Frome Valley Walk, 9th May

In the end, only three of us turned up for what turned out to be a very enjoyable and scenic walk down the Frome river valley and then back across country to the start.

Although we parked in an industrial estate in Yate, we were in woodland and by a stream within a minute or two. We joined the Frome Valley Walkway there, and followed it as far as the main GWR railway line at Winterbourne Down.

We stopped off for our elevenses at the churchyard in Frampton Cotterell, which was very peaceful and had a bench in the shade.

As we proceeded on from Frampton Cotterell, we saw the train viaduct high up in the distance, and several trains going to and from Bristol Parkway. It was after we passed under this that we turned off up Ivory Hill, which was the only climb of the walk — the rest being largely flat.

Shortly after that, we found ourselves walking right through the centre of Kendleshire Golf Course, along the public footpath which went across several fairways, much to the annoyance of some of the golfers. There were several artificial lakes there, and the map indicated the path went right through the middle of them. Fortunately, a set of red-topped posts indicated the actual route.

We found a suitable bench, where we had lunch and watched the golfers as they hit balls into the lakes and bunkers.

After the golf course, we headed on up Ram Hill, but we diverted off along a section of Dramway, which meant getting up Ram Hill was not really a climb. At the top, we failed to notice that we were at the disused Coalpit Heath railway station (we noticed it afterwards on the map), but we went along a quiet lane where we met a couple of horses and their riders.

From there we zigzagged our way across the fields until we reached Yate’s famous “Road to Nowhere”, which is a dual carriageway built in the 1970’s to link two major roundabouts. But someone changed their mind about it after only a section of it was built. Read the story here.

Finally, we took the path along the edge of Westerleigh (Yate) Common beside the railway, where we emerged at Yate Station, next to which ran the road in the industrial estate where we had parked.