Autumn Walk to Egglestone Abbey

England’s ruins are particularly wonderful when they’re set against the colours of Autumn. It’s a while since we’d visited Egglestone Abbey on the banks of the River Tees, so we returned last week on a gorgeous Autumnal day, walking out from Barnard Castle, once in Yorkshire but now in County Durham. Walking not just in

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On Gibbet Hill

To the west of Dartmoor is Gibbet Hill, a rounded prominence offering good views and grim memories.. For it was here that criminals who were hanged were gibbeted after death – as an example to others tempted to stray off the straight and narrow. There were many gibbets across the land – for execution was

Turnpikes, Toll Gates, Fly Agaric, the South Tyne and the Pennine Way

There was a wonderful cloud inversion as we drove up Hartside on the way to Garrigill, for a walk along the Pennine Way and the South Tyne Trail. One of the best we’ve seen for a long time, hiding the levels of the Eden and the Solway. The high Pennines around were high above the

The Teignmouth and Dawlish Way

One of the best ways to keep rights of way open is to devise and publicise local walking routes for people to follow. You don’t need to invent a Pennine Way or a Coast to Coast route. Just link some paths together to provide a circular or linear trail, publish a guide and encourage people

In the Steps of the Egglestone Abbey Monks

When you walk out from the little County Durham town of Barnard Castle to the ruins of Egglestone Abbey, you are not just walking in the steps of the Premonstratensian monks who lived there, but also following in the tread of Charles Dickens and JMW Turner, and many other Victorian luminaries. Turner painted scenes on