A moderate walk suitable for a family with older children but unsuitable for wheels. Takes you through quieter parts of the Blaise estate and Henbury gold course.
(D/A) Start in the small bottom car park on The Dingle just off Canford Lane (or park up the road if busy). Follow the river until you reach steep steps to the right going down to a little concrete bridge by rope swing. The rope swing is actually pretty decent with a loop in the bottom for your feet and made of some industrial strapping. Head up through the trees and climb steeply to the top keeping the low wall on your left. This is fairly steep, rocky and muddy so you won't find too many people up this way even on a busy Sunday.
(1) Once you reach the top of the hill, you can enter the golf course on the right (avoid the manicured greens). Check out the trees and thickets for lost golf balls! We visited here during lockdown so there was no golf but if there was, you would just continue on the original path.
(2) To the north of golf course there are some enchanted woods where can pick up the path again going northeast. On the day we visited, there was a low mist making these quiet woods almost ethereal and slightly eerie. Follow the steep path down the hill, eventually joining the larger (and busier) paved area, follow the river back to the car park.(D/A)
Waypoints :
D/A : mi 0 - alt. 75ft - Car park
1 : mi 0.48 - alt. 249ft - Top of the hill
2 : mi 1.22 - alt. 269ft - Wood
D/A : mi 2.49 - alt. 75ft - Car park
This walk is only possible because Golf Course is closed due to covid.
You'll need sturdy footwear or good walking wellies in the winter.
Visorando and this author cannot be held responsible in the case of accidents or problems occuring on this walk.
The gorge is at its deepest below Lover’s Leap. You can see massive cliffs of steeply tilted white Carboniferous Limestone. It is difficult to see exactly how the Gorge was formed. It would have been directly influenced by the most recent Ice Age up to 100,000 years ago.
The Church of St Mary the Virgin dates back to 1093, with various rebuilding over the years until an extensive refurbishment in 1878. Look out for two notable graves; an obelisk memorial to the Egyptologist Amelia Edwards and coloured head and foot stones of ‘Scipio Africanus’, a negro slave.
Built in 1795 for John Scandret Harford by William Paty. A solid, simple design placed on a rise so as to appear bigger. Harford was responsible for commissioning landscape architect Humphrey Repton and thereafter, architect John Nash who designed the Orangery, Dairy and nearby Blaise Hamlet. More ornate additions representing a Greek classical influence were made to both the exterior and interior of the house from 1832-3 by C R Cockerell on instruction from J S Harford Jnr.
Passing by Goram’s Chair, Tarn Lake, Beech Cathedral, Lily Pond, Rhododendron Walk, Rustic Lodge, Woodman’s Cottage.
Walk passing by Iron Age Hill Fort, Echo Gate, Arbutus walk, Kingsweston Down and wildflower meadows.
It is 150 years since The Clifton and Durdham Downs (Bristol) Act, 1861 secured the Downs as a place of recreation for us all – forever. This trail and a second trail exploring the Promenade and Observatory Hill celebrate this anniversary and explore the rich and fascinating history of the Downs.
This is a circular walk from Pill.
It is 150 years since The Clifton and Durdham Downs (Bristol) Act, 1861 secured the Downs as a place of recreation for us all – forever. This trail and a second trail exploring Durdham Down celebrate this anniversary and explore the rich and fascinating history of the Downs.
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The GPS track and description are the property of the author.