Yet another great walking route we found on essexwalks.com, which we followed to the letter. The possibility of finishing at The Three Hills pub tempted us to start the route in Bartlow. However, the highlight of this walk for most will be Barlow Hills, ancient roman burial mounds, so we’d advise not crossing that off right at the start. There’s quite a lot of farmland mileage between Ashdon and Bartlow and it’s best to have this at the start of the walk, rather than the end.
Month: July 2020
This popular route, an OS premium route and also mapped by essexwalks.com, underwhelmed us. While the ample water en-route makes for plenty of wildlife, the route is still a little urban for our liking – it passes a huge tesco! The main problem is that the highlight of the walk is at the start, or the end if you prefer. Or both, as we did.
This is one of many walks around Dedham and Flatford, and away from the two villages themselves, this is an incredibly quiet and peaceful walk. We’ve never been to Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) before, but at 90 square km, we will definitely be returning soon. We adapted our route, which has already had a few positive ratings!, from this suggestion by Dedham Vale AONB & Stour Valley Project, who have links to numerous pdf maps on their website. John Constable and other renowned landscape painters have famously immortalised this area.