A 'Composite' Itinerary

"THE LIGHTNING TOUR !"

This is NOT an actual itinerary!
It is made up from various days from many different tours,
in many different parts of the country.
Hopefully it gives a flavour of the diversity of the trips.

We will meet outside the railway station, Abergavenny, Gwent.(from "The Black Mountains") And set off at 3:20pm (15:20). The tour will end nine days later, at around lunch time, in Settle, North Yorkshire. (from "The Yorkshire Dales")

Proposed Route

Day 1: from "Beacon Hill"

The Welsh border south of the river Severn is tossed around a jumble of hills where Shropshire meets the shires of Montgomery and Radnor. Here rise several small rivers: the Clun, Teme and Ithon. Some enter the Severn, some the Wye. Knighton is the town on Offa's Dyke, built when Wales bordered Mercia. The town is in Wales, but the railway station, across the river, and where we meet, is in England. From it we quickly gain the Dyke where it marches along the ridges of the border hills. Across the valley, in Wales, looms Beacon Hill. Our camp is tucked below the dyke amongst the source streams of the river Redlake, a tributary of the Teme, its name thought to refer to a bloody skirmish long ago.

Fabienne

The tale goes that once, long ago, two found the Golden Arrow in the sally-thickets of Pontesford Hill. And they came through the village singing and with such a scent of apple-blow about 'em as never was - though apple-blow time was a full month off. And they went like folks that want nought of any man, walking fast and looking far. And never a soul saw 'em after.

Mary Webb "The Golden Arrow"

Wistmans Wood (from"Dartmoor")

Day 2: from "Exmoor

Out of Luccombe and onto the moor. Up across the heather to the cluster of Bronze Age cairns at Jenny How and then on to the topmost one of all, Dunkery Beacon: Exmoor's highest point. From here we drop down to the isolated church of Stoke Pero and down further into the lush forest of Horner Woods where the red deer graze. We emerge from them onto Ley Hill.

Another plunge down, this time into Hawkcombe, brings us to our camp on the hill above Porlock.

Stone Row (from "Dartmoor")

Day 3: from "Avebury"

A Circular of the Avebury monuments from our camp beside East Kennet Neolithic Long Barrow. We walk from the Long Barrow at East Kennet to that at West Kennet. Then on to Swallowhead Spring, a site quietly revered by modern-day pagans. Next, the field noted for the appearance of numerous crop circles takes us to Silbury Hill. Crossing Waden Hill, we walk the Beckhampton Stone Avenue to the great henge at Avebury itself. Here we stop for lunch. Afterwards we go to the site of the Beaker People on Windmill Hill. Theirs was the culture from which these extraordinary monuments sprang. Our route back to camp first joins the prehistoric trackway, The Ridgeway, close to where it passes The Sanctuary, thought to be one of the places where ritual processions to the Avebury circle began.

Bluestone outcrop - source of stones from Stonehenge (from "Preseli")

In the Neolithic the entire universe was the Great Goddess. In the chalklands the reclining woman is found everywhere in the soft curves of the hills. Mounds recall the breast and the pregnant belly. Water, a feminine element in the human psyche, is often identified with Celtic goddesses. The earth, when it brought forth crops, gave birth. . .

Michael Dames "The Avebury Cycle"

Day 4: from "Penwith" From our high camp on the moors which are the backbone of the Lands End peninsula, we trace a route past many prehistoric sites. Starting at the Nine Maidens stone circle we move on to the runic standing stone, Men Scryfa and the fertility site, Men-an-tol. Picking up the Old St Ives Road used by tin-miners for thousands of years, we come to the Bronze Age Bosullow courtyard village and go on to Chun hillfort and burial chamber. Continuing via Truthwall Common Stone Circle we reach the rugged granite tinners' town of St Just. Our camp is a little outside the town in the Cot Valley.

Oxenber Wood (from "The Yorkshire Dales")

Man had built empires of scientific capability to manipulate the phenomena of nature into enormous manifestations of his own dreams of power and wealth - but for this he had exchanged an empire of understanding of equal magnitude; and understanding of what it is to be a part of the world, and not an enemy of it.

R.M.Pirsig "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"

Moorland Camp (from "Rhinog")		Day 5: from "The Long Mynd" We leave our camp on the back of Caer Caradoc and walk the other small hills in the chain - splendidly named Helmeth, Hazler and Ragleth. We drop into the valley and, after a stop at the pub in Little Stretton on the far side, we take another 'batch' (deep valley or combe) - Ashes Hollow into The Long Mynd. From it we explore another route to the top. Our last camp is at Myndtown on the far side of the hill.
Nature is visible thought Heinrich Heine

Day 6: from "The Yorkshire Dales"

From our camp at Arncliffe in Littondale we go up Cowside Beck to Malham Moor with its astonishing features of the Great Scar Limestone: The Tarn, The Lings, The Cove and Gordale Scar. Our camp, on the edge of Malham village, amidst ancient field patterns and lynchets, faces the cove.

Day 7: from "Carneddau" Scorehill Stone Circle, Dartmoor

Along Conwy mountain, passing a hill fort. Gradually we descend to the coast and the medieval walled town of Conwy with its excellent castle. The trip ends on the quay. It was possibly one of the oldest roads in the world. I found it hard to think of a time when there was no road there because trees and the tall hills and the fine views of bogland had been arranged by wise hands for the pleasing picture they made when looked at from the road. Without a road to have them looked at from they would have a somewhat aimless if not futile aspect. Flann O'Brien "The Third Policeman"

Our roads appeared to be undulatory, and our journey, like the journey of life, seemed to be a pretty regular alternation of uphill and down, and here and there it was diversified with copses and woods.

C.P.Moritz "Travels in England in 1782"

Travel to the start

Road: The A40 to Haverford West is a fairly fast road although after Carmarthen it is often merely a two lane highway. From Haverford West to Solva and St David's is slow and often busy in summer. (from "St Davids")

Rail: Pewsey is on the railway, Marlborough is not. There is, however, a bus from Marlborough, where we end the walk, which connects with the train at Pewsey. (from "Avebury")

Bus: Either use National Express services to Plymouth which stop off at Ashburton; or take a bus from Exeter to Newton Abbott from where buses go to both Ashburton and Bovey Tracey where the walk ends. For timetables contact Devon General Tel: 01392 56231 (from "Dartmoor")

Relevant Maps (order from bookshops or buy locally at the start of the walk)

• Ordinance Survey 1:50,000(Landranger) sheet 148, "Presteigne and Hay-on-Wye covers all but a small portion which is on 147. (from "Kilvert Country")
• For greater detail the 1:25,000 Outdoor Leisure Map Exmoor National Park is excellent value and shows the area of our route in full.(from "Exmoor")
• Contour Designs of Gloucester do a 3D pictorial map of The Black Mountains: Panoramic map 11.(from "The Black Mountains")

Latecomers

The first walk is very dramatic and definitely not to be missed... but it can happen.  Our camp is at Blaenawey Farm, Bettws (pronounced Betoos).  It is only a couple of miles (by road!) from the town and an easy place to reach by taxi. (from "The Black Mountains")