The Jinney Nature Trail is the remains of old railway line that ran from Tutbury & Hatton via Rolleston-on-Dove to Burton-on-Trent. It closed in the 1960s thanks to the idiotic Lord Beeching and his drive to close many parts of the rail network as possible.
Happily it is now a short walk (about two miles) from Rolleston to the outskirts of Burton. This was my first chance to get out for a walk for ages and to be more than 9.9 miles from home, because of Covid restrictions. Any fitness is hard to acquire, but easy to lose!
Four miles was quite enough…
Spring is a favourite time of year, so there are as many pictures of flowers as possible!
These pictures and videos are @Aidan Parr 2021, so please ask permission if you want to use them. I’ll probably say ‘yes’!
This was a walk from Rolleston-on-Dove in Staffordshire, along the River Dove to Tutbury and back by a very quiet road and across country back to Rolleston.
If you’ve got time, Tutbury Castle is worth a look. Be aware that it is privately owned and opening hours are eccentric. At the time of this walk, the castle wasn’t open because of Covid.
There were lots of dramatic and changeable skies where it looks like you need to pack for every sort of weather: sunglasses, sunscreen, raincoat, hat and scarf. Fortunately, despite dark threatening skies, it remained dry with just a light shower for a few minutes.
It’s very English location with pretty villages, old churches, swans and spring flowers just starting to bloom, slightly spoilt by the Nestle factory in Hatton. Even if you ignore it visually, the smell of coffee can be overpowering.
This is the session I discovered that I had dirt on the CMOS sensor of my camera, so you might spot unidentified objects here and there. These are the perils of trying to understood what goes wrong with a ‘proper’ camera after using my phone for so long…
I thought it would be nice for the swans on the Dove near Hatton to get their own small section:
These pictures and videos are @Aidan Parr 2021, so please ask permission if you want to use them. I’ll probably say ‘yes’!
I really enjoyed going to Spurn Point a couple of weeks ago. The post and pictures are here.
I didn’t get to walk much of it because of problems with my foot and I was unprepared for the walk! The herculean task awaited and I couldn’t resist the challenge. Seven hours and 8.5 miles later I got back to the car with sunburn, a sore back, knees and foot but happier than I’ve been in ages.
It’s a peculiar place. The further south you walk, the more lonely it feels. The washed away road lies in huge rafts of concrete scattered around like toys for giants. The remnants of Spurn Head’s history are also scattered about: the ruins of fortresses and the worn remains of anti-Tank blocks from the Second World War litter the beaches at low tide.
There’s eroded brickwork and mysterious concrete shapes everywhere.
Nearly everything made by human hand is in ruin leading to more impression of desolation, the exception being the RNLI station and housing for their staff. It leads to some reflection on the futility of battling the sea and how we tend to think we have mastery of nature.
On a more positive note, nature bursts forth everywhere and it is overwhelming Spurn Head’s history, good and bad.
Happily the walk back north on the beach on the eastern side was much more wild and empty. As you head north, though, there’s more remnants of man’s broken constructions.
That’s enough deep thought for now… thankfully!
There’s far too many pictures as the sky was beautiful and the coastal features were incredibly photogenic.
I’ve split the pictures:
Birds:
Flowers:
Sea, sky and ruin:
Check the high tides as Spurn Head can be cut off at it’s narrowest point, a mere 50 metres wide. Do also look at the signs at the car park about safety if there is a high tide.
Spring is a favourite time of year when literally everything is bloom: the apple and pear tree, daisies on the lawn and even the holly bush has flowers.
These pictures and videos are @Aidan Parr 2021, so please ask permission if you want to use them. I’ll probably say ‘yes’!
Cayton Bay: this is probably one of my favourite beach walks. It’s very small at 1.5 miles from end to end but it’s beautiful and isolated. The weather was glorious with strong sunshine from early morning.
You’ll spot Scarborough Castle and Scarborough itself in some of the pictures but it could be a thousand miles away. Just be warned, it’s a very steep descent to get to the beach and a knackering ascent to get back up again!
You’ll find an easily accessible car park near the steps down to the beach. The steps themselves are a challenge as I’ve mentioned.
I just added the pictures of the remains of pill-boxes from the Second World War which are dotted along this coastline. They were meant to help defend the country if there was a Nazi invasion.
Many are now in ruins because coastal erosion has sent them plummeting from cliffs above down to the beach. Occasionally they survive on beaches in good order. They knew how to make stuff then!
These pictures and videos are @Aidan Parr 2021, so please ask permission if you want to use them. I’ll probably say ‘yes’!
I had an enjoyable walk along Filey Bay at the end of July 2021. The town itself isn’t too exciting for me. It’s a perfectly acceptable Victorian seaside resort and gets very popular from late morning onwards. My interest was Filey Bay itself.
I’d originally intended to park on the north side of Filey and walk along the promenade and then on the beach heading south. Unfortunately none of the parking meters were working (neither cash nor card), so after fifteen exasperating minutes I had to move. I eventually ended up parking south of Filey at West Avenue Car Park. Be warned that credit and debit cards didn’t work there either!
Happily it was only a short walk to the beach. Beware of high tides as you head south. It’s perfectly ok to walk about three miles to Hunmanby Gap but then the high tides don’t allow much beach walking. Check high tides here.
There is a car park at Hunmanby Gap but it’s unclear what times it opens if you want an early start. There’s nowhere else to park and you’ll see lots of signs from locals about not blocking driveways. There’s a cafe too.
It was a wild and windy day with some rain but nothing to spoil the morning. The pictures make it all look very grey and forbidding but there were sunny spells ever so often!
Like much of this part of the Yorkshire coast, there’s a lot of coastal erosion and you can see the remains of pillboxes from the Second World War which have fallen from the cliff tops onto the beach. Some still intact!
It gets busy around 11am. A tiny number of visitors are loud and undesirable but the majority of people are perfectly ok.
Click on the pictures to see the area more clearly.
These pictures and videos are @Aidan Parr 2021, so please ask permission if you want to use them. I’ll probably say ‘yes’!
A fabulous walk yesterday on Spurn Point which is a longshore spit. The Humber estuary is to it’s west and the North Sea to the east. It’s windy, with fierce tides, beautiful wide open skies and it’s a bit ‘rough’, not at all suited to those who like the gentle sands of leisure beaches. There was hardly anyone there (a bonus!) with around twelve people, including me, at 11am.
I was fascinated by the flotsam and jetsam on the beach, notably several brick walls, rounded by the sea and cast up on the beach. The whole area is very dynamic and constantly changing, as it has done for centuries.
There’s a nature reserve, a lighthouse and views around the promontory. The road was washed away in a storm in 2013 so you’ll have to walk on the beach instead. The sea is not meant for swimming or paddling in (I did try) because of strong currents and the very soft sand. It’s relatively easy to lose your footing. I lost my hiking stick which is now floating somewhere in the North Sea…
Check the high tides as Spurn Head can be cut off at it’s narrowest point, a mere 50 metres wide. Do also look at the signs at the car park about safety if there is a high tide.
