Plan your walk |
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DISTANCE: 4½ miles (7.2km) TIME: 2½ hours START/END: SK131508 Car park in the grounds of Ilam Hall TERRAIN: Easy / Moderate; MAPS: |
From the car park in the grounds of Ilam Hall, go past the National Trust Visitor Centre and follow the path down steps to the riverside, turn right. ½ mile (800m).
St Bertram lived as a hermit in the small cave above the point where water bubbles out beneath a rocky overhang at the side of the path. The water has travelled for about 5 miles (8km) underground from Darfur Bridge near Wetton (see Walk 20) emerging at this point. In spring, the woods are full of anemones and celandines, then later primroses and bluebells compete for the sunlight as the trees come into leaf. Nature later creates its masterwork of subtle browns, reds and yellows as the beech leaves die every autumn.
Battle Cross. Found when Watts-Russell rebuilt the village.
Turn left over the second footbridge Ignore the main path on the right beyond the bridge but follow a pathless course uphill towards the wooded skyline. Use a stone stile in a ruined wall as a route marker. ¼ mile (400m).
Viewpoint. Ilam Hall can be glimpsed through the trees and beyond it rise Bunster Hill and Thorpe Cloud at the southern entrance to Dovedale.
Turn left on a grassy track and follow the boundary wall. ¼ mile (400m).
Cross the dry valley and aim for the broad track which curves uphill around wooded Hazelton Clump. ¾ mile (1.2km).
Climb a stile and turn left along the metalled road. Follow it over Blore crossroads to Coldwall Farm. ¾ mile (1.2km).
16th century Blore Hall to your right is now a group of time share properties.
Turn left away from the road, go through the farmyard and into the field. Walk downhill, tracing the line of the abandoned turnpike road. ¼ mile (400m).
Keeping to the west bank (Blore side) of the river, turn left away from the bridge and walk upstream. Follow a fence above the hawthorn-covered slopes until a gap gives access to the riverbank. 1½ miles (2.4km).
Coldwall Bridge. Sturdy buttresses show how this bridge over the Dove has outlasted its need.
Climb the short flight of steps to the bridge and turn right, along the road into IIlam village.
Ilam village. The elaborate Gothic cross is a memorial to Mrs Watts-Russell, a constant reminder to the villagers of this not over popular lady.
Turn left past Dovedale House along the church path to return to Ilam Hall and its car park. There is a National Trust shop and café in the grounds. 120yds (110m).
