Dale Abbey - The Dunnshill Triangle
- Part 1 of 2
w/e 10 October 2004
All this week's
pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490
This is a walk that starts
and finishes at a place marked on the map as Dunnshill. It is
only a ten minute drive from Ilkeston and in another ten minutes
you could be speeding down the A52 towards Derby city centre,
yet here we are in the middle of open countryside. A general
map of the area can be seen by clicking the link to Multimap
at the top of this page but this map at Streetmap.co.uk (opens
a new window) gives a more detailed view. I was tempted to call
the walk "circular" but as it is made up of three almost
equidistant sides, "The Dunnshill Triangle" seemed
more appropriate. It begins by going through the gate on the
left of the picture above and heads towards Locko Park where
it turns in a north-easterly direction before retuning to Dunnshill
via part of the long distance path called the Midshires Way to
emerge from the trees at the right of the picture.
Passing through the gate we follow this sandy track for about
half a mile. The view soon opens up on the right across the fields
to reveal Hollies Farm on the slightly higher ground (see inset).
|
On entering the Locko Estate, the track
becomes a tarmac road and in another half mile reaches the lake
(inset) in the park. The main picture is the view look back near
the start of the tarmac at Lodge Farm.
|
At the corner of the lake a private drive
leads up to Locko Hall which can just be seen through the trees
(inset) but beyond the fence, the birds, including numerous Canada
Geese have scant respect for the privacy of the occupants of
the Hall. They seem to have taken up residence in the trees and
open parkland between the water and the Hall.
|
The Hall has been the ancestral home of
the Drury-Lowe family since 1747 and the present house was built
in the late 1720s although the west wing which is older than
the main house contains a chapel of 1669. A leper hospital stood
here in mediaeval times. In October 2001 we had reached this
point in the walk from the opposite direction along the edge
of the lake. To see an account of that walk follow the link to
the Specials Index at the bottom of this page of click here to open
a new window. We now start the second side of the Dunnshill triangle
by taking a footpath across the field to the right of the private
road and head towards the wood in the distance (inset).
|
A style (inset) leads to a fenced path through the small wood
and looking back after crossing the style, the lake can be seen
through the trees.
|
Leaving the wood the way-marked path runs around the edge of
a field towards another small wood which we shall bypass and
which will mark the approximate midway point of the walk. Sheep
in the next field showed little interest as we passed by (inset)
although we did merit a glance from the fine specimen in the
main picture.
Continued
in Part 2
|
