Date: Location: Walk Leader: Participants: Distance: Parking: Lunch: | 16th November 2016 Broadmayne Clive Clive, Peter, Ray 7.5 miles The Black Dog ar park The Red Lion, Winfrith ★★☆☆☆ |
We had hoped to get back to the Black Dog in time for lunch but they stop serving at 2:30 and we were too late! There car park was however very large and in just the right place
After a short walk along the surprisingly busy road we turned south and out across the fields. Clive said the first half was the more hilly part of this walk and he was quite right.
As with last week it seemed that appropriate seating was in very short supply but we eventually found an open barn with a well placed straw bale where we could have a well earned rest.
The path around Misery Farm no longer crosses in from of the property but goes around to the west of the small lake. This is a very pleasant spot and why anyone would give it such a name is a bit of a mystery. It seems to have now had a name change and is known as Lower Watercombe Farm, but not on the OS map. It sleeps 14 and is available to rent by the week http://www.classic.co.uk/holiday-cottage/desc-3001.html. It's worth taking a look.
Shortly after reaching the end of the road from Misery Farm we joined the Jubilee Trail for a short time, leaving it at Fryer Mayne Wood. By now the wind had started to strengthen quite considerably bringing the leaves down from the trees. Just before this track joins the A352 into Broadmayne there is another little mystery and abandoned corrugated iron building that may have been an old methodist chapel, but possibly not. There is nothing to give away its original use.
Lunch at the Red Lion, another all day food pub, was all right but it will not become a favourite.