Millthorpe walk on Sunday 9th November – meet report

Several members had already made their apologies/excuses at the previous night’s energetic ceilidh [relatives visiting from abroad, prefer to cycle, singing in a choir…….] so a select group of us gathered in Millthorpe to start the planned 10 mile walk looping south in an anticlockwise direction. Having walked some of these paths before on Thursday walks, minimal map reading was required to keep us on track, through Unthank, Moorhall and Barlow Grange. When not far away, a siren marked 11am, we held a two minute silence, wearing our red poppies. The sun shone, with clear views of the surrounding countryside. Then we continued south through new territory west of Linacre Reservoirs, passing Moorhay and Wigley farms before heading north again. A family, and later a couple, were helped with their own route-finding on the somewhat confusing multiplicity of footpaths, always a good feeling, as was sitting in hot November sunshine for our lunch. Then northwards through Oxton Rakes, Newgate, Common Side, Cartledge and back to our cars, just as the sun was setting behind a nearby ridge. Lots of variety on this walk – attractive rolling countryside, some very beautiful and obviously expensive houses, many horses, some wearing coats, the drinking trough with goldfish in it, woodland streams in dappled sunlight, and then the less attractive – sewerage works, rubbish dumps and a caravan park! But the company was excellent, and in the end we walked 11 miles over 5 and 1/2 hours, about right for a November Sunday.
Vanda Boyd