London Loop Section 17, Cockfosters to Enfield Lock

2nd June 

I alighted at Cockfosters Station after a long tube journey from Hounslow West and having made use of the “facilities” exited from the station and turned right down the side of the car park to begin section 17 of the London Loop. A little under 9 miles walking would get me to Enfield Lock station and I’d picked the one dry sunny day forecast in the upcoming week to do it.

Within a few yards of entering the broad tree lined path alongside the cemetery the noise from Cockfosters Road faded away as I headed into the southern part of Trent Park. Turning north through the woods I was grateful for the recent dry weather as the rutted surface of the path indicated that after rain it would have been horribly gloopy. As it was I just had to be careful not to twist an ankle in the hardened ruts. The way-marking of Section 17 leaves a lot to be desired and the directions in the guide are sometimes a bit unclear, in this case regarding which direction to take out of the woods and across a large open grass area so I reached the obelisk near the car park and cafe by a slightly longer than necessary route. After that it was easier to follow the route as it described a backward S northwards through Trent Country Park, alternating between open country and woodland.

Just before reaching Hadley Road I took the suggested short detour to George Grey’s Obelisk to “enjoy the fine view". The fine view was between tall trees framing Trent Park House, former home of Sir Philip Sassoon, in the distance. During the Second World War this became home to high ranking German prisoners of war, along with the MI-19 operatives who listened to their conversations to obtain useful intelligence information, the whole place having been fitted with electronic bugging devices. However today the view was of a huge scaffolding tent enclosing the entire building and with an even taller crane hanging over it. It is being redeveloped into a museum about the house’s history. Along with about 262 houses and flats.

From the obelisk I retraced my steps and crossed Hadley Road. Here the London Loop joins the Enfield Greenways, a walking and cycling path network. The Loop used to run down the hill here on the Jubilee footpath, opened in 1977 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee but although you can just about make out that route it is overgrown and impassable so there’s no choice but to use the newer path.

There are long views across open country here but these will be gone in a few years since hundreds of trees have been planted as part of the Enfield Chase Restoration Project. For now you can walk down to where the route turns right alongside the Salmons Brook while admiring the view and listening to the Skylarks. The sandy path surface makes for easy walking although it does give this section a bit of an “artificial countryside” feeling. This new route replaces now lost older paths alongside the Salmons Brook for another mile or so, first on the south bank before crossing over to the north bank and continuing up the hill to meet The Ridgeway road. Loop way-markers seem to have ceased to be a thing along this part. Because it’s an artificial construct the designers couldn’t resist designing in some pointless twiddly bits which have already started to generate demand paths where the more obvious and shorter route exists. I stopped for my picnic lunch near a small pond along this section. Appropriately there were salmon paste sarnies eaten near the Salmons Brook.

The guide directions on reaching The Ridgeway are frankly a mess, not helped by poor way-marking. The Loop path exits to and crosses the road directly then turns right along the pavement until turning left down Rectory Farm Road (which doesn’t have a street name sign). The Greenways path carries on parallel to the road to a crossing point further down. The guide talks about a dead end section of Greenways and a new path that rejoins the Loop in Rectory Farm Road. Trouble is neither are way-marked. I followed the original route as per the map on my phone. Where the new path meets Rectory Farm Road there is a way-mark pointing back up it for reverse direction Loop walkers but no others. Around the back of Rectory farm the route joins and then crosses the Turkey Brook where I walked steadily up the drive towards the railway bridge. Fortunately I wasn’t tempted to gallop as that isn’t allowed.

Passing under the railway I turned right onto Strayfield Road turning south onto a path opposite St. John the Baptist Church as per the guide - although the map indicates an earlier turning which isn’t way-marked but joins the footpath into Hilly Fields further on. After walking along the edge of an open field I entered the woods and crossed the Turkey Brook again then turned east. The rest of the section would never stray far from the banks of the Turkey Brook. Hilly Fields is a park that is exactly what its name suggests it should be but because the Loop follows the brook it avoids any steep gradients.

The winding path, popular with dog walkers, carries on past the bandstand and eventually meets Clay Hill opposite the Rose & Crown pub. It wasn’t open, probably just as well since the temptation to get inside out of the sun and outside of a cold beer might have ended my walk here 😀

Instead I carried on towards Forty Hall Park, rejoining the Turkey Brook and passing the former course of the New River, London’s new 17th century fresh water supply which still supplies some of the capital’s drinking water today although its original route has been much modified. I decided against a detour to visit Forty Hall due to time constraints and continued beside the Turkey Brook and alongside the large fishing ponds.

I crossed Forty Hill near Maidens Bridge, locally said to be the place where Sir Walter Raleigh spread his cloak over a puddle to allow Queen Elizabeth to continue without wet feet. This probably never happened, similarly he probably didn’t bring her back a sack of spuds from the Americas either. Much good it did him anyway, some years later her successor James 1/6 separated him from his head.

Not far along the Loop crosses the current (ho ho) course of the New River which on this particular afternoon was a scene of much digging activity as work was going on to resurface and or reroute the New River Path.

Most sections of the London Loop eventually have to cross a main arterial road and in this case it is the A10 Great Cambridge Road. A tall metal pedestrian bridge affords views along the road and across Enfield Cemetery but has steep stairs with narrow treads which also seem not to be level, giving the disconcerting feeling that you are being pitched forward when descending them.

A path leads up one side of the cemetery and under the railway just south of Turkey Street Station and from here on it all gets a bit urban, walking beside the roadworks along Turkey Street, passing briefly through the busy shopping area at Hertford Road, then along residential St. Stephen’s Road to a back alley that rejoins the Turkey Brook where it runs into Albany Park with a little group of dodgy-looking geezers accompanied by the sort of dog intended to impress that “we is well ’ard, innit”. Out of the park and a last climb over another pedestrian bridge over the West Anglia main railway line and Section 17 ends next to the Turkey Brook where it passes under a brick arched bridge at the end of Bradley Road.

A short walk along litter-strewn Bradley Road got me to Enfield Lock Station at about the same time as apparently the whole of Oasis Academy Enfield School. The Railway Inn wasn’t open so I joined them on the train. At least I’d got there in time to tap in before peak Oyster hours.

Here's the Flickr Album (34 photos). 

 

London Loop Section 17 ✅

 

 

 

 

May road trip journal, part 7

Day 9, Castle Douglas to Stoney Middleton via Nostell Priory. 228 miles.

When I departed Castle Douglas after breakfast my ETA at my next overnight stopping point was before check in time so I looked for somewhere to visit on the way. Nostell Priory, a National Trust property in West Yorkshire fitted the bill and I might as well make use of my NT membership for something other than free parking at Runnymede. The A75 got me to Gretna where I joined the M6 into England. At Penrith I left the motorway and crossed the Pennines on the A66 until joining the A1(M) at Scotch Corner and leaving it at Pontefract to head south west to Nostell Priory.

Nostell Priory is a Palladian house in West Yorkshire, on the road to Doncaster from Wakefield. It dates from 1733 and was built for the Winn family on the site of a medieval priory. The Winns were socially upwardly mobile textile merchants and the house was intended, as with so many such buildings, to show off their wealth and status. That wealth didn’t always match their ambitions. Robert Adam was commissioned to design additional wings but only one was completed so the frontage of the house is very obviously asymmetrical. Adam added a double staircase to the front of the house, and designed buildings on the estate, including the stable block where you’ll find the toilets, cafes, gift shop etc. The house has impressive interiors, Adam ceilings, lots of Chippendale furniture, lots of paintings, the usual stately home stuff. For me the most notable item was a longcase clock, with an almost completely wooden internal mechanism, made by John Harrison in 1717.

John Harrison was born but half a mile from the house and his stepfather worked on the estate as a carpenter. He developed an early interest in clocks and followed his stepfather into the carpenters trade, hence the wooden clock mechanism. Later he would become famous for developing accurate seagoing timepieces to solve the problem of determining Longitude at sea. Despite successfully producing such clocks he never received all of the monetary reward that was due (although he did eventually become a very rich man) and was badly treated by the establishment, the “gentlemen scientists” of which were loathe to acknowledge that a carpenter’s son had succeeded where they had not. Generations of sailors however have good reason to hold John Harrison in high regard.

Nostell kept me occupied for a couple of hours but I had to move on. I stopped for fuel near Wakefield and headed down the M1 towards Sheffield. For some reason known only to itself the sat-nav decided to go the “wrong” way around Sheffield which meant sitting in miles of crawling traffic before finally escaping into the Derbyshire Dales.

I arrived at The Moon Inn, Stoney Middleton at well past five o’clock, checked in and put the kettle on for a much needed cuppa. This time I didn’t need to put the kettle on the floor to plug it in. It was a nice room up in the first floor roof space, accessed by an outside door at the rear of the pub.

I had intended going for a chippy tea but it wasn’t open so ate at the inn instead. After dinner I’d planned on going for a wander around Stoney Middleton but looking outside saw that it was actually pissing down. Summer had arrived. Of course I had left my coat in my room. Since I’d have got wet going to my room I decided a better plan involved another pint and wait for the rain to let up after which I no longer felt the urge to walk around a wet Derbyshire village so I retired early.

Day 10, Stoney Middleton to Home. 181 miles.

I treated myself to a last holiday full English breakfast then checked out of the inn and since it was a fine sunny morning took a brief turn around the village.

It’s quite picturesque, lots of stone buildings including a church and a toll-gate cottage which is also the Fish and Chip shop with the disappointing opening hours. In a little garden nearby to the tollbar is a large circular blue plaque bearing the following text:

BOOT AND SHOEMAKERS’ STRIKE

1918-1920

In tribute to the women and men of Stoney Middleton and Eyam who were on strike for over two years and set up their own co-operative factory. They sought the reinstatement of sacked colleagues, shorter working hours, a war bonus and recognition of their trade union, the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives.

Their action inspired workers in other local industries to join unions, and paved the way for better wages and working conditions for later generations.

Good on ’em, I say.

It was time to go home. Once again I picked a route avoiding the M25 despite the sat-nav insisting that it would be a whole 8 minutes quicker. Except it wouldn’t, it never is. I got home mid afternoon, unpacked and started on the big pile of laundry. The cupboards & fridge were looking a bit sparsely populated so I got a Ruby Murray delivered, shopping could wait until tomorrow.

Epilogue.

I’ve gone through the photos and got the album down to only 290 items. You can see them on Flickr here.

I drove a total of around 1,584 miles.

Accommodation cost was £962.31

Did I have a good time? Yes.

Would I do it again? Also yes, or at least something similar. I’d like to explore more of Dumfries & Galloway. I might stretch the driving to cut out the first and last nights stop overs although it’s a long way.

Should you visit Kintyre? If you haven’t already you certainly should.

Did I see the Beatle? No, I’m told he doesn’t live there anyway so there was no danger of that happening.

May road trip journal, part 6.

Day 8, Leaving Kintyre and driving to Castle Douglas.

I had to be out of the cottage by 10 a.m. got up early, showered, packed and in fact was away at 0930 by which time the cleaner was waiting outside in her car. I grabbed a picnic breakfast from the Co-Op in Campbeltown and stopped near Muasdale to eat it. I stopped for fuel at Lochgilphead, passed through Inveraray and had an uneventful journey until just after Cairndow where road works had closed the main A83 Rest And Be Thankful road. A one-way convoy system had been set up along the single track Old Military Road which wound its way through they valley below the A83 for a couple of miles. I think I was fortunate to time my arrival a few minutes before a southbound convoy started off so wasn’t delayed too long. There was a very long queue headed northbound at the other end of the works. It was a little adventure anyway along a road you wouldn’t normally get to see.

I’d opted to avoid Loch Lomond since there had been roadworks there on the way up and it’s generally a busy route anyway. Instead I took the A814 at Arrochar down the east side of Loch Long and once the idiot in a hired van doing 10 mph got the message and pulled in to let the queue he’d created get by I made good progress down past the naval bases at Garelochhead until I stopped at Rhu just west of Motherwell to stretch my legs.

As you can see the hot sunny weather had been replaced now with cloudy skies. I had to put on a jumper.

I arrived in Castle Douglas around half past four in the afternoon and having eventually worked out how to get to the car park of the Imperial Hotel I checked in. The Imperial Hotel. It sounds grand doesn’t it? It might have been once. Now it was a bit run down and a shadow of its Victorian splendour. The staff were doing their best in a place that really needs some money spending on it. An oversight by housekeeping meant that I had to wait because my room wasn’t ready. I was promised a free pint though in recompense for the inconvenience so that was a win. The room was basic but functional even if the few socket outlets were all located in the wrong places so the kettle had to go on the floor to be plugged in. I made a cuppa then went for a walk around Castle Douglas and got something to eat.

I had picked Castle Douglas as a convenient stop based on distance and nothing more than a little curiosity since twenty-something years ago I’d worked with a guy who came from the town. It’s a fairly ordinary sort of place with a good number of shops - someone in Garlieston had said she liked to go there shopping - and a smattering of interesting Scottish architecture.

I think it helped that the sun had come back out.

On my return I went to the bar and got my free pint, which was Tennents lager. Not because I’m a lager drinker normally but because it was suggested that it or the cider were probably the only two things that were fresh and drinkable. The bar was occupied by a few colourful local characters who had obviously started early and were responsible for keeping the Tennents flowing. One had control of the TV remote and was treating us to a selection from Youtube Music. They were friendly enough though. I couldn’t help but smother a chuckle at the guy who left because he “really, really had tae catch the bus” but reappeared about 30 seconds later for “just a wee vodka before ah g’ hame”. I had a second pint then retired early, making a mental note to myself to read the bloody reviews a bit more carefully in future. Actually though it wasn’t what I’d imagined it wasn’t awful and I slept really well. In spite of the location it was quiet at night. They did a damn good Scottish breakfast too which set me up for the next stage of the journey.

Next episode I leave Scotland, visit a big house, and get stuck in Sheffield’s bloody awful traffic.

May road trip journal, part 5.

Day 7, Last day in Kintyre

It being Sunday I decided on a day of relative idleness. After breakfast I drove over to Machrihanish near Campbeltown Airport which has two flights a day to and from Glasgow with Loganair. It takes 45 minutes (plus faffing around at airports obviously) so is much quicker than driving but so, so much more expensive at around seventy quid each way. A former RAF and US Navy/Marines base when it was called RAF Machrihanish. Because it was redeveloped in the 1960s to support United States and NATO operations in the Clyde area and wider Atlantic it has the longest public airport runway in Scotland at 3,049 m (10,003 ft), built to allow use by nuclear bombers such as the Avro Vulcan and other large aircraft. Also used for the storage and distribution of nuclear weapons and as a US Navy SEALs base it was certified as a potential emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle in the 1980s, which had it been needed would have been a sight to behold. Post Cold War the Yanks went home in 1995 and it became a civil airport. The MOD sold the site to the Machrihanish Airbase Community Company in 2012 for a quid and parts of the site are used for commercial purposes. That included a maker of offshore wind turbines until they went bust.

I wasn’t going to the airport anyway but passed it on the way to the beach. It’s a remarkably large area of flat land for this part of the world. Machrihanish has a remarkably long beach with a large golf course separating it from the airport.

I went for a walk along part of it and then headed towards Southend again in the car. From Southend I took the narrow winding Le’arside Road around the south east Kintyre coast to Campeltown, stopping at Feochaig to look out over the Firth of Clyde to the almost hemispherical island of Ailsa Craig.

I stopped again at Kildalloig just east of Campbeltown and checked the tide times but there wasn’t enough time to walk out over the causeway to Davaar Island and get back again.

After a quick stop in Campeltown to visit the Linda McCartney Memorial Garden, which was closed so I had to make do with a photo taken over the top of the railings.

I returned to the cottage and took advantage of the fact that the other cottages were now empty so the broadband speed allowed me to catch up with Youtube.

In the next thrilling episode I bid Kintyre goodbye and start heading for home via Dumfries and Galloway.

May road trip journal, part 4

Day 6, Campbeltown, a coast road, and a castle.

After a lie in followed by a leisurely breakfast I drove into Campbeltown for a look around. The few car parks which weren’t associated with the two supermarkets were full but unusually Campbeltown has hardly any parking restrictions and there was plenty of spaces on the streets. I parked up near the leisure centre and took a walk to the harbour.

To the left of the Old Quay was a marina with mostly pleasure craft and Lifeboats. To the right the working harbour, empty today save for a few smaller fishing boats, a large lighter, and a larger vessel which I thought might be associated with the large pile of timber on the New Quay but when I looked it up turned out to be a fish carrier, the Aqua Harvester. The New Quay is also the location of Campbeltown Ferry Terminal which has services to Ballycastle in Northern Ireland (Kintyre Express fast passenger ferry), Brodick on the island of Arran, and Ardrossan on the mainland of Scotland (Caledonian MacBrayne). Except the CalMac ferries aren’t running this summer “due to the lack of an available vessel to deliver the service”. I had a wander around the town centre which has some quite good architecture in places, got an ice cream because it was bloody hot by Scottish measurements, went shopping in search of a new car phone holder because mine had exploded in my hand the day before and was now held together with sellotape, and having failed to find one walked around the bay to the end of Dalintober Pier for the view back to Campbeltown. (As I write this a replacement phone holder is awaiting a flight from China.)

I briefly considered a visit to the whisky shop but decided the complete lack of any price tickets in the window display probably indicated that I couldn’t afford it. A couple of hours of walking around the town in the hot sun was enough so I retreated to the air-conditioned car and headed out of town to see what the east coast of Kintyre was like.

The main road to Campbeltown is the A83 which comes down the west side of the peninsula and is how I’d arrived two days previously. On the east side the B842 follows the coast north of Campbeltown until it ends at a junction with the B8001 which runs east to west to connect to the A83. The B842 is not a major road, it is quite ridiculously scenic though. Also narrow and steep in a number of places with plenty of blind bends and summits so it isn’t a fast journey either. Which is good, I recommend driving it. There are lots of views across Kilbrannan Sound to Arran though limited places to stop and take photos (don’t park in the passing places) but I stopped at the beach at Torrisdale Bay where there’s a layby and a small car park (unusually the latter requiring payment).

A bit further on I spotted a turning to the right signposted Carradale Harbour B879 and on a whim took that road. I’m glad I did because a little over a mile and a half later I pulled into the free car park on the very photogenic harbour side at Carradale. Complete with a palm tree and public loos that weren’t locked up, both rare things in the UK. It even had one of those red and white painted sea mines which are charity collection boxes for the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society.

Those are much less common than they used to be during my childhood when any seaside town of any note seemed to have one. There were over 200 originally donated by the Admiralty but now only around 50 survive apparently. Carradale Harbour looked glorious in the sunshine, giving definite “I could live here” vibes though I suspect the winter presents a different picture. Indeed a couple of plaques on the harbour wall remembering lost seafarers attest to the fact that the sea isn’t always as serene as it appeared that afternoon. I have out of idle curiosity just looked on Rightmove though :-)

I left Carradale Harbour and returned to the “main” coast road again and turned right following the coast northwards. My next stop was Grogport Viewpoint, another unspoilt spot with a beach and a view across to Arran where the white buildings of the hamlet of Pirnmill could be seen at the water’s edge. I sat on a picnic bench for a while listening to nothing but the occasional bird singing. Not another vehicle passed for 10 minutes. Lovely spot, still no idea why it has the unlovely name, which is an Anglicisation of the Scots Gaelic Gròb-phort, which doesn’t look much better. If you know what it means comment below.

I reached the end of the B842 at Claonaig and deciding which way to turn was very easy since the sign pointing right contained the word “Castle”. After 2.3 miles along a road past the terminal for the Claonaig to Lochranza ferry to Arran and an area very popular as a wild camping site on the narrow strip of land between the road and the sea I came over a wee hump back bridge, the end of the B8001, and arrived in a little car park under the trees signed as for visitors to Skipness Castle. The castle itself was a 600 yards walk along a driveway from the gate lodge by the road. It was a quarter past four in the afternoon. I had no idea if the castle was open but walked down there past the nosey sheep anyway. It was open. It was also free to visit. It was great.

Historic Environment Scotland says “Skipness Castle was begun in the early 1200s, probably by the MacSween family. It was acquired by the Stewart earls of Mentieth in 1262. It passed into the hands of the MacDonalds in 1325 and eventually on to the Campbell Earls of Argyll”. Much of it is in ruins but with still high standing walls but the 16th century four storey tower house still has a roof, internal floors and staircases, and and you can climb all the way up onto the roof for a commanding view across Kilbrannan Sound to Arran. Spot the Claonaig to Lochranza ferry.

Having explored the castle I followed the path down to the edge of the water and along to the ruins of St Brendan’s Chapel, Skipness. The now roofless 13th or 14th century chapel building stands within a stone walled graveyard on flat ground near the beach.

Within the graveyard are a number of recumbent intricately carved medieval gravestones. They’re protected by heavy hinged wooden covers which give no clue as to what lies underneath, just a little plate saying “Please keep this cover closed” and a handle. They reward curious investigation.

I said goodbye to the Chaffinch singing on top of a Celtic Cross with Arran behind and made my way back to the car, oblivious to the fact that through the next gateway was a World War 2 Bombing Range Marker which I only spotted on Open Street Map later. I drove back to Campbeltown the same way that I’d come because it’s just as nice a trip in the opposite direction and I wasn’t in any rush.

Next time more empty beaches and narrow roads.

May road trip journal, part 3

Day 4, Garlieston, Dumfries and Galloway to Kilchrist Castle, Kintyre, 241 miles.

To get from Garlieston to my holiday cottage in Kintyre required driving a long loop up through Ayrshire to cross the Clyde on the Erskine Bridge, up the west side of Loch Lomond, around the tops of Loch Long and Loch Fyne and south again via Inveraray and Lochgilphead to Tarbert and further south to Campbeltown. With traffic, a fuel stop, occasional pauses to stretch the legs and admire the scenery it took most of the day. Taking it at a fairly relaxed pace made for a quite pleasant journey through nice country. Final stop before reaching my destination was Tesco in Campbeltown to stock up on provisions for the next 4 days.

Late in the afternoon I arrived at Kilchrist Castle Cottages, about 10 minutes drive south of Campbeltown. The cottages are in a separate compound to the rear of the castle accessed down an unsurfaced track and set amongst open fields. The castle itself is a private residence so not open to the public and only glimpsed through the trees surrounding it. MacLeod cottage would be my home for the next few days, a wee detached single storey building with one bedroom, a sitting room with kitchenette, and a rather cramped shower room and toilet. All I’d need for a short stay and conveniently located to explore Kintyre. What was less convenient was finding the handwritten note next to a bottle of cheap plonk offered as an apology for the fridge not working and the suggestion that I could use a fridge in the laundry at the other end of the site. I’d really have appreciated knowing that before I arrived with 3 days worth of breakfast supplies and salad. Even a message in the morning would have allowed me to plan accordingly. Looking back at the previous reviews for the cottage later I saw that the non-working fridge had been reported to the owners by a previous renter in April so it’s not like it had just broken that day. At least the wine was red rather than white.

Other than the fridge issue it was a nice place to stay and when the sun eventually went down proved to have quite a dark sky with many stars visible to the naked eye. Quite a treat for someone from the light polluted south of England.

Day 5, Mull of Kintyre Lighthouse and the southern end of the Kintyre peninsula.

I had scouted out a couple of places on the map to visit. First was Mull of Kintyre Lighthouse. There’s a car park about 1.3 miles from the lighthouse and then you can walk down the private access road to the clifftop lighthouse site with views all the way to Northern Ireland. Getting to that car park is an adventure in itself along about five miles of narrow single track roads with steep hills, tight bends, obstructive sheep, and terrific scenery. Eventually the road ends at a small parking area before a gate with a sign that says “End of Public Road Turn Here”. From here on you’re on foot. The tarmac service road heads steeply down almost the whole way to the lighthouse gate, with several hairpin bends and the lighthouse appearing and disappearing from view. It was a gloriously sunny, hot day and much less windy than I’d expected as I walked down the steep road, all the while with the vague feeling that I was going to regret this idea on the way back up!

The views down to the lighthouse and across to Rathlin Island are very picturesque and occasionally a fishing boat would pass trailing a white wake on the deep blue water. It took around half an hour to get to the bottom, or at least the gate to the lighthouse compound. Apparently you used to be able to get right to the lighthouse itself but these days the gate is firmly locked shut.

I had the place to myself too, at least until I got to the bottom when after about ten minutes I was joined by two Dutch motorcaravanners, an English guy, and their Good Doggos. We had a brief chat and I let them start their ascent while I chilled out for a while. When I could put it off no longer I began my slow way back up the hill. It was still warm and sunny and there’s no shelter to speak of anywhere on the road so I took it steady, counting out 100 paces and stopping for breath, taking a few minutes rest and a swig of water every 300 paces or so until suddenly I was back at the top, a bit warm but not completely knackered. It took about twice as long to get up as it did to go down.

Off the road up on the hillside is a memorial for the RAF Chinook helicopter crash in 1994 which claimed the lives of all 25 passengers and 4 crew and spawned a few conspiracy theories since the passengers were all from the security services. There was also some controversy over the findings of the air accident inquiry, an RAF board of inquiry ruled that it was impossible to establish the exact cause of the accident but this ruling was overturned by two senior reviewing officers, who stated that the pilots were guilty of gross negligence for flying too fast and too low in thick fog. A later Parliamentary inquiry found the previous verdict of gross negligence on the part of the crew to be ‘unjustified’. In 2011, an independent review of the crash cleared the crew of negligence and accepted that the RAF had falsely declared compliance with regulations in relation to the aircraft’s authority to fly.

By complete coincidence when I arrived back at the car I fell into conversation with the occupant of a motorhome which had just parked in the car park who turned out to be an 80 year old former RAF helicopter pilot. Interesting chap with an informed insider’s opinion of the incident described above.

I returned along the road to the lighthouse, inevitably meeting a fuel tanker on the way at an inconvenient spot, and headed for the end of the Kintyre peninsula, the appropriately named Southend but without a long pier. I pulled into a car park by the beach at Carskey Bay and walked the short distance to Keil Caves, St. Columba’s Footsteps, St. Columba’s Well, and his church ruins. The footprints are carved into the top of a rocky outcrop, one parallel to the shore and the other at 90 degrees to it with the year 564 also incised into the rock. The history is a bit confused but likely one footprint dates from the 4th century and became associated with St. Columba who landed here briefly in 563. The second was probably added by a 19th century local mason called Daniel McIlreavie to boost the area’s association with the saint and he also added the (wrong) date.

Around 50 yards away St. Columba’s Well, a rocky bowl carved into the sloping hillside which collects not-entirely-wholesome looking water from a spring. This too may have obtained its association with the saint by way of 19th century tourism. Completing the St. Columba trio is the ruined church set along the landward side of a roughly rectangular graveyard and almost entirely overgrown so that from the footsteps it appears to be just a bunch of small trees.

The history of the caves is a little more matter of fact. Some have names such as the Great Cave, the Piper’s Cave - after the legend of a disappearing homeward bound piper who allegedly haunts the cave, and the Hermit’s Retreat. The caves were occupied on and off since prehistoric times until the late 19th century where the 1881 census records six members of the McFee and McCallum families as residents. If you enter the larger caves today you’ll find that the only residents are panicky pigeons.

From Keil I took the coast road to Southend and then the B842 back to Kilchrist for tea, dinner, and the Friday night Top Of The Pops re-runs on BBC4 with accompanying commentary on Mastodon.

Next time I go to Campbeltown, explore the east side of Kintyre, and find an unexpected castle.

May road trip journal, part 2

 Day Two, Laneshaw Bridge, Lancs. to Garlieston, Dumfries & Galloway. 199 miles.

After a full English at the Alma Inn I checked out, attempted to remove as much sap as possible from the car, and cleaned the dead things off the windscreen. Heading north in the sunshine on local roads through Pendle to pick up the A65 was a breathtakingly scenic drive and I think this area might need to be visited again. What followed once I reached the A65 wasn't so good though. Heavy and stop/start traffic all the way through Ingleton (been there) and Kirby Lonsdale all the way to the M6 motorway junction 36. It turned out that this was because we were following a huge quarry dump truck on a low-loader, escorted by multiple Police cars, and the only place for them to pull in was a layby just before the motorway. Bad timing really. Once I got on the M6 heading north I could finally do more than 20 mph. For the next couple of hours I cruised northwards on the motorway, stopping for a comfort break once I'd crossed the border and then taking the A75 to Dumfries before heading on the A710 towards the Solway Firth coast.

I'd put a couple of waymarks into the sat-nav to make it take this less direct route the first of which was a car park at New Abbey with a convenient public convenience. Which turned out to be beside the ruins of the Abbey of Dulce Cor, better known as Sweetheart Abbey. I guess the clue was in the name of the village but I hadn't expected it. I was a nice break from driving to walk around the outside of the ruins (currently behind a fence because bits keep falling off) and the graveyard. 

Leaving New Abbey I continued along the coast road, unfortunately for some way behind a large Dutch motorhome who felt the need to straddle the centre line of the two-way road and come to a halt every time something came the other way, before I eventually escaped and some way further on turned off to visit Rockcliffe, a wee village with a car park, a loo, a beach, and importantly an ice cream van. It would have been rude not to get a 99 and very good it was too.

I returned to the main coast road and followed it west, passing through Dalbeattie, Auchencairn, and Kirkudbright to reach Newton Stewart where I turned south past Wigtown to the harbour village of Garlieston. Although I've previously driven through this part of Scotland I'd not had the time to stop so I'd booked two nights at The Harbour Inn, Garlieston. That turned out to be an excellent decision. The Harbour Inn sits exactly where you'd expect, right on the waterfront and my larger than expected room looked straight out to sea across the harbour. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my stay here. Excellent food, good beer, a proper bar with a friendly atmosphere and the staff were lovely. No data gathering nonsense on the free Wi-Fi either. I could easily have lingered longer had I known what a nice place it was but I had a cottage in Kintyre to get to. After dinner I took a walk along the shore path to Rigg Bay and on the way back saw a hare in the field in front of Galloway House. I don't recall that last time I saw a hare.

There are limited facilities at Garlieston. There's The Harbour Inn, a cafe, a Public Convenience, a large touring caravan site (which ensures that booking a table at the inn is almost essential) and a garage with a small shop on the edge of the village. This has one pump on the forecourt, dispensing only diesel fuel. Best be prepared if heading here, although the larger settlement of Wigtown is not far away.

Day 3, In and around Garlieston

The next morning after a superb full Scottish breakfast eaten overlooking a sun drenched harbour I decided I should probably try to work some of that off so headed out for a walk around Garlieston Bay and Eggerness Point. During the Second World War Garlieston became part of the secret Mulberry Harbour project in preparation for D-Day. The profile of the beach and sea bed here was similar to that of the proposed harbour sites in Normandy and that coupled with the remote nature of the locality, led to Garlieston and the surrounding area being selected as the development region for the artificial harbours. There are parts of the prototype Mulberry harbours still in the bay and I wanted to take a look at them on my walk. The path around Eggerness Point mostly runs through the woods so finding the harbour remains required popping out of the woods onto the rocky beach a couple of times to locate the right spot.

 

I carried on around the coast through the woods to Innerwell. This Shore Wood Belt contained a fine show of Bluebells and some secluded little beaches just off the path. It also had a lot of blown down trees across the path to negotiate. I'm sure someone will get back up there with a chainsaw and complete the clearing of them that they've started. I didn't fancy clambering back over them though so returned to Garlieston via the roads. I chilled out until dinner time, had a very tasty seafood tagliatelle followed by a couple of beers, then retired to sleep like the proverbial log.

Next morning I rose, breakfasted as per the previous day, and took my leave of Garlieston. I'd definitely like to return.

In part 3 I take a long drive to Kintyre.
 

May road trip journal, part 1

Where to? 

I wanted to visit a bit of Western Scotland I’d never previously been to, Kintyre, the long strip of Argyll & Bute that separates the Firth of Clyde from the Atlantic Ocean. It isn’t blessed with a lot of public transport options, no railways, you can get to the main town of Campeltown by bus and there are a few limited local bus services once you’re there. So practically I was going to need to take the car and it’s a long way from home - about 562 miles in fact. I know some people would happily do that in one go. I’m not one of them, 5-6 hours driving is quite enough else it becomes un-enjoyable and this was intended to be a relaxing holiday. So I broke the trip up into sections and booked accommodation at convenient points which also meant not just pounding up motorways all day.

Day one, Home to Laneshaw Bridge, Lancs. 244 miles. 

I plotted a route that avoided both London and the M25, and Birmingham and the M6, instead heading towards Oxford then Northampton before going north towards Sheffield and Leeds and then north-west across country to Laneshaw Bridge (or Laneshawbridge on some signs) in the Borough of Pendle. The weather was warm and sunny, which is unusual for any time I decide to take a trip, and the journey easy until the last few miles where the closure of a local road near Stanbury resulted in the sat-nav becoming unhelpful and eventually finding a way through that involved driving over the very narrow road on the top of the Ponden Reservoir dam. I’m still not sure that was the official diversion route or whether there even was an official diversion route. Signs? What signs? Once I’d passed that obstacle finding my way to the Alma Inn at Laneshaw Bridge where I’d booked a one night stay was a comparative doddle.

 

The Alma Inn sits on a hill above the village, surrounded mostly by fields and sheep. The room was comfortable with a nice rural view. The food was good, the beer was good, the decor in the bar and restaurant very much in the modern corporate pub style so almost entirely devoid of any atmosphere, and the free Wi-Fi was free in the sense of requiring all your personal and device data, presumably to sell on to third parties (there’s no other reason they’d need it) so it was good that there was 4G data coverage. After dinner I decided to have a little stroll in the evening sunshine, which turned into a slightly longer stroll down to the village and then up alongside High Laith Beck and across the fields back to the inn. I slept well after that.

 

 Top tip: Don’t park under the tree in the inn’s car park, it drops sticky sap all over your car which is a bugger to remove.

In part 2 I get to South West Scotland.

 

London Loop Section 16: Elstree to Cockfosters.

24th April

 

 

Section 16 is the longest single section of the London Loop at 11 miles. There are limited points at which to shorten the walk so when I left Elstree & Borehamwood station at just after 11 a.m. I initially intended to go as far as High Barnet where I could escape onto the Northern Line, then make a decision about the remaining three and a half miles.

 

It’s a long steady climb from the station to Barnet Lane whether you take the official route via the Deacon’s Hill Road as I did or the alternative unofficial diversion via Woodcock Hill Village Green. Whichever route you take passes above the Midland Main Line far below in the Elstree Tunnel, the towers for the ventilation shafts of which are visible from the road.

 

 

 

I had a bit of trouble locating the path off Barnet Lane because the house next door had the builders in and they’d parked their trucks and vans across it, eventually I had to climb over the drawbar of a plant trailer to get to the footpath. The slightly muddy path led down to an old oak woodland, Scrachwood Open Space. Walking through these bluebell woods is classic London Loop territory, i.e. you wouldn’t think you were in London. Emerging from the woods at the A1 dual carriageway, requiring an 1100 yard diversion to the nearest subway to cross it reminds you that you are.

 

 

 

 Eleven hundred yards of rushing traffic, litter, abandoned tyres, and plastic bottles of lorry drivers’ piss later I turned right into Moat Mount Open Space. It could only get more pleasant from here on and thankfully it did. The loop here joins the Dollis Valley Greenwalk and passes a small pond that is the source of the Dollis Brook. A small pond that I failed to spot. Unless this is it but I’m not sure.

 

 

 

I walked on through a mix of shady woodland and open fields until I reached Hendon Wood Lane, a little way along which I turned into Totteridge Fields. That’s a figure of speech obviously, I didn’t literally suddenly become a nature reserve. I carried on down through the nature reserve then through a sports field and into a section where the path runs through open fields managed under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme by a tenant farmer. That means signs pointing out that it’s private land, stay on the path and nowhere to sit lest you linger rather than pass directly through. Which was a shame because it was really time for my picnic lunch. Eventually I crossed the Dollis Brook over a metal bridge, awarding myself 2 points for spotting the adjacent stinkpipe, and paused on a convenient concrete block at the edge of an open grassy field for lunch.

 

 

 

 As you can see above the forecast cloudy skies and 20% chance of rain were so far staying away. Fortified by my traditional picnic of salmon paste sarnies and prawn cocktail flavour shells I set off east again through wide grassy areas with the Dollis Brook now to my right but mostly hidden and the houses of southern Chipping Barnet to my left, a residential  area that Open Street Map says is called Duck Island despite not being an island and I didn’t spot any ducks, only a pair of self-propelled council lawnmowers. Beyond the houses lay a steep upward climb on a narrow tarmac path followed of course by coming back down again to Barnet Lane, not the same Barnet Lane as earlier. Crossing the road and entering the sports centre, past the football pitches behind high metal fences with “no unauthorised use or ball games” signs and suddenly there were people about, more people than I had seen since leaving Elstree. I was now in deepest residential Barnet, heading for the Great North Road. To get there I walked up Fairfield Way, a street so patriotic that many of the houses proudly flew Union Flags in their front gardens, albeit defaced with the legend “VE Day” in gold lettering. Many of those same houses had drives in which were parked German cars. Draw your own conclusions.

 

 

 

Where the Northern Line crosses over the Great North Road I sat on a wall and tried to decide whether to turn left to High Barnet or right to carry on to the end of Section 16 at Cockfosters. It was 14:37, the sun was shining, plenty of daylight left, no walking back from the station at the end of a long day since my car was at Hounslow West. I convinced myself by a narrow margin to turn right. As it turned out the last three and a half miles happened to be some of the nicest parts of the section.

 

 

 

 Not the very first bit though because having gone under the bridge above and crossed the road at a light controlled pedestrian crossing that only grudgingly allowed pedestrian to interrupt the flow of traffic I turned left up Potters Lane. And I mean up. Save for a short set of steps down a bank off the road and into a meadow it carried on going up. Past the back of High Barnet station glimpsed between the trees, levelling up for a bit along some residential streets before a long climb up through King George’s Fields with a good view if you turned around. I could really have done with that bench being unoccupied.

 

 

 

Fortunately there were other benches and then I reached Hadley Green Road, with the open, tree studded green to the left and old houses facing it on the right, including the large red brick Hadley House with its stable block and near the end of the row Livingstone Cottage, former home of the missionary and explorer. He of “Dr. Livingstone I presume?” fame. Although calling it a cottage is a bit of a misnomer given the size of the place and according to the rather grand plaque on the front bearing his likeness he lived there in 1857. Only 1857?

 

 

 

Beyond Hadley green it gets seriously villagey as you pass a row of almshouses into the centre of Monken Hadley. At eleven miles north-west  of Charing Cross we’re close to the limits of Greater London in what was once  a parish of Middlesex that stuck out into Hertfordshire. It has lots of old buildings, a  late 15th. century church with another set of almshouses next to it, and white wooden gates across the roads into and out of it. You can see why the writers Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard chose to live here, poet Cecil Day Lewis who stayed with them died here, and for nearly thirty years Spike Milligan lived in the village as well, although that wasn’t so good for one local teenager who strayed into his garden.

 

 

 

 I was safe from being shot since a: the London Loop passes Spike's former home on the other side of the road in the trees on Hadley Common and b: he’s dead. The path continued through the woods and through a lot of tree roots requiring some care to avoid tripping over until I reached a small car park in Bakers Lane with some information boards and two burnt out mopeds to reinforce the idea that this is still London. Then I continued to the bridge over the East Coast Main Line just north of New Barnet station, the bridge’s elevated position being good for photographing passing trains between King’s Cross and The North, if you are tall enough to see over the brick parapet that is.

 

 

 

 From the railway bridge I walked (somewhat slower now) through the beech woods disturbed only by birdsong and the incredibly loud public address system at New Barnet station. I climbed a steep set of steps for a quick look at Jack’s Lake with its afternoon anglers - does sweeping a massive net back and forth in the water count as angling? - before returning to the main path.

 

 

 

I carried on along the track passing occasional Loop way marks before reaching houses and a pub which reminded me of the following joke:

 

Three guys were visiting England and were told they had to go to a great old pub called The Cock Inn. Each of them went off in different directions and planned to meet at the pub at five o'clock.Two of them arrived on time, but there was no sign of Edward.  Finally, at five thirty, he showed up with the his shirt torn at the collar and two black eyes.
Shocked by his appearance, the other two asked Edward what had happened to him."Well I was walking down the road," Edward explained, "I noticed a man and woman behind a bush. So I stopped and asked, 'How far is The Cock Inn?’” 

And that’s when the trouble started 

 

 

 

 After that you’ll be glad to know that my walk was close to its end and therefore so is this blog post 😀

 

A last few streets and I passed Christ Church and arrived opposite Cockfosters tube station at four minutes to five, four hours fifty minutes since leaving Elstree & Borehamwood Station including 20 minutes break for lunch and a couple of other brief rest stops. I’ll take that. I’m glad I decided to do the whole section in one go, although I’m feeling it today. The last part was picturesque in the afternoon sunshine, the rain never happened, and it will make starting the next section much simpler whenever I do that. 

 

 

 

Many more lovely pictures to be found in this Flickr Album.