Eight of us met in the Demesne Mill Picnic car park to walk an easy 5-mile circular walk from Wolsingham mainly across field paths. The weather was to start dry, but rain was expected halfway through.
We did a short detour at the start of the walk alongside the Waskerley Beck to admire a series of waterfalls and pools known as “The Sills. There was more water in the river than there had been when the walk was recced at the end of July!
The walk then went up a short slope between fields with fine views of the parish church of St Mary and St Stephen. We enjoyed passing a few farms specialising in shorthorn cattle. We were treated to a charm of goldfinches and a hare racing across the fields. All around the views were spectacular.
All was going well until we dropped down through fields to get to the main A689 road. The last field we had to cross was full of a large herd of very frisky bullocks who were rather too interested in us. It was too risky to try to attempt to cross the fields as there were so many of them, we retraced our steps up the hill and went down the farm road to the main road. This did entail us having to walk further along the busy road than we had planned but it seemed the safer option.
Having turned off the road, we crossed the River Wear and walked the path between the river, and the railway track up to the pretty Wolsingham Station. One of our party was very pleased to see this section as he is looking forward to watching the Flying Scotsman go up this bit of the track on the Wear Valley Railway in November.
We crossed back over the river and took the riverside path, through a caravan park back into Wolsingham. There most of us had a well-earned coffee at the Cafe Number 10 before returning to our cars. Just as we got to the cars there was a sharp shower making us appreciate how lucky we had been with the weather during the walk.
Mary Barnard