Clayhill Heath

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30th December 2015
New Forest Clayhill Heath
Ray
Ray, Clive, Peter, Rob
6.4 miles
Clayhill car park
​Lambs Green Inn ★★▲

Some would have thought it foolhardy to go walking on this rather damp looking day.  Some wives even said as much however there was no rain until just before we got back to the car and a good time was had by all.
From Clayhill car park we headed south east over some fairly wet ground as we made our way towards the cycle paths.  The path through Parkhill and Ramnor Inclosures was fine and reasonably dry.  

Bridge Over Muddy Water

​A short stretch of fire break after Signal Inclosure served to remind us just how wet the unmade up areas were.  It was lucky someone had fortunately provided a well constructed bridge.  A short trip along the next fire break took us to an ideal spot for a short rest.

The fire breaks always seem quite wet as if they have been built on a clay base and this one was no exception.  It remained a grey day from start to finish but it was quite warm and pleasant.  The fungi seemed to agree with this assessment and were growing quite profusely on some of the numerous felled trees in this part of the forest.

Happy Fungi

It seemed as if it might start to rain as we packed up after our break.  This gave Ray  the perfect opportunity to try out his "new" rain cover, which he proudly displayed with other matching Berghaus gear.  As it happened there were only a few spots of rain but the fashion parade was well worth while.

There is a ride in Parkhill Inclosure called The Frowhawk Ride in memory of Frederick William Frowhawk a noted naturalist who named his daughter Valezina (click to go and see a picture of this beautiful butterfly - you need to scroll down to the second row of pictures to find Valezina) after the female form of the Silver Washed Fritillary a butterfly  found in the New Forest.  It was a relatively easy walk back through Parkhill Inclosure and on towards Beechen Lane.  The path along the fire break back to the car park was however another wet one.
We had planned to have lunch at the Queens Head but it was so busy we headed off the Lambs Green for another chicken and leak pie.

Fashion in the Forest

If you ever want to find out anything about butterflies you can visit http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/index.php.  
If you want to find out where to go to see a particular butterfly the same site has a distribution map that can be viewed in Google Maps
http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/distributions.php