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THE DORDOGNE How to plan the ultimate French walking holiday
ISSUE 306 BEST OF THE PENNINE WAY | HISTORY WEEKENDS | TROUSER TEST | SHUTLINGSLOE | DORDOGNE HOLIDAY GUIDE | SEAL-SPOTTING WALKS | SIMON ARMITAGE
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High & Mighty The best of the Pennine Way in one amazing weekend Including where to walk, where to stay, and England's finest view
MINI MOUNTAIN, MASSIVE VIEWS!
The Cheshire Matterhorn PLUS: 10 more pint-sized peaks, chosen by you
KIDS' KIT
The best gear for little walkers PLUS trousers for grown-ups!
BRITAIN'S BEST HISTORY HIKES lNorman Northumbria lMedieval Suffolk lVictorian Snowdonia
SEPTEMBER 2012 £3.99
SEPTEMBER 2012
28 WALKS WITH MAPS
Photo: Š Guy Edwardes/2020Vision/Naturepl.Com
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Destinations | Pennine way
Big weekends history walks
Medieval castles, Northumberland Walk to castle after castle (after castle!) on this weekend by the Northumbrian coast.
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Photo: Richard Faulks; main image: Richard Faulks
very square inch of Britain has a tale to tell, but few places share their history as freely as Northumberland. Within a few square miles here, you will stumble across a triumvirate of mighty fortresses – Warkworth, Dunstanburgh, Alnwick – that testify to the age-old battle for these borderlands, and ring with stories from the 1,000 years since. Alnwick is the perfect weekend base for your forays. Its castle is the oldest of the trio, built after the Norman Conquest to defend against the Scots and the Border Reivers, and still lived in today. Its towers and turrets could have sprung from a Disney sketch, and it recently had a star turn as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films. For 700 years it has been owned by the Percy family, including the famed Harry Hotspur, and soon after buying Alnwick, they added nearby Warkworth to their property portfolio. That fort sits a picturesque walk away, crouched on a hill above its eponymous town and a coil in the River Coquet. Its immense walls make an imposing sight, although centuries of conflict and neglect mean that little now remains inside the formidable shell. Dunstanburgh, meanwhile, was once the mightiest fort in the north. Built by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, in the 14th century, it was besieged during the Wars of the Roses and then left to crumble. Its towers may be ruined, but their claw-like remains still dominate the skyline as you walk the coast from Craster to Embleton on day two of the weekend itinerary that follows overleaf. Look north from Dunstanburgh’s headland and you may spot the crenellations of Bamburgh on the horizon, another of Northumberland’s fearsome fortresses, and well worth taking a Monday off work... » Above: The remains of Dunstanburgh's gatehouse. Right: The sunflecked sands of Embleton Bay, with Dunstanburgh on the horizon. Left: Magical Alnwick Castle, from across the River Aln. You may well know it as Hogwarts...
Photo: Clearview : Alamy
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“Its towers may be ruined but their poignant, claw-like remains still dominate the skyline as you walk the coast from Craster to Embleton.�
Destinations | cheshire peak district
Walks to do before you die
Cheshire’s Matterhorn Shutlingsloe, cheshire
There's no snow on it, and you won't find skiers or yodelling. But in terms of scenic drama, Shutlingsloe is special – a miniature mountain that guards a hidden universe of water, woods and wilderness.
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Words: Nick Hallissey
here’s an argument that hills are more treasured in some places than others – namely, in places that don’t have very many of them. Would The Wrekin, squatting above Telford, attract the same love and affection it it didn’t rise sensationally from a flat swathe of Midlands? Would Carn Brea command such respect if it didn't leap out of an otherwise contourless quarter of Cornwall? Many might suggest that Roseberry Topping, on the North York Moors, is the flagship for this category of “disproportionately valued hills”. But for my money it’s Shutlingsloe, on the western edge of the Peak District, where the colossal flood-plain of Cheshire careers into the rumpled geology of Derbyshire and forces up this 1,660ft pocket rocket of a hill.
Cheshire's Peak District, as seen from Tegg's Nose. Shutlingsloe is the distinctive hill rising in the distance above Macclesfield Forest.
Photos: Alan Novelli/Alamy;Tom Bailey
A WORLD IN ITSELF
Shutlingsloe is both blessed and cursed by its nickname – “Cheshire’s Matterhorn”. The phrase is doubtless eye-catching – as is Shutlingsloe itself, when seen from a north-south axis so that it appears as a perfect pyramid, soaring above the surrounding moors. But it’s just as false as it is true, because like many great mountains (Great Gable and Ben Nevis spring to mind), it changes shape drastically depending on where you see it from. It can also be a flat-topped fedora, a dome or a cone. But whatever shape it takes, Shutlingsloe is compelling. It’s not just shape that wins this hill its place in our hall of fame, though. It’s the completeness of the walk that goes with it. To climb Shutlingsloe is to explore a world-within-a-world, the very different and very beautiful world that is now known (mostly to marketeers) as ‘Cheshire’s Peak District’. »
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Pockets Hip pockets are the standard here but you can’t really keep much in them when you’re walking. For that reason, it’s handy to have at least one secure zipped pocket for valuables, eg keys, and perhaps a cargo pocket on the leg for a map/guidebook. The rather contemporary look of these isn’t to everyone’s taste though – a bit urban/ military for some.
Ventilation Some pants have zip-opening vents which are great in warmer weather but the zips add weight, detract from comfort and tend to make the trousers look quite technical.
Durability Reinforced knees and seat will mean they’ll last longer.
Style Stretchier trousers tend to be cut a little tighter – great in the hills but not everybody’s taste in the pub. Zip-off legs, sometimes known as ‘convertibles’, offer great versatility – shorts and long trousers in one garment. But the zips make the trousers feel clumsy and don’t look as good.
Ankle cuffs
Photo: Tom Hutton
These should be loose enough to go over the cuff of your boots but not so loose that they flap like a pair of flares. More technical pants sometimes offer adjustment with poppers or Velcro tabs, and this is great in the hills, but like many of the more technical features, it does tend to look out of place in the pub.
Destinations | france
total guide: the dordogne
The
painted valley Castles and cave paintings, sunflowers and street markets, fois gras and vin rouge... and the walking isn't bad, either. Vincent Crump feasts on the rustic richness of the Dordogne.
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Photos: Jon Arnold Images Ltd/Alamy; Hemis/Alamy; David Noton Photography/Alamy
am in the medieval marketplace at Sarlat, wondering whether I want to go walking. It’s not the weather putting me off – that’s all sun-kissed and southern French and gorgeous. And it certainly isn’t the scenery, which cushions the town on all sides with soft hills, silent oak-woods and twisting streams. No, the problem is simply that Sarlat is such a hard place to leave. In front of my café table on the cobbles, beyond my thimbleful of coffee and melty croque monsieur, stretches the Dordogne’s most romantic square. Its flirty Renaissance buildings crowd around immaculate stalls heaped with mushrooms, cheese and sausages, while nearby, fiddletoting troubadours bash out jaunty waltzes beside the cathedral. I cast a keen eye over the over-ripe local matrons bumping for bargains: this is vital research in determining which slab of duck paté and slice of walnut tart will earn their place in my rucksack picnic for later. Even by French standards, the Dordogne is foodie paradise, a region which well and truly knows how to cook its goose. Walking here, you feel like Hansel and Gretel stumbling on the gingerbread house. Shady riverside tracks thread together apple orchards, walnut groves and vineyards sagging with black grapes; wayside farmhouses advertise honey and strawberries; and every meal is a feast. Just as well, given all this over-indulgence, that a holiday on foot is a doddle to plan. Footpaths spill like rivers of vin rouge all over the map, circling back and crossing themselves more often than a sloshed pilgrim. Several UK walking tour companies offer inn-to-inn packages, but you can replicate them – or invent your own routes – with the help of a cheap flight and our planning guide on the pages that follow. No compass required. »
Clockwise from main picture: Chateau de Castelnaud on its riverside eyrie, with old enemy Beynac in the distance; wine caves in Bergerac; market day at Sarlat, where cafés and creperies abound; walkers wander in the mazy lanes of Castelnaud; and lip–smacking confit de canard, the region's signature dish.
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