Walk #1 Craswall, Herefordshire

The fantastic ridge walk on Black Hill 

Walk 9 out of 100

Walk #1 - Craswall, Herefordshire

Overall Rating - ✪✪✪✪

Suggested Difficulty - Moderate

My Difficulty Rating - ✪✪✪

Suggested Time - 3h 30m

Actual Time Taken - 3h 25m

Distance in book - 12km

Map my walk Distance - errrrrm... 12km?

The Bull's Head, start/finish

Firstly for this walk I must apologise for my technical fault as the route on map my walk has the first hour missing as I was so far in the sticks that my phone could not pick up a GPS signal to track the route. Onwards and upwards! The walk starts at the Bull's Head pub in Craswall which has road parking outside. 

I gave this walk a four star, if I'm honest it could have been a two star if it wasn't for the fantastic walk along the narrow ridge line from the summit of Black Hill. The main flaw with the route was the vague directions provided to get up Black Hill. In the end I just said 'SOD IT' and picked a direct route straight up the steep hill, very tiring, felt like a little mountain goat! The steep climb was the only difficult part of the walk physically, the hardest part was finding the path up Black Hill.  

RAIN AHOY!

Jiminy very wary of the huge rain cloud approaching...

RAIN!

Great views from Black Hill

As you can see from the above photographs, I did get rained on, pretty heavily for about 10 minutes whilst on the hill. I do not think it is a coincidence that this happened on a walk that crosses the Welsh border! The weather changes very quickly up there so make sure you are prepared, thankfully I saw the huge rain cloud heading straight for me. I'd recommend this walk for anybody but if you don't fancy the whole route, there is a car park located at the bottom of the ridge line so you can just go up to the summit and back.

Oh and I saw so many sheep on this walk (again, close to Wales!), it was quite nice to see a cow...

Thanks for reading,

Stef.

Here's the link to the walk on 'Map My Walk'

And follow me on Twitter @stefanvilla1991

Walk #43 Ward's Stone, Bowland, Lancashire

Walk 8 out of 100

Walk #43 - Ward's Stone, Bowland
Lancashire 

Overall Rating - ✪✪✪✪

Suggested Difficulty - Challenging

My Difficulty Rating - ✪✪✪

Suggested Time - 5 hours

Actual Time Taken - 4h 28m

Distance in book - 17km

Map my walk Distance - 19.87km

Abbeystead, Start/Finish

This week I ventured into Northern England for my next walk, not quite North of the wall just yet. This very rugged walk went through remote and beautiful moorland. The walk started in the small village of Abbeystead, lots of parking space available outside the school so no parking charges, winner!

Lee

I gave this walk a four popcorn rating as it provided pretty much everything I like in a good country walk. There were plenty of great views from the top of Ward's Stone, lots of wildlife, and a variety of terrain to walk on. I have to say the best part of the walk was the remoteness, I did not see another person walking until I made it back to the village. Some walks can be spoilt a little from over crowding.

I wouldn't class this walk as particularly challenging, there was a steady incline up Ward's Stone but for half of it you are walking along well kept gravel tracks and the majority of the other paths are fairly soggy peat, hard to follow at times but nothing too difficult. It may however be a lot more tricky in bad weather, and I could imagine the peaty areas getting far more boggy.

Approaching Ward's Stone

The second trig point on Ward's Stone

There are a few interesting rock formations along the plateau of Ward's Stone, all with random names to try and make them more interesting than just rocks; The Queen's Chair and The Grey Mare with Foal. So for all you rock lovers out there...

I would give this walk a high recommendation for those who love great views, the view over Morcambe Bay and Lancaster is pretty impressive. Also for those who like the idea of getting off the beaten track a little more, but if you are not comfortable being out on your own, take a mate.

Thanks for reading,

Stef.

Here's the link to the walk on 'Map My Walk'

And follow me on Twitter @stefanvilla1991