Ticknal Circular (in reverse)

• Walked: 4th April 2007
• Distance: 6.5m
• Terrain: fairly flat
• Summary: Hartshorne to Ticknall, Calke Abbey and walk the length of Foremark Reservoir using the straight bridleway
• Time: 2 hours start to finish
• Notable views: View over the Trent Valley after Ticknall.

This is one of my most regular after-work walks. Last time I made a note to myself to try this in reverse (finish - start, not walking backwards!) I tried that this time, but still kept turning around to take photos, so I'm not sure what the moral of the story is. Either way, I did get a lovely surprise at the end.

Starting from the layby at the bottom end of Foremark Reservoir, paths across fields take you to Ticknall, with some wonderful views like this one:


Seeing a ploughed field is always a heart-sinking thing - they're usually horrible to cross, but look at this! The farmer has either ploughed around the path, or compressed it afterwards. it's the first time I've seen this done, and it's wonderful.


Across the Ahby-Ticknall road, and we cross a few more fields to get to the Calke estate.


I don't think these fellas are many days old.


Calke Park has some wonderful old gnarly trees.


Leave the park, cross the road, and head in a pretty straight line through some National Forest. The Trent Valley opens up in front of you here, which is a lovely view on a clear day. We pass a fishing pond, Seven Spouts Farm and Hangman's Stone before crossing a roadand walking up the driveway to Foremark Res. There's a very straight bridleway along the side of it, and I hadn't realised that I'd see the sun setting over the water. It was a very nice end to the walk.

The route above was generated using Meander.

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.