Vicar Water and Clipstone Forest, 25th February 2024

Sue's 7½ mile walk today started at the Vicar Water Country Park Visitor Centre, Clipstone and took 16 of us first downstream to Vicar Pond and then on to the Dog and Duck near Kings Clipstone.  There followed good tracks in and around Sherwood Pines Forest Park before we returned to the start.

View from main road of the magnificent Clipstone Colliery headstocks

The start in the Country Park

This 10ft Golden Hand statue in the Country Park was commissioned around 20 years ago by national cycling group Sustrans as a feature of their National Cycle Network

Worth waiting for since dawn

Rear view of the headstocks - once the tallest in Europe

The best view of King John's Palace, the remains of a former medieval royal residence.  It is not known how the building became associated with King John as he only spent a total of nine days there!

Safety briefing at the Dog and Duck

Coffee stop in the Forest Park

Extreme clear felling

Lunch stop on top of a borehole down to the Sherwood sandstone aquifer

Under one of the disused railway lines connecting the colliery to the local power stations

Back into the Country Park for tea and cakes for some