I had to go to the Nottingham City Hospital for a meeting this week. Naturally, I decided to walk. The total distance there and back was around 26 miles. The day was very misty, due to severe air pollution over the UK. Also, I experienced some rain as I got close to home on the return leg. Because of the weather, I took relatively few photos.
This shot, taken around 6:45am on the outskirts of Kirkby shows how the day started out.
I passed through Portland Park, a nature reserve with several very nice walks.
Beyond here, I was in a hurry to make my appointment, so didn't stop to take any more pictures on the outward leg. Basically, I headed for Annesley and then through woodland and over Misk Hill to Hucknall. I walked around the bypass, before crossing the railway and tramway near Bestwood Village. I then followed old railway lines, converted to pathways, to the hospital.
On the return leg, I headed out to Oxclose Lane and then into the Bestwood Country Park. This park has a very inauspicious entrance, but gets much more interesting in a relatively short distance.
The park includes some beautiful woodland. Much of this is filled with rhododendron bushes which are very colourful when flowering.
The highlight is Bestwood Lodge, now a hotel. The whole estate was granted by King Charles the Second to his illegitimate son, the Duke of St Albans. The Duke's mother was Nell Gwynne, the king's mistress.
The building incorporates a wild variety of architectural styles.
This is the chapel.
Beyond the hotel, there is open grassland and woodland, including Big Wood.
The picturesque Alexandra Lodge is a gatehouse on the lane from Bestwood Lodge down to Bestwood Village.
Just a little way past Alexandra Lodge are some estate cottages and an old vicarage.
Here is a close-up of the vicarage - difficult to shoot well because of the trees.
Further down the lane, I turned right onto a footpath skirting the northern edge of Bestwood Village. This place is a former industrial village. It had a large coal mine and ironworks at one time, though little is left now. A reminder of the coal mine is seen here, preserved, in the middle distance.
This is the view from more or less the same spot, looking back towards the old vicarage, seen in the centre of the picture.
Looking to the north, the hills were still shrouded in mist. The old Hucknall Colliery tip (now a golf course) is on the left.
Beyond the end of the footpath, I crossed the main road into the Bestwood Lakes Country Park.
I then turned north towards Hucknall. The parish church here is the last resting place of the infamous poet and adventurer, Lord Byron. This church is unusual in that the transepts are very long in proportion to the rest of the building.
I then headed along West Street, Wood Lane and Whyburn Lane towards Misk Hill. This was the view from Whyburn Lane looking north towards Newstead.
As I reached the top of the climb, it began raining quite hard, so I stopped taking pictures. I returned via Annesley and Kirkby, slightly wet but glad I had managed yet another interesting walk.
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