17 members of the walking group set off today to walk the Tolkien Trail, in the area of Hurst Green. Many areas of the UK aspire to have links with J.R.R.Tolkien, but the author certainly spent much of his time at Stonyhurst College, where we started the walk, writing his novel Lord of the Rings. Rumour has it he modelled Middle Earth on this area. Stonyhurst is an independent college set in a 300 acre rural estate and is owned by the Society of Jesus. Certainly it is a very imposing building and students are very privileged to study in such a magnificent place.The route we took today crossed fields, farm lane, canal towpaths, bridges and stiles and we were treated not only to some gorgeous scenery, but also to amazing weather. Given that the forecast was for a cloudy day the sun beat down on us and certainly made most of us break a sweat. The lunch stop by the side of the River Hodder, was interrupted by a herd of sheep, who chose that moment to run down the path to the river. They were certainly perturbed to find a group of hikers tucking into lunch at their watering hole. The bravest trotted past us to have a drink, whilst the more “sheepish” reversed and chose a spot further upstream.
Moving on from here we continued to walk through the welcome relief of some shady woodland, took a detour to see Cromwell’s Bridge, before eventually finishing the uphill climb ( why is there always a climb at the end of the walk? ) to the Shireburn Arms for a very welcome drink. Whilst our rather sweaty and grubby looking group took over part of the pub, a series of very well dressed ladies and gentleman paraded through, obviously checking into the hotel before attending a wedding. I have no idea why they didn’t invite us along!
Thanks to Alan and Dave for undertaking the recce and leading the walk today. 8.5 miles…not bad for a hot August day.
The next walk is Thursday 6th September, and will be a 12 mile walk along the Wirral Way. Plan is to catch the 10:01 train from Maghull. Further details on poster in coffee morning and on here later in the month.