Okeover Park

Description

(D/A) From The Okeover Arms car park entrance, turn right past the church, then turn left, signposted to Okeover and Blore.

(1) Cross the River Dove into Staffordshire. Pass Okeover Mill, the turning to Mayfield and the gates of Okeford Hall. Keep on along the road, with views to the Hall on the left, as it starts to climb, passing a private driveway on the left.

(2) Beyond the Old Forge, at a right-hand bend, leave the road on a farm track (with footpath sign) on the left (West). After a wood on your left, switch to the other side of the hedge. Pass through a belt of trees and continue to a gate and stile.

(3) Drop downhill to your left, joining a farm track and crossing the stream at the bottom of the valley. Walk up the field beyond, passing through a line of trees, to a gate in the far right-hand corner. Aim to the right of a stone barn to join a walled path, where you turn left (South).

(4) Enter open fields, and continue to reach Martin Hill Farm. Go through a gate into the farmyard, passing the farmhouse. Before the exit gate at the far end of the farmyard, take a footpath before the stone barn on your left to reach a field gate. Follow the wall beyond, entering open fields, then skirt to the left of a fenced pond.

(5) Turn half right, aiming for a gap on the far side of the field between two woods. In the field beyond, studded with dead trees, aim right of a ruined farmhouse. Beyond a stile by a gate, follow a shallow valley downhill through more ancient trees.

(6) Walk across the open parkland in front of Okeover Hall and All Saints church, to reach the Mayfield road. Cross the road and swing half left to a metal stile by the milllstream.

Turn right and cross the Dove again (1). Go through a gap and wooden gate in the wall on your right and cross the field to The Okeover Arms. (D/A)