Markfield and Billa Barra Hill, 27th May 2018

Rab's 8½ mile walk went through the Altar Stones Nature Reserve before climbing up to Billa Barra Hill. The name of the hill is thought to be a corruption of the word "barrow," meaning burial ground. The hill top is a Regionally Important Geological Site, with a natural outcrop of pre-Cambrian rocks, similar to those found at Bardon Hill and Cliffe Hill nearby.

The route took us between two of the many quarries in this part of Leicestershire to Stanton under Bardon before returning through Thornton and Markfield.

The start near Altar Stones, Markfield

Example of pre-Cambrian rocks in Altar Stones Nature Reserve

Descent from Billa Barra Hill - evidence of quarrying in the distance near Bardon

Lunch near Thornton Reservoir

Relationship between today's walk and others in this area

Monsal Dale and Ashford in the Water, 20th May 2018

Gail's walk started at the White Lodge car park where Monsal Dale meets the A6 and went up the bottom of the valley to the Monsal Trail, the route of Midland Railway’s Derby to Buxton line, opened in 1863, closed in 1968 and now a well-used recreational route for walkers and cyclists.

After crossing the viaduct and passing through the now-open Headstone Tunnel below Monsal Head, the walk continued along the trail until leaving it just before Hassop Station and using a bridleway south to reach the Wye and the outskirts of Bakewell.  It then followed the river upstream to Ashford and then back to the start.

Evidence of a water mill in Monsal Dale.  There used to be around twenty water mills along the Wye between Buxton and Bakewell, the earliest being corn mills

Headstone Viaduct - Monsal Head up high

Routes everywhere from the Monsal Trail

Looking back down Monsal Dale

Entry to Headstone Tunnel (487m long), reopened in 2011

Coffee stop at Great Longstone for Ashford Station (1863)

Descent to the Wye Valley, Bakewell in the distance

Holme Bridge (1664) - a packhorse bridge used to avoid tolls in Bakewell

More evidence of water mills on the Wye

Lunch

Church of the Holy Trinity, Ashford in the Water

Sheepwash Bridge, Ashford, a packhorse bridge with an attached stone sheepwash

Water mill on River Wye

Wild garlic

Eaton, Scalford, Goadby Marwood and Melton on the Jubilee Way, 16th May 2018

 

Richard's pleasant linear 8½ mile walk took us down the Jubilee Way (mainly) from Eaton to Goadby Marwood, Scalford and back to Melton Mowbray via the Country Park.

The turnout was good for a mid-week walk in May but there was some difficulty with stiles.

First stop was Goadby Marwood's St Denys' Church, visited earlier in the year.

Lurking round the back and missed previously was the impressive 17th-century Goadby Hall.

Then it was on to Scalford's Church of St Egelwin the Martyr (one of Leicestershire's seven Ironstone Churches) for lunch ...

... and through the Country Park and back to the start.

  

But, just in case you are thinking about doing the walk yourself, be quick.  The Number 25 bus used to get from Melton to Eaton will soon be axed.

Stamford Four-Counties walk, 13th May 2018

 

A short stroll around Stamford to admire its impressive architecture before following the Welland upstream to Tinwell in Rutland, then up to Easton-on-the-Hill in Northamptonshire, across to Burghley Park and House in Cambridgeshire and back through Stamford (in Lincolnshire). Hence the Four Counties Walk.

The four counties almost meet at a point where the railway passes under the A1 (see arrow on map).  If they did, this location would be the only county boundary quadripoint in England. Unfortunately, the two tripoints, Cambridgeshire/Northamptonshire/Lincolnshire and Rutland/Northamptonshire/Lincolnshire are not coincident, they are 20m apart!

View of River Welland looking downstream from the bridge onto Town Meadows


Tinwell Mill - mills on this site date back to the Domesday Book

All Saints Church, Easton-on-the-Hill - the best kept gravestones in ???shire

Easton-on-the-Hill Village Hall, one of many fine buildings in the village

Wothorpe House just west of the A1

Wothorpe house - in better repair than the one on the wrong side of the A1

 View of Stamford across the Welland Valley

North and South Bottle Lodges - entry to Burleigh Park

Lunch near the lake, Burleigh House in the background

Aha, a ha-ha!
 
River bank protection on the Welland

A very select group today

Remains of 12th century St Leonard's Priory

Burghley Almhouses, (Lord Burghley's Hospital), Station Road, Stamford dating back to 1597

Kelham Hills, 5th May 2018

Janet led twenty-two ramblers on a 6½ mile circular walk from Kelham Hall to Averham and Muskham Woodhouse. The sun shone in a bright blue sky and the fields were bright yellow with flowering rape.

The start ...

...at Kelham Hall

Coffee stop

Averham horse training circuit ...  and our back marker