The day was bright and cloudless when I woke, although there had been rain
during the night - a good day to go to the National trust area of the Long Mynd.
The aim was to pack up and head off to the car park deep in the Carding Mill
Valley, park up, then go for one of the walks up the valley, around the top and
back down the other side. This would be along the Burway loop with a diversion
along the Lightspout waterfall walk detailed on the NT website - the Pink and
Green walks on the display board..
We parked about halfway up the parking area beside the stream, at a wide
gravelled area that had no problems for the vans. With Tickets arranged through
the membership cards and properly dressed for a day on the hills we set off up
to the café and reception building, and a pause at the facilities before
continuing up the bottom of the valley on the prepared track.
The track started off as a wide gravel path, but soon narrowed into a path
winding beside the stream gradually climbing up to a junction where the
waterfall path diverged. The path crossed over the stream a few time on a
mixture of fords and bridges.
The path up to the waterfall was initially a scramble over rocky sections and a
narrow dirt path beside the stream. Bertie took it all in his stride apart form
a bit where he though going straight up the rock face was better than the path!
As we approached the waterfall the path levelled out giving a good view of the
falls.
At the falls we paused for the photo opportunity before continuing with the
scramble up the side.
Above the falls the landscape changed into a more rolling nature covered in
bracken. We continued to follow the stream as it curved around aiming for the
skyline.
We left the waterfall walk signs and cut over to the main track on the ridge top
using an alternative track. This track followed the ridge line tot eh car park
on the summit of the ridge where the back road crossed over.
Beyond the car park we continued along the ridge following the gravel track up
tot eh viewpoint on Pole Bank.
The 360 degree views from the top with a letterbox effect below the cloud
cover.
The clouds closed in and the view soon disappeared and we set off back down the
track we arrived on to pick up the marked way once again. There was a short cut,
but in the cloud it was not obvious so we erred on the side of caution.
Back on the marked trail we crossed the back road beside the "Boiling Well"
spring - more a small pond. Then continued over the moorland following a path
parallel to the back road before arriving at the col above the Townbrook
valley
We followed the narrow path descending down the side of the valley as it dropped
to the flatter base
The path turned around the end of Burway Hill, with a short climb ("There is always one more 'Up' on your walks") over to the side of Carding Mill valley
Dropping down into the Carding Mill valley above the car park, and the vans parked below. We followed the track along until it met with the valley track just below the facilities then back to the vans for lunch.
