W/C 10th May 2014 - Hardwick Hall Circular

The Sutton-in-Ashfield Ramblers do occasional short mid-week evening walks, in addition to their weekend rambles. This week they were doing one around the grounds of Hardwick Hall. I decided to make a proper walk of it by walking there and back too - a total walk of around 17 miles. It gave me a chance to try one or two paths I had never walked before, as well as seeing the highest points in Nottinghamshire along the way.

Passing by the western side of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, I turned off the B6018 road into Doles Lane. This is a narrow track that leads down to Kirkby Dumbles. On my last walk, it was too dark to take photos in The Dumbles by the time I walked through. This time, it was earlier in the day - and a beautiful, sunny afternoon too!

Shortly after leaving the main road, I got this view back north east towards Kirkby.

This part of Kirkby is deceptively flat, sitting on a plateau, high above land to the west and south west. There is a steep drop down towards the Erewash Valley. Here is a view shooting into the sun, showing the start of the drop.

The lane eventually changes to a muddy footpath and turns sharp right down to the edge of "The Dumbles", a narrow, steep-sided valley. There are several of these in the surrounding area - said to have been created by melt water from glaciers at the end of the last ice age. The sides of the valley were covered with bluebells.

A stream runs along the bottom of the valley - a tributary of the River Erewash.

I crossed the stream and headed along a footpath past Crow Trees Farm and on to the A38 main road. Looking back to the east, the edge of the Kirkby "plateau" was visible on the horison.

The footpath crosses a road to Pinxton and past an industrial estate before reaching the A38. I crossed this and walked up Common Road the the centre of Huthwaite. I then turned north west along Chesterfield Road to the viewpoint at Strawberry Bank. This has been recognised as the highest natural point in Nottinghamshire by the local council. They have placed a plaque there showing the distances to other nearby high points.

The panorama is certainly worth stopping for, even though trees are gradually obscuring the view and industrial building stick out in the landscape. This is the view south. To the south west, views of the Derbyshire hills are clearly visible, but the sun was too strong from that direction to make a decent photo possible this late in the day.

I carried on along the main road past the Woodend Inn. Beyond here, the road climbs towards what some people claim to be slightly higher than Strawberry Bank. On the way, I could see a long way across fields, to the east.

What has recently been claimed as the highest point in Nottinghamshire is just off Newtonwood Lane. A footpath heads north from Newtonwood Lane past the hill top, dominated by ugly masts. The Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border straddles the hill. More or less at the top of the hill, I got a long distance view of Hardwick Hall, on a ridge far to the north, well hidden by trees.

This is the view to the east from the same spot. The tops of the cooling towers of a power station on the River Trent were visible.

I crossed the B6014 and headed up Wharf Road, which is directly opposite the end of the footpath. This is so named because there used to be a coal wharf along here, where coal was sold to surrounding communities. At the end of Wharf Road, a footpath heads straight on through a short section of woodland and out across the fields.

To the east, the highest unnatural point in Nottinghamshire comes into view - the old pit tip for Silverhill Colliery. This has been converted into a nature park, with footpaths and the statue of a miner at the top.

According to Wikepedia, a survey to determine the true highest point was carried out in 2010. Strawberry Bank was measured at 202 metres (663 ft), Silverhill as 204.3 metres (670 ft) and the results showed that Newtonwood Lane was the highest point at 205 metres (673 ft). Still not very high compared with the lofty heights of Derbyshire though!

By now, Hardwich Hall was becoming more visible amongst the trees. I could also see Bolsover Castle glinting in the sunshine in the very far distance.

Here is an enlargement of the photo with Bolsover Castle ringed on the left and Hardwick Hall ringed on the right.

Carrying on across fields, the footpath eventually descends to run alongside the M1 motorway. But for the noise of the traffic, this would be a really tranquil spot!

At the end of this woodland, the footpath takes a sharp turn to the right, presenting this panorama of Hardwick Hall.

At the end of the footpath, I crossed a minor road and headed through a car park to the Hardwick Inn to wait for the others on the Sutton Ramblers walk.

Here is a closer view of the buildings of Hardwick Hall, still well hidden by trees!

We walked along the bottom edge of the park, around the larger lakes.

It was really beautiful amongst the water and the trees.

We then headed up past the smaller ponds.

We then climbed the steep slope towards Ault Hucknall. At last, a decent view of the buildings - with the newer building on the left and the old one on the right.

Just before Ault Hucknall church we turned along the outside of the park boundary, before turning south into the park again. I soon had to take my leave of the rest of the group as the sun was fading fast and I had a long way to walk home! I took a short cut towards Lady Spencer's Walk. The woodland was very peaceful, save for birdsong.

On reaching the main path, I turned left towards Norwood Lane. At the end of the houses, I took a footpath across the fields towards Teversal. The moon - a full one - was just rising.

Beyond here, it got too dark to take photographs. The full moon did allow me to walk further along unlit footpaths than I had originally intended though. I turned right onto the Teversal Trail, then left along the link path to the Skegby Trail. I then followed the Skegby Trail on to Sutton. By 10pm it was really getting dark, so I was relieved to be able to walk along well-lit streets on the last mile or two home.

This was my first evening walk with the Sutton-in-Ashfield Ramblers. It was very pleasant! Many thanks to the Group for organising it.

I was really glad I had added my own start and end to the walk though - just the kind of distance I needed to get my legs working again after the weekend's longer walk.