The Quarry is a 29 acre, Grade II listed park in Shrewsbury that borders the town and the River Severn. I found myself walking around here quite a few times on my visit to the town – on my arrival after checking in to my B&B to stretch my legs and as a convenient place to sit and watch the world go by when I needed a break from walking around.
In the afternoon after visiting the Brontë Parsonage and church I decided to further wander in the footsteps of the family by walking the trail that goes from next to the Parsonage to the so called Brontë Waterfall and Bridge where the sisters in particular liked to walk.
On my way to and from Arundel Wetland Centre I passed by Swanbourne Lake. I decided to pop in for a look on the way back but knew I wouldn’t have very long to explore as it was already quite late in the afternoon.
For my last full day in Arundel I knew that I wanted to spend my time exploring the Arundel Wetland Centre. It’s an easy walk from the town centre – simply walk by the entrance to the castle and continue all the way down the street, over a bridge then continue until you see the entrance on the right – it takes maybe 15 to 20 minutes. Do note that part of the route has no pavement but it’s a wide track and easy to navigate safely. There is of course a car park if you’re driving.
My last full afternoon in Athens was spent at the Athenian or Ancient Agora (not to be confused with the Roman Agora which I did not visit). It was the heart of ancient Athens where supposedly democracy first sprang to life, as the social, political and commercial hub of the city, a meeting place and a site of temples and of shops.
I visited the National Garden three times during my visit to Athens, once to walk through on the way to the Panathenaic Stadium, once for some welcome shade to reapply my sunscreen before heading to the Benaki Museum and once to actually explore the gardens themselves. They are 38 acres (so I didn’t explore the whole thing) and up until 1974 were called the Royal Garden, which gives you the first hint about their origins.
Taking advantage of the beautiful sunshine I ventured out to Holme Pierrepont Country Park recently to explore an area I hadn’t been to since I was a child. The park is home to the National Watersports Centre and British Canoeing and where many years ago I went on a school trip to try out kayaking. There are several walks around the site and I started by doing one that went through the woods but even though we haven’t had rain for a while it was surprisingly boggy so I recalibrated and went for a less muddy walk around the regatta lake instead.
After finishing wandering around the Valley Cemetery rather than head back to the train station the way I had come I decided to follow a different route down that I learned afterwards was called the Back Walk. It was created between 1724 and 1791 and follows the outline of where the old city walls would have been.
There’s been a burial ground around the Church of the Holy Rude since 1129 but many of the members of the city were buried beneath the church floor until the practice was stopped in 1623 – because of the stench of the rotting corpses! The Valley Cemetery was opened in 1857 for the overflow of the church and the town of Stirling as a whole. It was designed to be an attractive place to visit with paths wide enough for carriages. It expanded so much that it spread into what became known as Mars Place Cemetery. This in turn lead to the adjoining cemetery coming to be known as The Old Town Cemetery.
Situated next to the entrance to the driveway down to Gedling House is the entrance to Gedling House Woods which I decided to visit after I’d been around the house. It was quite busy with dog walkers in the meadows area but I chose to follow the path through the woods and had them pretty much to myself, other than the squirrels.
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