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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Sunday, 13 August 2023

Sunday Walk - Hertfordshire Downlands (the easterly end of The Chilterns): Hitchin Circular

Length: 25.6 km (15.9 mi) [with shortcuts down to 20.8 km/12.9 mi]
Ascent/Descent: 355m 
Net Walking Time: ca. 6 hours
Toughness: 6 out of 10 
 
Take the Cambridge bound Thameslink train (East Croydon 09.09, Norwood Junction 09.13, London Bridge 09.26, Blackfriars 09.32, Farringdon 09.36, St. Pancras 09.41, Finsbury Park 09.48), arriving Hitchin 10.14. 
Return trains: xx.00, xx.30, xx.34

This Hertfordshire walk covers the hilly area west of Hitchin. The morning route leads along farm tracks, field boundaries, shaded grassy lanes and through a few woods across the most north easterly ridge of The Chilterns, in Great Offley, to the steep chalk downlands of Pegsdon Hills and Knocking Hoe, dissected by quiet flat-bottomed valleys, which form the scenery around the lunch stop in Pegsdon, where the terraced pub garden provides stunning views overlooking the hills.
From Knocking Hoe the ancient Icknield Way leads to the pretty village of Pirton, with its impressive remains of a motte-and-double bailey and traces of an abandoned medieval village.
On the outskirts of Hitchin, Oughtonhead Common Local Nature Reserve is a mature alder and willow fen woodland, whose diversity of habitats is surprisingly large. From there the route follows the high-quality chalk river Oughton all the way to its wellhead. The final stretch leads past a very charming farm gate café to Hitchin’s old town, which has kept its medieval market town feel and has many fine Tudor and Georgian buildings.
Pass St. Mary’s Church, the largest parish church in Hertfordshire and evidence of how Hitchin prospered from the wool trade, and brave a final steep ascent through a park to then re-trace part of the morning route back to the train station at the easterly end of town.
This is a stile-free walk.

Lunch: a couple of early pubs in Great Offley; then The View in Pegsdon (13.7 km/8.5 mi, food to 17.00) or - on the short walk - The Motte & Bailey in Pirton (14.4 km/8.9 mi, food to 15.00), this also makes for a good tea stop on the full walk. 
Tea: plenty of options, see the pdf.
 
For walk directions, map, photos, height profile and gpx/kml files click here. T=swc.234

1 comment:

Thomas G said...

9 off the train, incl. 1 first-timer, with 1 car driver waiting outside, ie n=10 in weather that was w=grey-to-just-before-lunch-then-mostly-sunny
At the start of the walk, there were some mutterings containing the 'S-word', but in the end all 10 completed the full route, incl. at least 2 stops at hostelries.
In more detail: the weather was more autumnal than summery initially, but the fully grown corn field near the start (with a fine wide path through it) and some harvested (but not yet ploughed) cereal fields confirmed that we were in fact in mid-summer. Mature fields make for a fine pathcwork of colours in the rolling landscape, which everyone seemed to enjoy.
We saw sticklebacks in the Hiz River by Charlton, speedwell and scarlet pimpernel, fields of clover, kites galore, partridges running wild and plenty of pheasants (and pheasant feeders).
Upon approaching the Pegsdon Hills, the sun decided to make an appearance and the descent into the view was as marvellous as ever. There was a field of pyramid orchids en route (a 'weed reserve' apparently) and the sandwichers dropped off on the slope to have their break. They made it to The View just before us lunchers got our food, so took up another table on the terrace, both with 'The View' back to the hills just descended. The pub/restaurant has much improved since its last management (and name) change.
On up to the Icknield Way past the Knocking Hoe NNR, and only a bit later we passed The Motte & Bailey in Pirton, where - by public demand - we sat down for a snifter. After passing the motte & bailey and the deserted medieval settlement, it was more fields with easy paths and fine views before going through the Oughtonhead Nature Reserve, which again everyone seemed to enjoy. Having had a 2nd pub stop, we were always going to be too late for the mega-charming Oughtonhead Farmgate Tea Room, but when it later came to the decison point: turn left to the station or right to The Half Moon, I was surprised to see that the vote went 8:2 for The Half Moon (a multi CAMRA-award-winning pub).
Surprised as it had been a long day already, especially so for the first-timer (one of the longest walks she has walked) and for the 2 convalescents, for whom this was the longest walk in several years! Hitchin, the Lourdes of the North!

Very fine day out, with plenty of great chat along the way. Group cohesion: 9.5 out of 10