Category Archives: within 10 miles of Bath

A 7.5 mile walk starting and ending at White Row Farm

This walk started from White Row Farm shop where a drinks break killed an hour until the torrential rain gave up. Then down to Standerwick, passing the imposing grounds of Standerwick Court, on the way to Rudge with its elegant Manor House. The return route was through fields and along country tracks and lanes – noting Seymour’s Court, the ancestral home of the Seymours (as in Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry V111). A challenging walk in many ways including a herd of very frisky cattle who didn’t appreciate walkers in their fields and some rickety, wobbly stiles. “Wildlife” aplenty including deer, hares and alpacas. A lovely walk with good views and perfect weather – especially as the walk had almost been abandoned at the start.

Westbury White Horse

Pensford and Stanton Drew via the Forest of Avon Community Forest Path

A largely level walk starting from Pensford through Upper Stanton Drew and onward to Stanton Drew to walk around the Stone Circle. Saw a wide variety of animals  – a lovely litter of pigs on the Free Range pork farm, friendly donkeys, rather unfriendly goats and some rather large bulls. Walked past the remnants of the coal industry although the winding house and the bath house are now private residences. The return route to Pensford was under the very impressive viaduct. The fields were being planted with this years crops and with the fine weather they will hopefully do well.

In case the squealing didn’t give you a hint

piggy dinner time

Happy pigs

Box and Ditteridge

This lovely walk from Box went through the delightful hamlet of Ditteridge with its attractive Norman Church of St Christopher. It was then northward up hill and down dale towards Colerne before turning south and back to Box. The snowdrops and daffodils were in abundance and even the odd bluebell was in flower. The lambs were enjoying the spring weather and a smallholding had a good stock of feathered friends – including Indian runner ducks and a very handsome turkey.

5.34 mile walk starting and ending at Box car-park.

The rolling hills of Wiltshire in March – still wintry but there are signs of spring life if you look hard enough

These lovely little wooden bridges are a common site in the woods

Animal highlights of the day:

new generation 🙂

Indian Running Ducks

A very impressive turkey

lovely big fat pig

Rode

This walk started from the village green in Rode and went through lovely gentle countryside with good views. The River Frome meandered along and looked very peaceful. One interesting feature is Tellisford Mill – a micro hydro power station on the river. There were a lot of pheasants both wandering free and in their pens. Long before Rode was reached at the end of the walk there were views of the village church which has two spires. The walk back through the village passed a chocolate factory – a good excuse for a return visit!

You can read some more details of this walk in Nigel Vile’s column in the Chronicle – click here for that

Avoncliff

Click here to see the details of the walk > Garmin Connect.

Another rather cloudy summers day but at least the rain held off until the afternoon. The walk started from Avoncliff and went along the canal before going through the village of Murhill. Then it was back to the canal and along the towpath and returning through Conkwell wood which was quite a hard climb but nice and shady. The wood was full of Hart’s Tongue fern which looked gloriously bright and shiny in the darkness of the wood. The return to Avoncliff was through Avonpark and the the village of Winsley. The distant views of the White Horse were a treat and it was good to see many wild flowers – pyramidal orchids, scabious, hypericum to name but a few.

Hart’s Tongue Fern in the woods and the Westbury White Horse in the distance.

Animal highlights of today’s walk – horses:

The area has many stables which house some very fancy looking horses.

Dyrham and Doynton

Rain on the way but the skies cleared and the circular walk from Dyrham via Doynton took us through open fields giving spectacular views across Bristol and it was just possible to see Wales in the distance. Varied landscapes of open fields and shaded paths with plants and trees starting to wake up. Very muddy in places but a most enjoyable early spring ramble.

click here to see the GPS map

The theme of today’s walk was MUD!

Today’s animal highlight was Llamas (Alpacas?)

Box

The Garmin watch is not playing at the moment but luckily I had this back-up http://walkmeter.com/8545f681394d9fe0/Walk-20150208-1030

Today’s walk started in Box at the Box Rock Circus – a funny little mini stonehenge.

It was a really gorgeous day for walking, even though it’s still cold enough to have to scrape ice off the car in the morning there are signs of spring all over the place, snowdrops, wild primroses even a very optimistic daffodil:

The walk is nice and varied – some bits through fields, some through woods.  There are some lovely views at the high points:

Stourhead is, of course, well known for its landscaped gardens but this walk took us away from the crowds and into some beautiful countryside. It was a glorious day for walking despite the wind on the top of the hills. Lunch was eaten in the shelter of castle hill overlooking the small town of Mere which was looking lovely in the sunshine. The walk over we collapsed with a lovely cuppa in the NT cafe at Stourhead.