Is this the first or second bridge on the way to Stanford Mill.
Our first view of the Gowy.
Stamford Mill on the Gowy.
The Stamford Bridge Country Inn, but not the start of the walk today!
Heading to the unknown!
St. Bartholomew's Church, Great Barrow strikes 11-00 as we approach.
The sheltered sunken road leading to St. Bartholomew's Church, Great Barrow.
Ed hoping to see inside St. Bartholomew's Church, Great Barrow
A Common toad crosses our path on FermaLane, Great Barrow.
Today's lunch spot.
Unusual carvings on a gravestone in St. Peter's Church grounds, Plemstall.
Unusual carvings on a gravestone in St. Peter's Church grounds, Plemstall.
Resting on one of the Packhorse Bridges at Hockenhall Platts.
Ed's photo of the middle Packhorse Bridge at Hockenhall Platts.
That's all three Packhorse Bridges crossed now.
Walk Stats:Distance: 10.7 miles. Climb: 440’
Time: 5 hours 34 minutes.
On the move walking average: 2.6 m.p.h.
Overall walk average: 1.9 m.p.h.
Temperature: 17.6 Celsius to 26.2 Celsius, although it felt much warmer than that at times and felt quite humid.
Beaufort Wind Force: 0 -2 Mainly calm with occasionally a refreshing Light breeze, especially after lunch as we left Plemstall Church.
Group: Martyn and Ed
The weather forecast today was looking good, dry, lots of sunny periods and only a Light breeze. However, the forecast temperature of around 27 Celsius did put some of the group off.
We were down to two, so we decided to start the walk on Platt’s Lane, near the Packhorse Bridges (often called the Roman Bridges).
The original walk was 5-6 miles, so we decided to extend it a little and include the longer Plemstall and Great Barrow Walk as well.
I remembered working out that extending to Plemstall and Great Barrow Walk would make it 7-8 miles, but that was combining it with the Barrow Walk, not Tarvin walk which we ended up doing. The expected 7–8-mile walk ended up being over 10 miles. My feet we very happy when I took my boots off at the end of the walk! I was just happy to sit in the car and take the weight off my feet!
None of the walks could be described as exciting, must do again walks, but at least it was dry underfoot and route finding wasn’t too difficult. We were very grateful in the morning, where we had lots of trees and high hedges shielding us from the glare of the Sun. However, it had the downside that many of the paths had lots of overgrown vegetation like nettles and brambles that wanted to leave their mark on our legs and arms.
We arrived at Plemstall just after 12-00, so we were grateful to be able to sit in the shade at the entrance to the church.
By now the temperature had risen quite a lot and it started to feel a little uncomfortable to be out in the open.
We ended up missing out parts of the described routes, just to shorten the walk a little and get back to a local hostelry to enjoy a refreshing pint.
Birds seen or heard today: Carrion crow, Jackdaw, Woodpigeon, Collared dove, Common pheasant, Common blackbird, Black billed magpie, Goldfinch, House martin, Barn swallow, Common buzzard and Common swift.
Overall, an enjoyable but challenging walk under the conditions of the day, and probably never to be repeated!
After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Ring O Bells in Christleton, where a couple pints of Weetwood Brewery’s Cheshire Cat went down very well, even if it did cost more than £5 a pint!
At least when I arrived at home, the temperature had dropped a little and I was able to clean my boots, cooled by a very pleasant Gentle breeze, in fact I was tempted to get out a garden chair and just sit in the garden for a couple of hours. Thoughts of cooking an evening meal had long since gone!
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