Evening walkies with K8 - Walk 1

Ok, so the walk starts at...

...the public footpath to the left of St Oswald's Primary School. I know it seems like you're just going to wander into the school's playground, but bear with. Just pop through the gate and follow the gravelled path until you reach a stile.

Once you've hopped over the stile, you'll see the house at the top of the field, head for that. When you get a little closer to the house, veer left slightly; look out for the wooden gate between the trees and a bush.

You've gotten to the wooden gate, you'll notice an iron kissing gate (check me out with my gate terminology! I did have to google it though), go through the kissing gate, but be wary of the road the other side.

Ok, hopefully you've crossed the road ok, now you need to turn right and follow the road for... a while... wow, I'm a pro at writing directions! Ok, it's about a 6 min walk, to be precise.

The precisely timed 6 min walk has now come to an end! You've reached a junction with quite a long curved brick wall on the other side of the road, cross over the road, turn left, follow the road round, then you'll walk straight for a bit (precise directions again), then you'll reach a little jitty on your right called "The Channel", look to your left, and you should see a "public footpath to Thorpe" sign on the other side of the road, cross over the road and pop down the jitty.

I particularly like this bit of the walk because you don't get any inkling that there's fields in the vicinty, until you look down the jitty and see them! The sun sets behind the fields as well, very pretty.

Ok, so, pop down the jitty, you'll come to a wooden gate, go through, turn right and you should see another wooden gate in the distance, head for that.

Once you've reached the wooden gate, go through it and then you'll see an opening into another field, just slightly to the left, head for that.

When you're at the opening, take a minute to look around and appreciate all the rolling hills! I've even had a lil sit down on the grass, with the dogs, just watching the world go by – would recommend! Makes my brain very happy.

So, back to the walk! At this point, you can actually go down the field, cross over the bridge and get onto the Tissington Trail, so there's that option if you fancy, but, this particular walk takes you up the field to get onto Windmill Lane. So, turn right, follow it round until the shrubbery bush on the right ends, and again, turn right so you're heading up the field, you'll probably see a metal gate at the top, head for that.

Ok, so you've got to the metal gate, you've gone through it and now you have a road in front of you... the joys of Ashbourne! One minute there's a road, the next, lots of fields! So, turn right, and head towards The Bowling Green pub, this is where you'll cross over to Windmill Lane, you'll probably see the street sign for it whilst you're heading to The Bowling Green.

Ok, time to cross the road onto Windmill Lane, be quite careful here because both ways are potential blind spots for the cars. I've never had any problems, but it's probably my least favourite part of the walk!

You've crossed the road... YAY! So now, all you need to do is just carry on walking really! Some beautiful houses on Windmill Lane, with some lovely views of the fields.

You'll notice the houses and the pavement come to an end, at this point you have to walk on the road. Be wary of cars, it's not a very busy road though really. Again, carry on walking and admire the views. The third image I've uploaded below is a favourite view point of mine.

The next point worth mentioning is probably the lovely Coldeaton Dairy! You'll see their honesty shop sign at the top of their drive. We've stopped by their honesty shop a number of times for their Jersey cow ice cream, oatcakes & eggs (not made by Jersey cows, obvz). They have loads of other bits too – cakes, sweets, milkshakes, cream, yoghurts, hot drinks. It's really handy if I'm on my own with the dogs because I don't have to worry about leaving them outside, I can take them in with me. Oh, and they take card. Would recommend a little trip there.

For the walk, we're almost done, just carry on walking until you meet a triangular junction (picture 4 below).

Ok, home straight now!

Once you've come to the triangular junction turn right, following the pavement round, like you're turning back round on yourself really. And again, just keep walking! It's a gentle down hill stroll. You'll eventually meet the "Welcome to Ashbourne" signs, and this is where the walk starts to conclude really! Carrying on past the "Welcome to Ashbourne" signs, onto Green Road eventually takes you to Ashbourne's Market Place where you'll be able to navigate yourself back to where you park or where you live.

So there we are! Windmill Lane circular (kind of circular – ha!)... DONE!

I've got some more lil 1-2 hour Ashbourne walkies routes that I do, so I'll put them on here as well, to hopefully be of use!

If you're reading this and thinking "I've got a walk too!", I would absolutely LOVE for you to send it us. You can send us a message here.

Thank you so much if you read this far, or even managed to do the walk following my really REALLY good precise directions(!) ha! It means A LOT.

Tar ducks!

Kate 🌝