Betchcott Hill – geoffspages.blog

Another ideal afternoon for wandering on Shropshire’s hills. We’ve parked at Bridges (very handy for the Horseshoe Inn, which seems to be called the Bridges now), and we’re heading north-east beside Darnford Brook, to reach the skyline at Betchcott Hill. The last short ascent is by the aptly-named “Golden Valley”, lined with glowing gorse. This is a walk of four parts: part two now begins as we turn through 90 degrees and head south-east along the ridge of the grassy hill, following the ancient Port Way. Part three starts when we reach the heather-clad Long Mynd – another 90 degree turn, still on the Port Way, taking us to the Shooting Box. Now it’s downhill (almost) all the way, with heather giving way to grassland near the derelict ruin that bears the unlikely name of “Priory Cottage”, according to the map. From Coates Farm, a quiet road takes us back down to Bridges, and a most welcome pint of Three Tuns – a perfect pint in a perfect spot on a perfect afternoon – XXX

More on XXX here https://www.threetunsbrewery.co.uk/pages/our-beers

View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=341105&Y=296796&A=Y&Z=120

Thresholds is a farm, at the northern end of Betchcott hill, between Picklescott and Ratlinghope (yes, really – this is Shropshire); sunspots are sunspots. The morning’s mist cleared to a blue sky; we chose a route which should make the most of the sunshine. There’s no wind to speak of, it’s a beautiful afternoon to be out on the hills. There’s still some snow too – it’s melting, but there’s plenty of white in the landscape. As we drove to the start of the walk, we could see banks of mist away to the north, with the Wrekin behind. As we turned back towards the car at Thresholds, the view to the north opened up again – in the place of the mist, there was a sea of murk. Before we knew it, the murk had engulfed us – not thick fog, but an eerie mist through which a pale sun was barely visible.

Sunspots: I took a couple of pictures of the aforementioned pale sun with the lens at full zoom; when I studied them 1:1 on the computer screen, I could see darker spots on the sun. First thought: dust spots on the camera sensor. Then I realised they were in the same place on the sun in both pictures, though the sun was in a different part of the picture. A quick check on the web – see http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/synoptic/sunspots_earth/sunspots_512_20150208.jpg – confirmed my guess. Sunspots! Haven’t seen sunspots before…