A short walk on a bright and breezy afternoon. Perhaps ten or a dozen deer trotted through the woods as I headed away from Wyke – impossible to photograph, just glimpes among the trees

The last few days have been cold, with a biting wind. It didn’t seem much warmer today – but the wind had dropped, making for very pleasant walking conditions. This was just a short “breath of fresh air” walk, but none the worse for it.

I’d intended the walk to be circular – up Ashes Hollow to Pole Bank, returning by Callow Hollow, or possibly the ridge just to the south. But reality wasn’t as good as the forecast – the rain started half-way through lunch, and the clouds looked heavy and threatening. So I set off back down Ashes Hollow (at first down the shorter tributary that starts near Pole Cottage). Halfway down the hollow, the sky cleared and the sun came out again…

I’d seen the ledge path, above the stream on its south side, on the map. Perhaps it would provide a slightly different return route?
– it did. Clearly a made path, but used primarily by four-legged, woolly walkers. Not for the faint-hearted, but an interesting alternative with great views down into the Ashes Hollow.

   

   

   

   

One of those days when the sky seems bigger than usual – must be the height of those huge shower clouds that were drifting about, looking ominous. We managed to miss them all – just a few spots in the wind…

   

   

   

Four miles in one of the quieter parts of the forest, with varied woodland and one or two attractive clearings. It is Walk 2248 – Wimperhill Wood and Longdon Orchard on the Walking Britain site. So there’s no Google map this time (it’s almost impossible to see the path for all the trees) – do take the 1:25,000 though…

   

   

   

   

A Wenlock Edge walk, on an afternoon that threatened rain (we had to use the wipers on the short drive to the start of the walk) but improved as time went by. Excellent refreshments at Wilderhope Manor (NT / YHA), not far from the end of the walk.

   

   

   

A walk from (delightfully named!) The Bog. It was a bright sunny afternoon when we left home; by the time we’d walked to Shelve Pool it was raining – I’m sure it wasn’t forecast. “It will only be a shower” as we sheltered beneath the trees. It was only a shower, fortunately…
Great refreshments at The Bog Visitor Centre, housed in the old school

   

   

   

   

A walk through Chestnut Coppice and the riverside path to Apley bridge, back via Astley Abbots and Boldings Pools

   

   

   

   

   

A walk on the “Fenn’s, Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve”

   

   

   

A walk from Hay Bridge, via Chelmarsh reservoir, to Hampton Loade – and back along the riverside path.

   

Curiously, the Yorkshire Dales poster uses a few lines of Housman’s “A Shropshire Lad” to extol their virtues…

Across the glittering pastures
And empty upland still
And solitude of shepherds
High in the folded hill