An afternoon walk around the Hafod Estate

We’ve visited Wales three times in the last 6 months. In fact, we can narrow it down further – we’ve been to Ceredigion three times in the last 6 months. One of the aspects that we particularly love is the countryside. On our last visit, we spent a day walking on the Hafod Estate (pronounced ‘Havod’). The area has a fascinating history and stunning scenery. It’s fully open to the public to wander around and enjoy.

We parked up near picturesque Eglwys Newydd (Hafod Church).

There are a number of trails to choose from of varying distances and difficulties. You can also mix different trails to get the perfect walk for you. We combined the full red trail with half the blue, which took about 3 hours or so.

You can click on the map below to go to a large, downloadable PDF version – you don’t want to get lost!

The trails are well signposted, but still feel natural and wild. There are woods, pastures, rivers and streams criss-crossed by numerous bridges. Rocky outcrops and waterfalls are dotted throughout the landscape.

There are certainly lots of perfect spots to stop for a cup of tea or sandwich.

…unfortunately, we forgot to bring one!

The red trail, or Gentleman’s Walk (‘Rhodfa’r Bonheddwr’, in Welsh), culminates at Cavern Cascade.

Mere still photos don’t do the falls justice. You can hear the force of the water in our film clip below.

The Gentleman’s Walk rejoined the Lady’s near the quaint Pwll Pendre (Hawthorn Cottage).

If we’ve got you excited about visiting the Estate, this cottage is available as a holiday let. It’s a beautiful cottage in a spectacular location, overlooking a pretty little pond. Now, that really would be a perfect place for that cup of tea and sandwich!

We really enjoyed our day at the Hafod Estate – and can thoroughly recommend it if you’re ever in the area. We’ll certainly be visiting again!

Out & About… Bingley

Last Sunday we went Out & About in Bingley, West Yorkshire. The walk was organised by Natalie on behalf of Turtle Mat. It brought together various bloggers from the Yorkshire area.

Bingley is a town we’ve always wanted to see a bit more of; we’ve driven through it a couple of times, but have always been on our way somewhere and couldn’t stop.

Our guide for the day was Cedric – originally from France, but a firm Yorkshire fan and indeed, Bingley resident. We can say straight away that from first impressions it’s a lovely little place.

We all met up at the train station and, from our brief view of the town centre, we could see that there were lots of beautiful buildings & interesting corners to save for later visits. A river & canal run through its centre and there seems to be real history all around. By the looks of things, there’s no shortage of shops, pubs & cafés too.

Within a few short minutes of setting off, we’d found ourselves in an attractive open park, then passed some charming & well-tended allotments – then into pretty countryside and the grounds of St Ives Estate.

We stopped to take in the view on rocks overlooking the valley and Ilkley Moor beyond.

From here, we dropped back down into town to have our lunch at the Brown Cow pub. We started with a well-deserved pint from a good range on offer. Adelle chose bubble & squeak with poached egg and watercress sauce.

Justin opted for traditional fish & chips – Fudge was hungry too and was hoping for a dropped chip!

Despite not having much space left, we couldn’t resist dessert to finish. Treacle tart with raspberry coulis for Adelle…

…and waffles and ice cream for Justin.

We were each given a Turtle Mat to take home… perfect for post-walk muddy boots and dirty paws.

On the day of the walk we enjoyed beautiful warm sunshine, so no mud to speak of that day. We’ve had plenty of opportunity to test out the mat since though – well, we live in the Pennines after all!

It’s found the perfect home by the front door and it really does work wonders. Our carpets and rugs might now stand a chance of staying clean!!

[disclosure*]

Rain

We had a lovely long walk last weekend, taking in Blackstone Edge which sits right on the border of West Yorkshire & Greater Manchester (Lancashire really!!).

As we walked along one of the bridleway tracks this striking outcrop of gritstone rock came into view.

Lovely in its own right, but it had a little extra secret to unveil as we got closer.

Expertly chiselled into its surface was a poem entitled RAIN.

We suspected it might have been written by Simon Armitage when we saw the SA, but weren’t sure. Having since done a bit of research, we now know that it’s one in a series of elemental works by him entitled The Stanza Stones dotted around the Pennines. They were commissioned by Ilkley Literature Festival. Other titles include Snow, Mist, Dew, Puddle and Beck.

Ironically, it was a glorious sunny day but the Pennines are certainly no strangers to the watery stuff. It’s a fundamental force in shaping this landscape.

It’s a beautiful poem and we found it very life affirming – and strangely wished that we were standing in the rain reading it – the rock’s surface glistening and droplets running down our faces. Justin read it out loud and we recorded it on a mobile phone – so we’d be sure to have the words when we got home. We needn’t have worried as there’s a lovely book available called The Stanza Stones published by Enitharmon. Justin is a bit embarrassed, but his open air reading has been embedded at the bottom of this post – his Northern accent suits it! 🙂 All that’s missing is the pitter-patter of rain in the background.

We’re now very keen to read the book and visit the other works in this series.

RAIN

Be glad of these freshwater tears,
Each pearled droplet some salty old sea-bullet
Air-lifted out of the waves, then laundered and sieved, recast as a soft bead and returned.
And no matter how much it strafes or sheets, it is no mean feat to catch one raindrop clean in the mouth,
To take one drop on the tongue, tasting cloud pollen, grain of the heavens, raw sky.
Let it teem, up here where the front of the mind distils the brunt of the world.

Click the little triangle on the left to hear Justin reading the poem

Stanza Stones is available from Amazon.

If you fancy giving the walk(s) a go you can download the Stanza StoneS Poetry trail GUiDeMarsden to IlkleyShort family walks and 47 mile trail guide from the Ilkley Literature Festival website.

Towneley Park birdsong

'Towneley Park birdsong' blog post banner

Justin was off to an auction view this morning so I decided to go along for the drive and take Fudge somewhere different for his walk – Towneley Park.

It’s a beautiful, well maintained park in Burnley – the former grounds of Towneley Hall, where the BBC film Antiques Master with Sandi Toksvig.

Anyway, it made a lovely change – lots of different sights & sounds to our normal stomping ground. So much so that I stopped and recorded a 30-second clip of the beautiful birdsong. The volume’s a bit low, but get your twitcher hats on, click the red button and tell me how many different calls can you recognise?

H is for Home Harbinger

Category: walking

An afternoon walk around the Hafod Estate

Out & About… Bingley

Rain

Towneley Park birdsong