Mappleton & the River Dove

Description

(D/A) Leave the site past Callow Top Holiday Park Reception and when the entrance drive bends right and starts to descend, look for a slightly concealed footpath opposite, on the outside of the bend.

Cross a stile and footbridge, turn right and follow the hedge on your right to another stile. At the end of the next field go through a gate and cross the field beyond, with a brick-built barn away to your right.

Keep on over a series of further stiles until you pass to the left of a lone tree and reach a stile to the left of a gateway, in the corner of a field at the end of a wood on your left.

(1) After this stile turn immediately left into the wood, and follow a descending path above Hinchleywood House. When you reach open fields, walk diagonally down the hill to a gap in the hedge at the bottom of the slope on the far side.

Walk along the bottom of the next field, through another gateway, then look out for a stile on your right at the rear of the church.

(2) Walk through the churchyard to emerge in the main village street in Mappleton. Turn right then left along the road (signposted Okeover and Blore) and pass the brick-built Okeover Clergy House on your left.

(3) Before you reach the bridge over the Dove, take a footpath on the left and follow the riverbank downstream. After a stile, leave the river and cross the next field diagonally, aiming to the left of a cream-painted house. On reaching the road again, turn right.

(4) Pass a bus stop then, opposite the sports field entrance, turn left (with an ivy-covered sign indicating “Public Footpath to Ashbourne”) and walk in front of the houses to a wicket gate.

Climb the slope beyond, over a stile and on uphill. In the corner of the field go straight on through a gap in the hedge by a footpath sign and continue uphill. At the top of the hill go through a gate and squeeze stile and cross the next field. A fenced path leads past Field 5 and back to the road through the Callow Top Holiday Park. (D/A)