails above the water’s surface, or on the banks and their surroundings. 

Rosedale Railways #2: Rosedale Circular 06/09/23

11.4 miles, from Blakey Junction, via Glead Holes. Slead Shoe Bents, Low Blakey Moor,

 Sherriff's Pit, Thorgill Head, Thorgill Bank, Hobb Crag, Bank Top, Chimney Bank,

  Rosedale Abbey, Abbey heads, Bell End, Plane Trees, School Row, Hill Cottages,

   Low Baring, Stone Kilns, Iron Kilns, Black Houses, Dale Head, Nab Scar, Reeking Gill,

    Seven Head, Cross Gill, and Blakey Swang.

Two warm and pleasant days off from the trail are spent, filled with activity before we get back to the business of the walking plan for this round of Summer Jollies, and we did not expect moorland mist to be on our menu in the midst of our warm spell, as it hangs in the air for the full duration of our 23+ mile ride out onto the moorland top, during which Mum demonstrates an amount of fearlessness in her motoring that belies her years as we tool our way up to the crest of Blakey Ridge again, to resume our exploration of the railway and ironworking that took place in the moorland edges of Rosedale, which falls away to the west and south of the road we ride the high road. We alight at 9.45am at Blakey Junction, with a 5 hour trip in our sights as we descend beside the infilled cutting that passed under the ridge road, down to the site of the Little Blakey hamlet that stood by the division of the railway lines around both sides of Rosedale, of which nought but feint foundation remnants remain in the landscape, and we'll head south from here, down the western branch, for reasons that will become apparent as we start our circular tour, with the mist already burning off as we pass through the gate by the end of the long switchback siding, with mist still obscuring views to the east, and the kiln complexes at the end of the eastern branch, which will get much of the day's attention. It's a steady contour-hugging walk to enjoy as we progress south, at about 360m with only the slightest of declines as we trot away on a decent cinder track surface, with sleeper markings still present underfoot as we look over the valley of Rosedale, trying to get some context of the landscape below as move on among the banks of purple heather that illuminate in the sunshine behind us, settling into the shallow cuttings that run atop the edge of the Glead Holes edge, and looking down across the long rib of Middle Ridge, where it looks like a huge piece of the valley side sloughed its way downhill in antiquity, leaving a scarred and wild landscape in its wake, one not caused by human mining or quarrying activity, with our surroundings becoming more steadily apparent as we track south. 

Rosedale Railways #1: Battersby to Blakey Junction 03/09/23

10.4 miles, via Bank Foot, Park Plantation, Ingleby Incline, Greenhow Moor,

 Bloworth Crossing, Farndale Moor, Wares Gill, Middle Head, Dale Head, Gill Beck,

  Esklet, Oak Beck Head, High Blakey Moor, Blakey Gill, and Blakey Ridge. 

Late Summer Jollies arrive, not a moment too soon, and we're off to stay in Ruswarp, a stone's throw up the Esk Valley from Whitby to operate as our base as Mum and I get in a week of relaxation and I can target some walking on the North York Moors, having trailed the coastal railway path and dropped feet on my OL27 plate for the first time in the Spring, it's time to get onto the OL26 map for the first time as the 20 miles of the Rosedale Railways on the remote High Moors, demand my attention as a complete change of scenery from all my day tripping from home, and not least because I've had them on my walking target list for longer than I can immediately recall. They're not especially local to where we're staying of course, and instead of using the Parental Taxi privileges to get to the start line, we'll catch a train up the Esk Valley line instead, starting out relatively late due to the scheduling of the Sunday services, and already in the grip of warm Summer conditions that we haven't seen the like of in two months, having snared a cheap ride for only £3 and travelling along a line I've seen in part before, having ridden the NYMR section to Grosmont in 2016, and as far as Danby back in 1985 in order to visit the National Park centre (Oh Hi, School Trip Memories!) and thence it's a dawdle into the unknown, beyond the head of the valley and into the catchment of the Tees where we can alight at Battersby, that odd junction station where all services have to reverse, in the apparent middle of nowhere. We'll depart here at 11.25am, away from the station complex and the long terraces of railway cottages shadowing the start of the branch line as it split off towards the moors, looming large on the southern horizon, a wholly industrial line constructed by the NER in 1858 to service the distant ironstone mines in Rosedale, creating a significant freight interchange in this landscape where the only immediate remnant to see is the crossing house on Stone Stoup Hill, from whence we have to follow the turns of the local lanes with the trackbed inaccessible through the fields, allowing attention to wander to scoping our surroundings, placing the Captain Cook monument on Easby Moor, and the anvil peak of Roseberry Topping behind us to the north, while a trio of prominent moorland tops rise like knuckles on the edge of the Cleveland Hills to the southwest of us.

July's Three Day Weekend 07-09/07/23

Alighting on the second weekend of July, we find that it's a long one, with an extra day booked off so that I might be able to have a weekend at My Sister's place without having to run the gauntlet of Friday commuter traffic, but as they have a situation with My Elder Niece having finished her GCSEs and My Younger Niece having a strike day which coincides with one of the warmest and brightest days in a short while, the opportunity is there for a whole family day out, giving them a plan to travel out from Bolton to Brimham Rocks in their new van, with me meeting them midway along by hopping the train to Skipton as the most practical and least time-consuming of the meet up options. It's relatively shocking to realise than almost 6 years have elapsed since I was last out here on the high north side of Nidderdale, though the landscape abounding on the upper limit of my Field of Walking Experience still seem totally familiar as My Sis ad I take a rather languid stroll around the rock formations and among the wild semi-moorland, while Dr G and the Girls get on with some bouldering in the sunshine, which could barely be counted as a proper walk as we amble about for the better part of three hours, wandering well past the limits of the National Trust site and regularly finding places in the shade to sit and contemplate the landscape and our place in it. I think we might be both feeling our age, as I continue to toil with my Post-Covid Experience and the struggles of balancing it with working life, while she contemplates her daughters on the cusp on actual adulthood and reflects on where she was at a similar time in her life, aided by the rediscovery of her old journals and diaries of the period and her desire to revisit the music and style choices of the very late 1980s, which carries us on a nostalgic wave as we wander and then travel away in the late afternoon, back over the Pennines via the East Lancs valley, at least while we're not trying to talk around the problems of the world that have expanded over the last 7 years. This weekend could easily be counted as an extension of the hiatus in my walking year when Saturday's plans fall apart thanks to a rum turn in the weather, with much more cloud and rain, and much less heat, passing over to prevent our planned jaunt down the green path of the Irwell valley coming to naught, so our travel to the city has four of us travelling to the Manchester Museum instead (without Younger Niece who's already becoming a social firefly), and I'm always going to be game for some natural history presented in an interesting way to fill my afternoon, before we pass another evening with takeout Mexican food, beers and a session in fron of the TV, catching up on the Tour de France and watching 'This is Spinal Tap' and 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' (and if you wish to see me act like a total normie, just observe my reactions to the latter of those, because What is Going On in that Movie!?).

Todmorden to Colne (low route) 15/09/21

15.3 miles, Patmos, Lydgate, Vale, Cornholme, Portsmouth, Ratten Clough, Copy Pit,

 Holme Chapel, Cliviger, Walk Mill, Townley Park, Burnely Wood, Burnley, Danehouse, 

  Reedley, Brierfield, Whitefield, Nelson, White Walls, Primet Bridge, and Boundary Mill.

Four days into our week away, and it's already apparent that deciding to dump my original walking plans has proven to be an excellent idea, as taking time out for rest and relaxation has been a much better idea that trying to pound out the miles for three days of the week, which has resulted in giving us time for two trips for dinner out (Sunday Roast at the Shoulder of Mutton, and Tuesday night date with My Calderdale friends in The Old Gate), plus lunch with My Sister on a flying visit from Bolton and another visit due from My Mum's frinds in Skipton due for Thursday. Thus we are feeling like walking plans are being fitted in around the social calls, and only having one midweek trip on the slate, makes that a whole lot easier, again not needing access to the Parental Taxi to get to my starting line in Todmorden, riding the #592 bus to land at the bus stand at 9.15am under the viaduct on Burnley Road, with the A646 being our way ahead, the main trajectory that we'll be taking out of West Yorkshire to seal another long boundary extension onto our field of walking experience as we travel to visit all the end points of our recent trips across the hills to the East Lancs valley. With our destination being the exact same one that we last travelled towards from here, we'll match that route for the first steps, through Patmos (or Cobden) as we head out of town past Aldi, the Todmorden Community College and the cricket field on the main road before that route peels off north and we continue on a steady northwesterly, on the wrong side of the road to get any decent views across Centre Vale Park, going by the House That Jack Built, also passing the Hare & Hounds inn from Sunday's trip before heading on into the narrowing upper Calder valley. Beyond the grounds of Todmorden High school, we meet the bottom of Stoney Royd Road, our limit of experience on the Burnley Road since the Calderdale Way brought us this far in 2012, and thus everything will be new from here as habitation quits the steeply wooded south side of the road and a council estate lurks in the last spot to the west of the town where one could have been accommodated, where the views north head right up the valley side to Orchan Rocks and around to Whirlaw Stones, lurking high above the town.

Hebden Bridge to Todmorden 12/09/21

10.1 miles, via Hebble End, Calder Holmes Park, Machpelah, Mytholm, Colden Clough, 

 Hudson Mill, New Delight, Strines, Land, Clough, Moor Lane, Duke's Cut, Pole Hill, 

  Bride Stones Moor, Great Bride Stones, Fast End, Orchan Rocks, Well Wood, Hartley Wood, 

   Cross Lee, and Centre Vale Park.

It's been such a rough summer for keeping up with my planned walking schedule, that even before we got to my Late Season break away, I'd already decided to junk my plans for the week away, putting the Mary Townley Loop of the Pennine Bridleway onto the list of things to do in a future walking season, as what I really need right now is to feel like I'm getting to catch up on the excursions delayed because of the three weekends lost from this past month, especially as trips to the far side on the Pennies are going to start getting tenuous once the days start shortening. So I travel away with My Mum, as we seize the first real opportunity that we've been given to travel away from home for a while since this age of Covid descended on us, not getting to far away from home as we ride out to Hebden Bridge on Friday evening, landing us in a convenient place to be nearby to family and friends in the hereabouts, and taking a let in an Airbnb house, a classic Calderdale Under-Over, owned by a Norwegian family and used as their hytte, in as handy a location in the town centre as could be desired. Walking lands on the schedule come Sunday morning, avoiding the crowds of Happy Valley Pride weekend as we rise for a 9am start, descending from our base to the end of market Street to do a bit of a tour of the unseen paths of Hebden Bridge before we get going properly, walking up past the Co-op to the Hebble End bridges to join the canal path eastwards for a few terraces before dropping down Fountain Street to cross back over the Calder via the footbridge, then sidling along Central Street to cross the footbridge over Hebden Water that links the I&N school with Riverside Juniors on Holme Street. Passing the Post Office and the Trades Club, we rise to pass over the canal again at Bridge 17 and take our path through Calder Holmes park, and rise to Station Road, to be as close to the station as possible before we pick up the route that we'd had on the slate for August Bank Holiday Monday, which takes us over the canal for the third and final time, and onto the A646 as we can then follow the New Road - West Gate - Market Street alignment across the heart of town, long before the revellers and day-trippers get going, allowing us to quietly examine the town ahead of the throng. 

The Long Walk to Leicester #8 - Loughborough to Leicester 05/09/19

15.5 miles, via Loughborough Moors, Pillings Lock, Barrow upon Soar, Meadow Farm,   Mountsorrel Lock,  Sileby Mill, Cossington Mill, Rothley, Wanlip, Birstall, Red Hill, 
  Ellis Meadows, Abbey Meadows, Abbey Park, St Margaret's, and the City Centre.

Long Distance Trek means Selfies!
#7 at Loughborough station.

The Last Leg of the Long Walk comes around, the latest of my cross country schemes to come to fruition, feeling fortunate that the opening of the late season of 2019's walking has sent some rather good walking days our way so far, and there's not massive pressure to get out early again as the morning temperatures are markedly lower than the preceding couple of days, and anyway, the return rail ticket I bought to Loughborough if off-peak and thus not valid until after 9pm, so the Parental Taxi doesn't need to be ready for the crack of dawn to get me underway. So back to the point where my Up Country and Down Country trekking points finally touched, getting away from the railway station in the shadow of the Brush works at 9.40am, striking across the car parks to Nottingham Road, by the mill that is getting the upscale apartment treatment to descend beck to the towpath of the Loughborough Cut of the Grand Union Canal's Soar Navigation, coming down on the opposite side of it to the residential complex built around a former hosiery factory and passing under the Great Central Railway's canal bridge, their next fixer up job before they can start building their embankments to get to the bridge of the Midland Mainline. We strike southeast from here along the towpath, hemmed in by thick hedge and the town having grown to fill all the plots up to the west side of the canal, surrounding the once rural Little Moorland bridge, and looking like its probably ready to consume the factory site to the south of it, the one with large ghostly lettering along the length of its wall that resolutely refuse to resolve into any readable words, and beyond the town looks to have breached a path into the low fields of Loughborough Moors to the east as a new close or two have arrived on the far side of Moor Lane bridge. That's as far as this town's suburban splurge has grown, with the town ending by the boatyard of the Peter Le Marchand Trust, who run boating trips for the elderly and disabled and whose boats were spotted more than once along the path of the previous day on the trail, beyond which we enter the low fields once again, with only cows in the fields and the morning air still feeling chilly despite the sunshine, with all feeling peaceful beyond Miller's bridge, where there are only random boaters and solo dog walkers out on the canal with me.

The Long Walk to Leicester #7 - Shardlow to Loughborough 03/09/19

13.1 miles, via Derwent Mouth, Sawley Bridge Marina, Ratcliffe on Soar, Kegworth Marina, 

 Sutton Marina, Diamond Wood, Zouch, Normanton on Soar, and Bishop's Meadows.

Long Distance Trek
means Selfies!
#7 at Shardlow

We get off to another early start as we head back to the bottom right corner of Derbyshire, with the Parental Taxi adding another 50+ miles to the 130+ miles that it put down on my behalf yesterday, which well illustrates My Mum's willingness to go above and beyond when it comes to accommodating my crazy walking schemes when she could have so easily cast me out to travel by train and the Skylink bus service, so the note of gratitude needs to be posted here, rather than buried in my later summation. We land at the Navigation Inn at Shardlow at 9.10am, so Mum can make a beeline homeward to do here thing with her Church Lunch Club, and so I can get on with the last mile or so of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way, which we meet when we return to the bridge of the Trent & Mersey canal and descend to its towpath, heading eastwards into the still intact landscape of wharves and warehouses at the heart of this late 18th century boom town, where goods travelling to and from the northwest would by stored and sorted before going on their new markets on the burgeoning canal network. It's a quiet idyll for leisure boating these days, making it hard to believe just how much industry would have gone on here in the 50+ years before the railways became the new transportation method of choice, it's now a place for waterfront living, and going back in time by visiting the watermen's inns such as the Malt Shovel or the New Inn, which we leave in our wake as we pass under Wilne Lane bridge, and we carry on pass the last few canalside cottages and the flood lock that protects the village from inundation, to meet Shardlow's extensive marinas. We can race the active boaters on the canal as we head east, along the long cut that passes Porter's Bridge, the very first on the canal as it makes its long way to Liverpool behind us, and the Derwent Mouth lock leading us out to the very end of the channel where it spills out into the River Trent, where the Derwent Mouth confluence can be observed from the remaining abutment of the original and now demolished Long Horse Bridge.

The Long Walk to Leicester #6 - Belper to Shardlow 01/09/19

17.4 miles, via The Park, Cowhill, Milford (sorta), Makeney, Duffield Bank & Bridge, 

 Peckwash Mill, Rigga Quarry, Little Eaton, Darley Abbey (Mills & Park), Derby Waterfront, 

  The Holmes, Pride Park, Alvaston Park, Spondon weirs, Borrowash Bridge, and Ambaston.

Long Distance Trek means Selfies!
#6 at Belper Station.

With the High Season of 2019 done, mostly successfully despite the wildly inconsistent weather, it's now time to get away from it all, at just about the best possible time, to head Down Country and get back onto the last legs of The Long Walk to Leicester, this year's crazy scheme that has actually slipped pretty far from my attention over the last three months, and now requires all my focus as I travel away to stay with Mum and utilise what is usually one of the best months of the late Summer for my jollies. Travelling on a Sunday had originally had me planning to ride out to Belper to resume the trail, and the Derwent Valley Heritage Way, by train, but a distinct lack of EMR services north from Leicester scuppered that plan and so Mum offered the Parental Taxi for my usage, despite her having to do an 80 mile round trip to get us underway, and that offer is taken up gratefully, taking a ride that visually stitches us up to the last leg as we get sight of East Mill before I get dropped off at the railway station to pick up where we left off in May, at a bright but chilly 8.35am, a good 90 minutes ahead of the rail alternative. We set off from the station up Albert Street to pick up the DVHW again on Green Lane, heading down it to meet King Street by the Memorial Gardens and the Ritz Cinema, with the town main shopping drag running down towards the A6, and we head up this road to the old Market Place at the top of the town, which feels eerily devoid of life at this early hour, before we head on into The Park, Belper's wild space where the morning exercisers can be found. Down we go through the rough field to cross Coppice Beck, and then rise across dewy grass and among trees to find the hilariously slanted football pitch, from whence we find the wooded path that takes us uphill, where a perch above the Derwent Valley is found, concealing the town rather successfully, before we slip behind and then among the houses of Cowhill, at its southern periphery, where we need to slip down among the older looking terraces of Holbrook Road before we can find the high path that will take us on down the valley, and away from the wrinkles of Derbyshire hills that have spread all the way down from the Peak District.

Witton Weavers Way #2 - Dimple to Witton Park 18/07/19

18.5 miles, via Turton Heights, Cheetham Close, Turton Tower, Jumbles reservoir, 

 Turton Bottoms, Edgworth, Wayoh reservoir, Entwhistle, Edge Fold, Cadshaw, 

  Darwen Moor, Darwen Tower, Earnsdale reservoir, Tockholes, Chapels, Stockclough, 

   Green Hills, Holly Tree, Cherry Tree, and Pleasington Fields.

Long Distance Trail

means Selfies!

#2 at Dimple.

The way this week has scheduled, with our trip to the Land Registry falling on a Tuesday, and with us visitors not wishing to get in the way of My Sister's family's first weekend of the Summer holidays, we are thus compelled to walk on consecutive days so that we might get away on Friday, which forecasts as deeply mediocre, and leave myself enough weekend to blog properly and get the brain in order before I find out where I might be working next week (the last couple of weeks since supposedly transferring to St James's hospital have seen me bouncing all over the LTHT sites). So we rise early, which is absolutely necessary as this 32 mile trail hasn't conveniently divided into equal pieces, and so up the lane we two head from Egerton to Dimple for an 8.35am start, with both of us taking entirely different expectations of the weather to come on the day as we pass Ciao Baby and make our way further up the A666 Blackburn Road to pick up the Weavers Way as it takes us past Buffs farm and onto the fields to the north of it, aiming ourselves uphill to attain the top of Turton Heights, which isn't the most straightforward of aims as its over 100m up from the roadside within half a mile. The local cows in this field seem more curious than yesterday's as to our progress up through the long grass, but we've gotten enough of a head-start on them to get out of their enclosure and onto the steeply rising moorland path unscathed, with early sunshine coming on to tease us with warmth and illumination of the valley of Eagley Brook as we can almost see down to Bolton before we land on the moorland cap with a decent enough track, heading up to the crest to get a view over to the Bradshaw Brook side and on to the Holcombe Moor side and Ramsbottom Peel Tower. Unfortunately, the way forward on the crest toward the southern end at Cheetham Close follows a ditch through the knee length grass, which is firm enough to walk on, but the morning dew soaks into our trousers and waterlogs our boots before we get far past halfway along the top, where a fence and a wall block our path, and My Sister curses the route forcibly and states her intention to travel no further up here as we're forced to stop and wring out our socks, and ponder the wisdom in our choice of route, especially as a herd of cows sits at the summit beyond.

Witton Weavers Way #1 - Witton Park to Dimple 17/07/19

14.9 miles, via Billinge Hill, Yellow Hills, Close farm, Hoghton Bottoms, The Horr, 
 Causeway wood, Sun Mill, Stanworth wood, Red Lea, Abbey Village, Rake Brook reservoir, 
  Roddlesworth reservoirs, Tockholes plantations, Hollinshead Hall, Pasture Houses Hey, 
   Longworth Moor, and Delph Brook plantations.

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!

#1 at Witton Park.

Anyone who's been following my walking career across 7+ years and two blogs will be aware that walking the Witton Weavers Way has been planned for in every walking season I have done, but has never gotten onto the schedule as circumstances have always found me doing something else when I've travelled to the West Pennines to visit My Sister and her family, so as the eighth season presses on to my Summer Jollies, we find good reason to get it off the schedule as My Mum needs to come up country as we three all need to be in one place to get some business sorted with HM Land Registry. That's all sorted at the Fylde office on Tuesday morning, which hopefully resolves all the remaining issues with regards our inheritance of Dad's estate, and then we can shift focus onto tackling this 32 mile circular trail that supposedly celebrates the pre-industrial heritage of this corner of Lancashire, that is actually Blackburn with Darwen's major trail, as Bolton district doesn't actually have one, which My Sister and I will be able to take on while enjoying the flexibility of having two other adults around while My Nieces go through the motions of their last week of school. So onwards, getting driven up from Egerton to Witton Park on the western side of Blackburn in the Parental Taxi, for a start at 9.15am, in alien walking territory but in a corner that's still plenty familiar as this former country estate that has been Blackburn's municipal park since 1946 has been a regular stomping ground for My Sister's family, and the route, starting off past the arena and athletics track, up to the old  pavilion and into Big Cover Wood traces the route of the first walk that I ever took with my Younger Niece, in the late summer of 2008. The rising track is just as testing for the early going as it was then, and I always seem to pant harder when in company, as I'm compelled to walk at someone else's pace, rising to the open fields that give us a look over the southern portion of Blackburn, with Ewood Park stadium obvious, and back to the northern flank of the West Pennine Moors, which this trail will take a while to get to as it loops northwards for a while, pressing uphill past Higher Garden Plantation to the limit of the parkland at Under Billinge Lane and joins the path across the slanted plots on which the woodlands of Billinge Hill stand, though we won't be seeking the summit path this time, but instead hang close to its western perimeter on the sharply rising and sometimes obscure track to seek the route westwards.

Leicestershire Round #7 - Sutton Cheney to Newtown Linford 05/09/18

17.1 miles, via Bosworth Park, Market Bosworth, Carlton, Shackerstone (station), Odstone, 

 Nailstone, Bagworth, Thornton (Mill & Reservoir), Markfield, and John's Lee Wood.

Long Distance Trail means 

Selfies! #7 at the Hercules 

Revived, Sutton Cheney.

A relatively chilled couple of days drop in between my trekking days, with nothing more active than having My Sister and her family drop by for lunch while passing through on a cross country jaunt, and getting My Parents over to the church dinner club the following day, knowing that the gardening exploits are due once my walking days are finished, so I feel decently recharged once my second 17 mile jaunt of my Down Country break comes around. Unfortunately, after six clear runs to my start points on the Round, the seventh and final one is the longest trip of all, which forces us through Leicester's morning rush hour traffic, preventing a very early start and meaning that we don't get our jump off in Sutton Cheney until 9.05am, with the skies suggesting coming blueness in the west, but general grey pudding hanging over the rest of the county. Depart from the Hercules Revived public house (a name I really can't get enough of), and roll up Main Street, through a village that would surely glow red on a sunnier day thanks to all it construction in brick, passing the Old Hall that is plainly the most impressive structure in the village, running up as far as the Royal Arms Hotel, the other village pub that has a sideline as an actual hotel complex, and our route passes through its car park and into the fields beyond. Trace a bunch of boundaries as we tack to the northwest, which will be our trajectory for the next 5 miles, noting that we are passing though enclosures that were growing beans, judging by the quantity still on the ground post-harvest, rising towards Spring Wood and Woodhouse farm whilst feeling a light regret that the Round doesn't pass through Cadeby, a mile or so inside its path, where the Reverend Teddy Boston used to famously operate a narrow gauge railway in the Rectory Garden. The path leads us into Bosworth Park, once the extensive parklands of Bosworth Hall, seat of local benefactors, and general oddballs, the Dixie family, where we follow a tree lined avenue that leads among the open meadows and small spinneys, still looking the same as the would've a century ago,  for a solid half mile before we arrive in the public park at the top end. Meet the local exercisers and strollers here as our route tracks around the shaded memorial garden and the Bow Pool before meeting the open parklands as we run in towards Rectory Lane, with both Bosworth Hall and St Peter's church just beyond the passage of the Round path as we enter Market Bosworth.

Leicestershire Round #6 - Frolesworth to Sutton Cheney 02/09/18

17.2 miles, via Claybrooke Magna, Claybrooke Parva, High Cross, Fosse Way, 

 Fosse Meadows, Sharnford, Aston Flamville, Burbage (Wood & Common), Barwell, 

  Odd House, Ashby Canal, Sutton Wharf, Ambion Wood, and Bosworth Battlefield.

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!

#6 at St Nicholas's, Frolesworth.

After my long weekend away in Wharfedale and a gratifyingly short week back in work, we can set our sights on the last holiday of the Summer, heading Down Country once more with August already receding into memory and all intentions set on getting the Leicestershire Round completed, with the two longest and most distant days still to go, trips that I had worried might prove to be logistically unfeasible due to the travel durations necessary to get to my start lines. We need not have worried though, as My Dad can be left to nap of a morning without great risk, and maximum flexibility can be gained from starting out as early as possible, not that I'm entirely sure that My Mum is entirely enamoured with having to get the Parental Taxi fired up for a departure from home at 7.15am, so that the trail might be joined again at St Nicholas's church in Frolesworth at 7.55am, which is easily the earliest I've started out, and the day's sunshine has already come on, for which I'm immensely grateful after last Sunday's damp debacle. Away on Main Street we go, past the gates of the Rectory to the corned by the now absent Royal Oak inn, taking a southerly track as we set course for the Heart of Roman England, down a grassy track that leads onto a field walk, seeing the village recede rapidly, but making sure to note the Dutch Barn at Manor Farm, a modern office building that looks exactly like an open barn stacked with straw bales, the sort of modern design that should be replicated in every rural redevelopment. Our path rises, gently, up towards Hill Farm, aside plots of corn and across the recently harvested wheat fields, before cresting by the equestrian grounds and then declining through open plots before shifting into rougher fields, where I'm greeted along the way by a farm worker and her enthusiastically yappy dogs, and I continue to enjoy the warm morning sun as we field walk to Frolesworth Lane and then hot foot it over to Claybrooke Mill, secluded away in its own little spinney. Trailing around the West Riding moorlands can make you unprepared for regularly rural Midlands landscapes, with its many stiles, ditches and plank bridges, and they will become the testing features of the day as we progress, across recently ploughed fields and enclosures full of docile cows, as we lead over to Claybrooke Magna, one of a Leicestershire pair which seems to have the majority of the modern suburban houses in it, apt to it's 'large' name, which our track only sees a corner of, on Bell Street.

Buckden Pike (aborted) 27/08/18

6.3 miles, from Kettlewell, via Top Mere Road, Cam Pasture, Starbotton Cam Road,
 Tor Dike, Hunters Sleets, Top Mere Top, Buckden Pike, Buckden Rake, Buckden, and 
  Starbotton. Park Rash, and Cam Gill Road.

The weather projections for Bank Holiday Monday morning look a whole lot more favourable than those we had for Sunday, suggesting that the worst of the lingering rain should be done before 9am, and as I've got my camera working again and all my clothes dried, with a potential six and half hour window to use before the last #874 bus runs back to Leeds, it makes total sense to tilt again at Buckden Pike and hang the consequences of a dozen extra miles walked when I still need to return to work on Tuesday. So rise for breakfast at 8.45am, again eating as much food as Zarina will put in front of me to sustain another trip out, feeling teased by the suggestions of blue skies and sunshine breaking through the light clouds as I watch an early starter walk up the ascent up to Gate Cote Scar across the valley, but as I make plans to leave an hour later, the weather looks a whole lot less favourable, and I'm already mentally revising my plans as my hosts agree to allow me to leave my bag containing my clothes and ancient laptop at the tearoom to collect on the way back. Step out at 10am, cursing the fact that Upper Wharfedale never seems to bring the weather that you'd like to have, striking back along Middle Lane again as I choose to get the long ascent up to 500m altitude done early, rather than retracing steps up the main road back to Starbotton, stepping past the Village store again and walking up the north side of Kettlewell Beck, past the various cottages and farmsteads to the former village school at the bottom of Cam Gill Road. The ascent here starts in earnest, and even before we've risen above the tree cover, the drizzle has shifted to a steady rain, and I'll pause overlooking the village to look to the north west to see if the weather shows any sign of relenting, which it doesn't and so we get fully waterproofed up again as we hit the slippery limestone-clad track of Top Mere Road, wondering aloud if we're getting yesterday's weather back, returning for a bonus downpour or two over Wharfedale again. The steepest stretch of the days' ascending is the rise to 350m, the regular 150m ascent from the river valley being something of a West Riding tradition, and looking back down the valley as we go gives a distinctly shifting view of the weather as the cloud level changes with nearly every look, sometimes revealing Barden Moor all the way down the valley, and at other times offering nothing further away than all the marquees around Kilnsey, and hopes for high land progress feel stymied once I get sight over to Great Whernside, with cloud shrouding it above the 600m contour.

Great Whernside 26/08/18

10.1 miles, from Kettlewell, via Hag Dike, Great Whernside, Stone Top Head, Blackfell Top, 

 Black Dike, Hunters Sleets, Top Mere Top, Buckden Pike, Buckden Rake, Buckden, 
  Tor Dike, Starbotton Cam Road, and Starbotton.

As it's August Bank Holiday at the end of one of the hottest summers in the last few decades, it's entirely natural that the weather projection isn't looking good, and it looks like a complete circuit of the two 700+m fells around Kettlewell is unlikely to be completed before foul weather takes the day over, so after a decent night's kip I rise at 8am, the only early starter in the B'n'B so Zarina can host me with a three and a half course breakfast, which will hopefully be enough to fortify me for the whole day, and against whatever it might throw at me. I'm not quite prepared for winter weather but waterproof and gloves ought to protect me against the coming rain and wind, which are already underway when I depart at 9.10am, hopeful that I might get well on over the high grounds before the weather worsens around midday, wandering off up Middle Lane to the corner by the Village Store and crossing over Kettlewell Beck by the King's Head Inn and pressing east up Scabbate Gate, among the many cottages that grew up here thanks to the boom in the Lead mining industry in the 19th century, surpassing the textiles and farming industries that preceded it, and it's the sort of Yorkshire village that I love most, until you realise just how far from the wider world you really are up here. Which makes it ideal for the adventurous type, which we are being this weekend, following the road as it turns to a rough track leading up to the campsite at the bottom of Dowber Gill, where we pick the bridleway as our ascent route up to Great Whernside, which still sits away hidden from view above the village, and as we rise aside the neighbouring valley of Cam Gill Beck, we gain a fresh perspective over the side valleys that cannot be seen from the main body of Wharfedale. The road up to Coverdale can be traced as we rise above the tree cover and press on up well built track until we hit the 350m contour and split from our north-western trajectory to hairpin back and trace a broadly twisting path across the high pasture that leads back towards Dawber Gill, giving us evolving views back down Wharfedale and across to Firth Fell, to Buckden Pike and its companion Top Mere Top to the north, and finally up to the top 200m of Great Whernside, a summit strip that is over a mile long, and thus I'm not entirely certain that we can see the actual summit cairn from here.

Skipton to Kettlewell 25/08/18

14.8 miles, via Tarn Moor, Scale House, Rylstone, Cracoe, Swinden Quarry, Threshfield, 
 Kirk Bank, Kilnsey, and Skirfare Bridge.

August Bank Holiday weekend arrives, at long last, or rather suddenly as the month already hits its last week, and even if the weather projection for much of it is not looking too great, I'm still going to take my long weekend away in Kettlewell to face down its pair of 700+m neighbours as I've had this trip planned since May and have already paid half of the costs of my room and board, and most probably won't be seeing that money again if I chose to stay home and rest up instead of walking. So stuff my life into two bags, rather than the largest single one, as wearing them slung fore and aft offers more comfortable weight distribution, despite me looking like I'm primed to attend Leeds Fest instead, and set out late-ish as Northern Trains and the RMT are still at loggerheads, meaning that I don't get to my jump off point in Skipton until 10.40am, with my sights set on Upper Wharfedale, which immediately feels like a long way away as the extra weight of my holiday bag is soon felt. Skipton station being offset to the town's south-west means that finding routes north will always follow familiar pavements, and that's the case today as we hammer out along Broughton Road past the mill conversions as far as the canal bridge before turning up Coach Street to pass among the old wharf-side building before crossing the Springs Branch and heading uphill among the town's car parks to meet Gargrave Road, and the route up the sealed off rat run of St Stephen's Close. Suburbia butts up against hidden terraces along here, where the RC church also hides concealed, where a last look over the town is gained before we slip downhill to the leafy passage of the B6265 Grassington Road, which will be our companion as we press away from Airedale, rising out of the walled in section below the trees and on past the smart range of suburbia that has never quite grown to fill all the fields above the town, where we gain sight of the Barden Moor fringe before we lose our footway and have to make a passage over the A59 Skipton Bypass. It's going to be road walking for such a large chunk of today, so it's nice to briefly get a detour onto an off-road trek over Tarn Moor up as far as the Craven Heifer Inn, a path seen before as long ago as 2012, meeting the pub and having the three high crags on the southern edge of the moor announce themselves as we press on, along with Sharp Haw and Rough Haw arriving on our horizon to the west. The road walk thus starts in earnest as we rise and fall with the lane as Eller Beck flows south towards the town beyond the adjacent fields, as we enter the Yorkshire Dales National Park with the traffic level looking like it might prove more challenging than on my escapade along the A65 in April, pressing on in the shadow of Crookrise Crag as we pass Bog Wood and None Go Bye farm, and the West Riding roadsign indicating that we are only two miles out on the Skipton & Cracoe turnpike.

Leicestershire Round #5 - Saddington to Frolesworth 26/07/18

14.7 miles, via Fleckney (sorta), Shearsby, Bruntingthorpe, Peatling Magna, 

 Willoughby Waterleys, Dunton Bassett, and Leire. 

Long Distance Trail means

Selfies! #5 at The Queen's

Head, Saddington.

The off days between treks get filled with useful activities, like trimming My Parents' hedge (again), belatedly celebrating My Dad's 77th birthday, and mug washing (don't ask, long story), when we are not trying to avoid the heat, and after getting a Hottest Day of the Year peak on Monday, we get the promise of another on Thursday, so we need to plan creatively for a day that promises to get thirsty fast, and so I scheme the idea of chilling two litre bottles in the fridge, while freezing a third to ensure I have sufficient cool liquid in my bag for a six hour trek. Starting early is the other trick to beat the heat, as the Parental Taxi can get out to Saddington for an 8.20am start as we have probably the shortest drive out of the entire Round today, which is mildly ironic as the entire path for today will be through a part of the county of my birth that have barely seen in all my years, and so onwards, away from the Queen's Head (which I have manged to colour coordinate with) and St Helen's church, possibly the only one on the trail that I won't deliberately detour to see up close. Onto the Round Path once more by The Limes, a house with an impressively large mud wall at its boundary, and we depart the village by the path that leads from Bakehouse Lane between the back yards of virous houses and out onto Kibworth Road, where we are immediately presented with a cow problem as this Longhorn breed is not apt to move away from the gate that I need to access. Fortunately a second gate up the lane allow easy access, and I sneak past them to find the next gate in the hedge which leads us over towards Fleckney, a village that has seen some exponential suburban growth, even though it's quite a distance from Leicester and between two A-roads, and we'll draw right up to the edge of it, meting dog walkers and fence builders before we turn west, the fields looking like they are being plotted out for some future building work as the village continues to bafflingly expand. It's a field boundary walk for quite a distance to come now, and in the early going we at least have Fleckney lodge to keep us company but soon we slip into a landscape of hedges and bare fields that would challenge anyone's powers of description, lacking an obvious horizon and looking the same from plot to plot, and so we have to content ourselves with the fact that the early morning sun isn't coming on hard and that the local cattle around Glebe Farm are feeling docile before we get a location of sorts to see, as we drop out onto Arnesby Road.

Leicestershire Round #4 - Hallaton to Saddington 23/07/18

13.9 miles, via Othorpe, Cranoe, Glooston, Stonton Wyville, Langton Caudle, 

 Thorpe Langton, East Langton, Foxton, Gumley, and Smeeton Hill. 

Long Distance Trail 

Means Selfies! #4 at the 

Bewicke Arms, Hallaton.

Summer Jollies coming around has me hurrying Down Country with almost indecent haste, so that I can get onto the Leicestershire Round again on the days available to fit in around My Parents' plans and needs, happy to lend a hand when needed and aiming to scratch off another three legs from the guide book in two trips, and that cold day on Saturday is already seeming like a distant and aberrant memory, as we are already back in the grip of hot, hot days where the heat tells even when leaving the house in the early morning. So Leicestershire in July looks much riper than it did last year as the Parental Taxi rolls me out to Hallaton so that we might get a jump off at the Bewicke Arms at 8.35am, still rating the village as one of the prettiest in the county in the Rutland Ironstone fashion and we start our track into the southeast corner of the county by walking along Churchgate, past the church of St Michael & All Angels and the CofE primary school to find the path that leads us out into the countryside for the start of the field walking down to cross the stream that flows on down towards the River Welland, reminding us that we are in the corner of the county that doesn't sit within the vast Trent-Humber watershed. A fun thing to note in the adjacent field is Hallaton Castle, a motte and bailey construction that is dated to the Iron Age and the protection of the ancient metalworking industries in this quarter, and looks particularly well preserved and is something to regard as our field walk raises on a southwestern track to eventually present views over the wrinkles around the Welland valley, where Slawston village sits in the shadow if its own hill and an almost new farm is located at the hills crest. Drop sharply down through the pasture to cross the stream at Horseclose Spinney, and then rise again to meet Othorpe House Farm, which mostly hides behind its woods, and standing as all that remains of the lost village of Othorpe, a theme that just keeps on coming around in this county, soon left behind as we pass the barns and machinery store to hit the fields once again. Onwards through wheat fields and more sheep pasture to approach Cranoe village, which also hides, below the slope of the hillside that we are traversing, and just off the alignment of the Round path, but a short detour has to be made so we can get an up close look at the church of St Michaels's, as taking many pictures of the village churches in the county will probably always be a hobby of mine.

Yorkshire Wolds Way #6 - Ganton to Filey Brigg 08/09/16

12.1 miles, via Staxton Wold, Cotton Dale Slack, Flixton Wold, Lang Dale, Raven Dale,
 Camp Dale, Folkton Wold, Stocking Dale, Muston Wold, Muston & Filey.

National Trail means Selfies!
#6 at Ganton

Second Intermediate rest day is spent on a trip down memory lane, visiting the North York Moors Railway to ride the rails from Pickering to Whitby and back behind 61264, which is four hours worth of excursion in itself, but still leaving enough time to return to base for an evening stroll around The Bay, on the site of Filey Butlin's, which is really crystallising as 'The Village' in my mind, and to wander all the way down to the beach too. I'm not on a coast to coast trail so my arrival by the sea doesn't feel like a cheat, especially as Filey bay must be one of the best beaches in the county, and certainly one of the least populated too, and it's not just good for paddling and sandcastles at it has history too, World War II era pillboxes rest on the sand to provide transportation to another age. Back in September though, and it's completion time, as my second National Trail is due to go down, and the distances needed to be travelled get ever shorter as we ride the Parental Taxi back to Ganton, one time home of Harry Vardon, pioneering late 19th century golfer and 6 time Open Champion, for a 9.40am start by St Nicholas's church, and for the first time in all my walking days, it looks like I might risk company on the trail as another quartet of walkers are arriving as I start out onto the field boundaries that rise through the recently harvested fields that sit above a haze covered Ryedale. The uphill drift on the early going is to be expected, but the hard work in my lungs isn't, and the first hard rise on the appropriately named Wold Lane demands an early watering break, letting the other walkers take the day's lead, before heading up a tree-lined and cattle observed track to meet the 65 mile marker, and my doubts about the Wolds Way's actual length start to surface as I note the miles to go to Filey count has decreased by 6 miles since East Heslerton Brow.

Yorkshire Wolds Way #5 - Wintringham to Ganton 06/09/16

10.6 miles, via Deep Dale Plantation, Knapton Plantation, West Heslerton Brow,

 East Heslerton Brow, Sherburn (sort of) & Potter Brompton.

National Trail means Selfies!
#5 near Wintringham.

After the longest day on the Wolds Way, the first intermediate rest day of this break doesn't have to be too busy, taking a modest jaunt out to Bempton Cliffs RSPB site, and to Flamborough Head to give us our fill of chalk cliffs, birdlife and lighthouses, not a bad way to spend a day that forgets how to be sunny shortly after lunchtime. Back to the trail on Tuesday, we think, the more modest distance on the Way not requiring the earliest of starts, and the odd tradition of Long Trail walking comes around once again, as regardless of how you divide your days, one day always seems to come out unusually short, but that's not a bad thing when it might come on the most straightforward of the whole  bunch. So the Parental Taxi drops me off at 9.50am on the western corner of Wintringham, and having barely seen any of the village last time, we might be seeing even less of it today, as the path skirts the fields to the north, focusing attention on the tree clad hillside to come, and less on the houses, hidden away behind a thick curtain of hawthorn hedges. I do wonder if the Way's presence offended the village when it was laid out, and hope that it wasn't the other way around, but a visit to St Peter's church is necessary before we move on, not least because its slender spire has been a sentinel since coming off the hills, and a view up close will show that it has an impressive collection of gargoyles and carvings when viewed up close. Back to the path, and the 55 mile marker is met at the field corner before the ascent is started up to Deep Dale plantation, and once the wood is met initial going is on a broad track with only the gentlest of rises, which gets you all relaxed before the dread sets in when the fingerpost that indicates straight up is met. The ascent out is 50m up at what seems like 40 degrees, as harsh an angle as we've ever met on any trip, one which needs low gear and lady steps to get up, thankful that it's dry underfoot and not showing up any slick stones, a proper lung-burster for the early going on a day I'd thought might be easy.