Two valleys
Dec. 6th, 2009 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustYesterday's walk was determined by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
durham_rambler's desire to investigate an application to 'divert' a footpath. Permission had been granted for a farm building in the conservation area not far from the city, on the basis that no footpath would be affected; now there was an application to divert a footpath, which would be clipped by a corner of the building [this is a little approximate, as it relies on my memory of the legal details, and because I am trying to be discreet about the precise location].
We wouldn't normally choose to walk through farmland in December, still less in a December as wet as this one has so far been - considering which, it really wasn't too muddy. The footpath we were trying to check was, in fact, obstructed before we reached the crucial point: to get into the field where the building was to be sited, we would have had to cross a barbed wire fence on a stile consisting of a single cross-plank, sloping steeply downwards towards a stream which had evidently been bridged at some point in the past, but is no longer. We didn't even try.
Instead we turned right and picked up another path, following a field edge and then emerging surprisingly high above the thin silver thread of the stream. We found a way down, and along a rising valley (this was the muddy bit, but it was charming in its small scale, and I was happy to have discobvered it) which ended in a padlocked gate, a huddle of cows and a broken stile waymarked 'Crowtrees Heritage Trails' (with a logo of a butterfly, probably the Durham Argus). Back home, I've been seaching for information about the trails, but it's all about the funding and launch in 2006, not about the actual route, or where you can find information about it. Ah, well.
A stretch along the road, and a pleasanter stretch along a disused railway brought us into Cassop, from where we headed down into Cassop Vale. What was once a quarry is now a nature reserve, with all the interesting flora of Durham's Magnesian limestone (which, in December, means hips and haws and some spectacular bullrushes around the pool at the bottom). We emerged to one of those views which are forever taking me by surprise around the City:
the cathedral glimmering in the misty sunlight above the bowl in which it sits, apparently on a level with the sheep grazing unconcerned.
After which it was down the hill and up again, and back down to our starting point. As promised, the overnight rain had cleared, and although the forecast hadn't mentioned the mist, that too came and went. It wasn't a long walk - the original estimate was about five miles, but of course that's not the route we took - just a morning's worth, and enough over that we were well ready for our lunch break. I wouldn't repeat that route as a whole, but there are bits of it I would try to stich into a more satisfactory circuit.
durham_rambler's desire to investigate an application to 'divert' a footpath. Permission had been granted for a farm building in the conservation area not far from the city, on the basis that no footpath would be affected; now there was an application to divert a footpath, which would be clipped by a corner of the building [this is a little approximate, as it relies on my memory of the legal details, and because I am trying to be discreet about the precise location].We wouldn't normally choose to walk through farmland in December, still less in a December as wet as this one has so far been - considering which, it really wasn't too muddy. The footpath we were trying to check was, in fact, obstructed before we reached the crucial point: to get into the field where the building was to be sited, we would have had to cross a barbed wire fence on a stile consisting of a single cross-plank, sloping steeply downwards towards a stream which had evidently been bridged at some point in the past, but is no longer. We didn't even try.
Instead we turned right and picked up another path, following a field edge and then emerging surprisingly high above the thin silver thread of the stream. We found a way down, and along a rising valley (this was the muddy bit, but it was charming in its small scale, and I was happy to have discobvered it) which ended in a padlocked gate, a huddle of cows and a broken stile waymarked 'Crowtrees Heritage Trails' (with a logo of a butterfly, probably the Durham Argus). Back home, I've been seaching for information about the trails, but it's all about the funding and launch in 2006, not about the actual route, or where you can find information about it. Ah, well.
A stretch along the road, and a pleasanter stretch along a disused railway brought us into Cassop, from where we headed down into Cassop Vale. What was once a quarry is now a nature reserve, with all the interesting flora of Durham's Magnesian limestone (which, in December, means hips and haws and some spectacular bullrushes around the pool at the bottom). We emerged to one of those views which are forever taking me by surprise around the City:
the cathedral glimmering in the misty sunlight above the bowl in which it sits, apparently on a level with the sheep grazing unconcerned.
After which it was down the hill and up again, and back down to our starting point. As promised, the overnight rain had cleared, and although the forecast hadn't mentioned the mist, that too came and went. It wasn't a long walk - the original estimate was about five miles, but of course that's not the route we took - just a morning's worth, and enough over that we were well ready for our lunch break. I wouldn't repeat that route as a whole, but there are bits of it I would try to stich into a more satisfactory circuit.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-06 09:49 pm (UTC)::misses::
It has snowed here and all of the town looks like a Christmas card. It's nice to see some green...
no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 07:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 09:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 10:00 am (UTC)